Fabio Costa, formerly a creative director at Ogilvy Paris, has come aboard The Martin Agency in Richmond as sr. VP/creative director. At his new roost, he will focus primarily on digital creative work.
As creative director for Ogilvy, Paris, Costa was responsible for the Louis Vuitton and Perrier work. Before Ogilvy, he was a creative director at Cutwater in San Francisco where he worked on brands including Ubisoft, Ray Ban, Disney and Motorola.
Costa began his career in Brazil, where he worked for Young & Rubicam, Talent, and Almap BBDO. While at Almap BBDO, he helped the agency create its interactive department. Under his direction, the agency earned numerous awards including an Interactive Grand Prix at the London International Awards and a Gold Cyber Lion at Cannes.
Clients at The Martin Agency include BFGoodrich, Discover Financial, Expedia, GEICO, Hanes, Manpower, Morgan Stanley, PING, Pizza Hut, Sun Life Financial, Tylenol, the American Cancer Society, USTA, Walmart and ESPN3.co
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