Bicoastal music shop Elias has added Nora Mindell as a producer in its Santa Monica studio. Coming from the agency side at Deutsch LA and Dailey Advertising, she has produced broadcast commercials, radio spots, web videos, sizzle reels, animatics and case study videos for a wide range of clients including Ford, Nestle, Dole, Target, Taco Bell, Nintendo, Anthem and Volkswagen. At Dailey, Mindell also served as an agency music resource, handling music searches for licensing, commissioning original compositions and working with music vendors, stock libraries, record labels, publishing companies and independent artists.
Mindell commented, “Elias does a lot of really great work and I think it’s great that they provide both original compositions and a music library, and that they’re constantly checking out new bands…I am really excited to be a part of the team.”
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More