EVP, Chief Production Officer
RPA
1) The maximizing of deliverable assets on any given project. The new requirements when producing work is video, digital, social, stills and BTS content. It’s expected that we will deliver all required content during the timeframe of a production. I’d say the trend is that there are a lot more specialists involved than ever before.
2) Our work for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Society. We brought together over 20 animation and design companies that traditionally compete against each other. They all contributed work that sometimes crossed ownership for the good of the collective project. In the end we delivered 22 unique animated films and an AR component. These spoke directly to kids explaining the treatment process and feelings they might be experiencing as they fought their battles against brain cancer. Strategically we addressed an area that had not been addressed before in this way. Creatively we did it with our partners in such a way that in entertained and informed at the same time.
3) Continue to stretch the budgets to supply the desired content for all platforms. I also think we’ll be challenged with compressing timelines even more.
4) That creativity is still valued. It’s harder than ever to create work that gets noticed. That’s why it’s so important to do this type of work.
5) We’ve been investing in tools that help us become more efficient. Trying to work in a more agile environment that will allow us to cover the scope of needs without having to continually add resources.
6) I tell my producers that if we don’t search out the qualified options of which there are many, things aren’t going to change. We have to be the ones to make the opportunities.
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