Étoile Music Box Activation - Amazon Studios
Role: Concept Development, Creative Direction, Director
Medium: Experiential Live Activation
Client: Amazon Studios
Locations: Grand Central Station (New York), The Grove (Los Angeles)
A series premiere became a living music box.
We built a life-size mechanical music box and placed it in the middle of rush hour.
To mark the premiere of Étoile — the new series from Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino — we designed a fully functioning oversized music box inspired by the show’s elegance and theatricality. Inside stood a real ballerina, performing Emmy-winning choreographer Marguerite Derricks’ routine, right in the heart of Grand Central Station. A moment of cinematic poise dropped into the everyday.
At the Emmy’s
Grand Central Station, NYC
Behind the Scenes, NYC
We took over Grand Central, one of the busiest places on Earth, and The Grove, one of LA’s most iconic open-air spaces. Both locations became cultural flashpoints. In New York, travelers stopped mid-commute to watch. In LA, weekend crowds gathered for the unexpected. Thousands witnessed it live. The press followed. What could’ve been a promotional gesture became a real-world phenomenon.
The Grove, Los Angeles
The idea came after months of concept development. I pitched more than 15 directions: from aerial spectacles to minimalist performance vignettes scattered across the city. What landed was something intimate and bold: one performer, one location, total impact. I directed the entire experience, live and filmed: including the suite of cinematic pieces created to extend the activation’s resonance far beyond the crowd. From the design of the box and the narrative development to choreography integration, spatial rhythm to editorial language. I created every layer to deliver an unforgettable moment that felt both theatrical and timeless
