Adam Taylor has been appointed as the new chairman of the Production Music Association. Taylor, president of APM Music and previous vice chair of the PMA board of directors, replaces Randy Thornton of Amphibious Zoo Entertainment, who sat on the PMA board for nine years, serving as chairman for five.
“Randy’s wisdom and guidance have been an incredible driving force for the PMA over the past five years. His passion and commitment to upholding the values of the PMA have been instrumental in our successes, and his participation and leadership will be sorely missed,” said Morgan McKnight, executive director of the PMA. “We are excited to see what this next chapter holds for the organization under Adam’s direction.
For over three decades, Taylor has been helping intellectual property companies, organizations and individuals manage and extract value from their copyrights, trademarks and patents. As president of APM Music, Taylor continues to reinforce the company’s standing as an innovative creative house and production music library, with one of the most diverse collections of original music for every type of media.
“I am grateful to have been elected as the chairman of the Production Music Association,” Taylor said. “Production music serves a vital role in television, film, advertising, new media and UGC programming, and it is my honor to help communicate and preserve the value of music for both publishers and composers. The PMA has played an important part in this responsibility for over two decades and I look forward to continuing the direction established by Randy Thornton while collaborating with everyone in this new capacity.”
The PMA has also appointed Joe Saba as its new vice chair, taking over Taylor’s previously held position. Saba, a co-founder and current board member of the PMA, is the co-founder of Videohelper, one of the leading independent creators and suppliers of production music. He is also an active composer/producer both for the library and for custom projects, including TV show themes, music for the Olympics, and several Super Bowl commercials.
“The PMA grew tremendously under the leadership of Randy Thornton, and I look forward to building on that progress with Adam, the board, and the production music community,” Saba added.
Thornton is retiring from serving on the PMA board of directors, but will still be involved via his membership with Amphibious Zoo.
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