Madame Butterfly
for Tulsa Opera
For the 2019/2020 season, Tulsa Opera asked director James Kicklighter to conceptualize an inclusive advertising campaign for broadcast and digital.
- Invitation
Madame Butterfly required particular care — the cultural specificity matters, and the music is inseparable from the storytelling. Composer Tobias Picker, also serving as General Director, wanted to be hands-on through finishing.
- Brief
A fifteen-second broadcast spot finished to TV-station spec, plus a parallel social-media cut for digital distribution.
- Approach
I shot the spot the same day as Carmen and Emmeline, with the choreography centered on an Asian dancer to honor the cultural specificity rather than abstract it. Tobias and I worked the edit together before moving into color with Jerimiah Morey and finishing graphics. The TV deliverable and a separate social cut went to Executive Director Ken McConnell at Tulsa Opera.