Creative production studio Ambassadors has brought Justin Blyth on board as head of creative across its Amsterdam and New York studios. In the new role, Justin will lead Ambassadors’ multidisciplinary team of artists on crafting beautiful, engaging, and story-driven creative work.
Blyth originally hails from Los Angeles and has lived and worked in Amsterdam for over 10 years as a creative director and motion graphics artist. His previous experience has seen him working with agencies, brands and studios including Anomaly, Wieden + Kennedy, and Woodwork–even a stint freelancing at Ambassadors.
Blyth will work closely with head of production Daphne Litjens, founding partner Halbo van der Klaauw, and head of VFX Will Jeffers as they continue to offer a mix of remote production solutions and working from the studio under COVID guidelines.
Ambassadors’ latest work produced under lockdown includes “ActieHelden” (“ActionHeroes”) for Albert Heijn, which mixes live-action and animation to create a mini superhero universe inside the supermarket, as well as VFX for Lynk & Co’s launch campaign “96%” with Halal.
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