Production and post studio Nice Shoes has brought on executive producer Tara Holmes to lead the studio’s Color & Finishing division. Holmes joins Nice Shoes having acted as director of creative services at Company 3, EP of Post Production at AllDayEveryDay, and most recently as sr. producer at Cutting Room. Her hiring follows the addition of Angela Bowen as EP for Nice Shoes Creative Studio, with the two divvying up management of the studio’s creative offerings and resources while also partnering on full-service projects.
“I’m looking forward to working with Angela to expand on our clients’ perception of what Nice Shoes can achieve,” said Holmes. “We want to ensure that there’s a seamless collaborative experience for our clients, whether they’re working with Color & Finishing, Creative Studio, or the whole team.”
Holmes’ experience at previous studios includes collaborations with such brands as Calvin Klein on its first ever Super Bowl spot, overseeing live color grading for Express in Times Square and on Snickers’ memorable Super Bowl spot starring Betty White. She will manage a color and finishing talent roster at Nice Shoes which includes Chris Ryan, Lenny Mastrandrea, Ron Sudul, Gene Curley, Sal Malfitano, Oscar Oboza, Phil Choe, Russ Bigsby and Jason Farber.
Holmes will also work closely with managing director Justin Pandolfino to expand and support the Remote Color Grading network, which connects Nice Shoes’ artists with partner studios throughout North America. In addition to working with the company’s remote partners, Holmes will also focus on building relationships in Chicago and Minneapolis, where Nice Shoes recently established satellite studios headed up by Sudul and Oboza, respectively.
“Even with all of their expansion in the past few years, Nice Shoes has held onto the family vibe and camaraderie that has drawn clients for years. They’re not a division of some conglomerate,” added Holmes. “It appealed to me as a client, and it appealed to me even more when I was offered the position. I’m really hoping to build off of the strength of the Nice Shoes brand as we grow in new and exciting ways.”
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