Alkemy X has hired VFX supervisors Bilali Mack and Erin Nash in its NYC office. Mack comes to Alkemy X from MPC, where he supervised and executed VFX on spots for brands including Adidas, Sonos, Google and BMW. Nash joins the team from FuseFX where he served as head of 2D, leveraging his experience across television, film and commercial work. Mack will be serving as VFX supervisor on the upcoming STARZ Power Book III: Raising Kanan, utilizing his expertise at the intersection of technology and artistry to amplify the storytelling with heightened visuals. Nash’s credits include work on the feature comedy Hail Caesar!, and series including Game of Thrones, Iron First, The Walking Dead, The Defenders and Warrior.
The hires come on the heels of a year of steady growth for the visual effects division, with work for such series as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Fear the Walking Dead and Blindspot. Mack and Nash will join a lineup of VFX talent with experience on award-winning episodic series, feature films and branded content, led by VFX creative director Dave Zeevalk and executive producer Mark Miller.
Mack graduated with a B.F.A. in animation and media from Emerson College. He has honed his approach as an artist with stints at Brickyard VFX, Smoke & Mirrors and MPC, working with directors including Saam Farahmand, Dave Myers, The Russo Brothers and Lance Acord.
Nash boasts over a decade of experience in CG and compositing with industry shops like FuseFX, Zoic Studios, The Mill, The Molecule, Psyop and Artjail. He holds a B.A. in Art from Ursinus College, as well as a diploma in Visual Effects from 3dsense Media School.
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