Partner/Creative Director
New Math Music
1) The creative team on the agency side was so passionate about the work that they didn’t confine themselves to the whole “fixed length” thing in the edit. They were sending over :63s, :57s, :72s… We knew it would eventually end up as a :60 for broadcast, but of course we obliged their requests to make it work a bunch of different ways. At the end of the project there was a feeling of accomplishment that came from more than just long hours… I think what we really learned was more of a reminder… that taking the long way around, raising the bar, pushing past a familiar set of confines can ultimately loosen things up and allow the creative process to flourish. It’s good when people care about things.
2) The North Face “Neverstop” spot was special to work on. Mainly because so much of the music was written in real time and in person… and because our client really believed in what we were doing. I also thought that license of “Fantastic Man” by William Onyeabor was great in the Apple “Barbers” spot. We had nothing to do with that, but it worked!!! Hats off to stuff that works.
3) I think music shops function best as partners. Dedicated, committed… not just to writing and creating but to communicating about one of the most subjective and visceral parts of the creative process. An evolution I’d say has been a tendency (for reasons that totally make sense) for people to cast wide nets… and while wide nets keep you safer, they don’t actually write music. People do. Finding something nobody hates isn’t as cool as creating something somebody loves. I think the evolution of the music shop is to focus on that.
4) What year is it again?
5) Despite one of my partners and several of our composers being gaming maniacs, we haven’t done many projects within the VR/AR space yet. we have friends who do, though. outside of the gaming world – and even within the gaming world – we haven’t sensed the kind of demand for content that would necessitate us entering the space. We’re very much intrigued by it, however.
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