Paper Moon

The rooftop had no shortage of view, so the challenge was overhead, not out. We strung two hundred paper lanterns in loose rows above the dance floor, each one hand-folded from the same cream stock as the menus, so the ceiling read as one material rather than two hundred separate lights.

Wind off the river kept knocking two or three lanterns loose an hour, so we assigned one crew member just to re-hang them between songs. By midnight the gaps had become part of the pattern, and when we compared the first-hour photos to the last, nobody could tell which lanterns were originals.