Agency also hires copywriter Cristina Thorson
Creative agency Opinionated has brought Patty Brebner on board as director of production. Newly minted copywriter Cristina Thorson has also joined the Portland-based shop.
The new hires come as Opinionated celebrates its five-year anniversary and welcomes a number of new client partners, including Pepsi, tastyworks, Miro, Drumstick, Curology and Nature’s Way.
Brebner is best know for her 20-year tenure at Wieden+Kennedy expanding upon the agency’s production and postproduction capabilities, including W+K Studios and the successful sister company Joint Editorial, as well as creating powerful storytelling and award-winning work for brands such as Nike, KFC, Target, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Old Spice, Chrysler and Levi’s. More recently, Brebner was tapped by Venables Bell & Partners to launch The Taproom Studios, a modern content and creation studio with full production capabilities. Brebner is also committed to community building and mentorship initiatives through local volunteer efforts with Oregon Media Production Association and the Northwest Film Center.
Thorson comes over from Boston University’s College of Communication with an impressive portfolio from BU’s AdLab as well as additional agency experience. She also has production experience working on independent films and television, like GBH’s High School Quiz Show.
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