Wendy Griffiths has been promoted to EVP of synch & creative marketing for Position Music, an L.A.-based independent publisher, record label and management firm headed by president/CEO Tyler Bacon.
Griffiths joined Position Music in 2016 as SVP of creative marketing and is responsible for building and overseeing the pitching, sales and licensing teams to secure synchronizations for Position Music’s repertoire in advertising, film, TV, Trailers and video games. She monitors the company’s overall synch revenue which has subsequently grown by 40% during her first year at the company and has been instrumental in growing Position Music’s commercial division by securing numerous placements with Jeep, McDonald’s and Samsung, among others.
In her new position, Griffiths continues to work daily with Position Music’s composers and A&R staff as well as colleagues at major and indie music publishing companies to create original and cover music for pitching opportunities. She has brought in blanket deals for the company’s production music divisions and worked directly with TV shows such as America’s Got Talent and Dancing With The Stars for custom placements. In addition to Griffiths’ synchronization leadership role, she will begin to work with the roster of developing artists on the label side, building out branding and marketing opportunities.
Prior to working at Position Music, Griffiths was EVP of licensing & synch for BMG where she managed the marketing, synch and licensing efforts for all new clients, pulling from a catalog that included music from Kurt Cobain, Aerosmith, Johnny Cash, Soundgarden, Bruno Mars, Will.i.am and John Legend.
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