Lisa Gatto Setten–who most recently served as SVP, executive director of integrated production for MullenLowe U.S.–has joined Arts & Letters as head of production. Setten will report to agency founder/ECD Charles Hodges, and is responsible for leading the integrated production department across all client partnerships.
Setten is the first member of the Arts & Letters leadership team based in New York, and will be instrumental in the opening of an office there in the coming year. She joins a team of more than 20 tri-state area employees, including several other recent hires, as the company positions itself to continue to build a presence in a market where it has many key partnerships like Google and ESPN, in addition to a growing base of full-time and freelance talent.
The New York office will be Arts & Letters’ first brick-and-mortar presence outside of its Richmond, Virginia headquarters.
“As the most experienced leadership hire we have ever made, we couldn’t be more excited about Lisa’s arrival,” said Hodges. “She has an unbelievable talent for leading and nurturing great teams, not only at a department level, but also in an intersectional way across the company including the ever-evolving landscape of both client and production partnerships. She has countless superpowers, but one of them that has struck almost all of us instantly is her ability to help any person or team instantly feel like they can reach their potential. Her experience speaks for itself and we are thrilled to see the impact she has on the amazing group of producers we have and the company overall.”
At MullenLowe U.S., Setten oversaw the seamless integration of the agency’s U.S. production offices across brands such as Acura, Corona, E*TRADE, JetBlue and KFC. Corona’s La Vida Mas Fina campaign, the return of E*TRADE’s Baby campaign and Acura’s Chiaki’s Journey series were a few key projects that helped the agency win the ADC Agency of the Year along with the top agency effectiveness award from the Effies.
Before that, Setten was the head of integrated production at JWT New York, where she led a team of 100+ content creators. She also served as head of broadcast at BBH New York, where she led the production for partnerships like Sprite, Levi’s, Cadillac and spearheaded award-winning work like “Susan Glenn” for Axe. Setten was additionally integral in the company’s partnership with Google including iconoclastic work like “Dear Sophie” and “Speed Tests” for Chrome.
With a career spanning both coasts. Setten spent nearly eight years in San Francisco where she worked at Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners.
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