Director Ben Hibon has signed on with Psyop Film and Television and will be joining their Vancouver office as the company continues to expand its efforts in the world of feature film and television visual effects, visual development, and creative direction.
Hibon is a celebrated artist and animation director, having designed and directed the lauded Academy Award-nominated The Tale of Three Brothers animated sequence from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. Throughout his career, Hibon has worked as a creative collaborator with a number of notable Hollywood directors, including the dynamic visual storytellers Zack Snyder and Tarsem Singh. Hibon has also recently contributed his skills as a designer to both Rupert Sanders’ Snow White and the Huntsman and Breck Eisner’s The Last Witch Hunter.
In addition to directing short films, Hibon has lent his talents to TV commercials, branded content, and video game projects for clients including Disney, Warner Bros, Universal Pictures, Microsoft, Sony, Activision, Riot Games, and Electronic Arts.
“After spending years competing with him for jobs in the commercial space and admiring his work on film projects, we’re excited to be joining forces to bring our combined strengths to bear on a number of design oriented short and long-form projects,” said Kymber Lim, managing director of Psyop Film and Television which maintains facilities in L.A. and Vancouver.
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