Michael Frick, co-founder of music production and synchronization company Mophonics, has been named VP, brand partnerships & creative synch at Position Music. An industry veteran with deep expertise connecting advertising agencies, creative teams, and brands on award-winning creative initiatives, Frick is tasked with creating more synch opportunities for the growing independent label and music publisher while focusing on music-driven strategies and creative solutions for brands.
“Michael brings a new level of excellence to our synch, advertising, and overall brand solution capabilities,” said Tyler Bacon, CEO/founder of Position Music. “As brands look for deeper, more strategic connections with music, we believe that equipping Michael’s creativity and industry knowledge with our growing roster of artists and writers will prove to be extremely valuable for our brand and agency relationships.”
Frick has led partnerships with a multitude of major artists, global brands, agencies, networks and studios including Skylar Gray, Jason Mraz, Ziggy Marley, Foster the People, Amazon, Google, Apple, YouTube, Billboard, Coachella, Target, Sony, MTV and HBO.
At Position Music, Frick will work closely with Emily Weber, VP, head of synch, and the rest of Position Music’s synch, label services, and marketing departments to elevate Position Music’s artists by strategically aligning them with major brands.
Frick is the former strategic advisor to the global start-up The Rattle Collective. Prior to co-founding Mophonics, he worked at We Are Hear, which is owned by Linda Perry and Kerry Brown.
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