Music and sound boutique Nylon Studios, with offices in New York and Sydney, has promoted Zac Colwell to creative director of music of its NYC studio. Colwell joined Nylon as a composer in 2015 and will become the studio’s first creative director to meet the increased scope of creative projects in the U.S. market.
Colwell is a multi-instrumentalist who has toured the world with numerous groups such as Big Data, Sondre Lerche, of Montreal, Kishi Bashi, and Against ME! He has composed original tracks for such brands as Aetna, M.A.C, Zac Posen, Honey Nut Cheerios and UNICEF. As Creative Director, Colwell will oversee all creative output from the NYC studio, encompassing original compositions, sound design, spatial audio, mix and music licensing.
Austin, Texas native Colwell grew up in a musical family, playing drums, piano, guitar, saxophone and flute. A classically-trained jazz composer, he brings a true artistic perspective to his projects and continues actively performing and composing outside of Nylon. In addition to his commercial compositions, he is the drummer and producer of CHAPPO, sings his own songs with Fancy Colors, produces artists of all different genres, and most recently toured with Bleachers.
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 โ and those many "Babadook" memes โ 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 โ "Bah-Bah-Doooook" โ 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