Readership Feedback Sought For 2010's Best Top Spot, Top Music Track, and The Best of The Best Work You May Never See
As 2010 will soon be in our collective rear-view mirror, SHOOT would like to reflect on some of the best work of the year and very much wants your input. The editors of SHOOT have culled through weekly Top Spots and “The Best Work You May Never See” entries, and the quarterly Top Ten Spot Tracks Charts for 2010, and narrowed each down to a list of 15 finalists.
We would like you to vote for your favorite Top Spot, Best Work entry and Spot Track Chart of 2010.
Take a minute to cast your vote in SHOOT‘s 2010 “Top Spot of the Year” poll at www.SHOOTonline.com/go/SHOOTsurvey or scroll down to vote below on this page.
Voting ends on Dec. 15, 12 pm EST.
Each field of finalists is quite diverse. Our Top Spot candidates include comedy driven fare such as the viral video “Clothing Drive” for Bud Light, the HP television spot “Happy Baby” and Chef Boyardee’s “Blankey.” Offering humor with a musical twist are such finalists as Kia Soul’s “This or That” and Fruit of the Loom’s “Comfortably.” Also in the mix are visual effects tour de force efforts such as Traveler’s “Watering Hole, Visa Europe’s “Football Evolution” and Sprint’s “Firsts.” There’s even tug-at-the-heartstrings, environmentally conscious fare for Nissan’s LEAF, a wild “Rollercoaster” ride for BarclayCard, and a wake-up call for small business from American Express.
The latter spot, titled “Reveille,” also crosses over into our roster of Top Spot Track finalists as does the aforementioned “Comfortably.” Other spots in the running for music/sound honors include a tongue-firmly-in-cheek rap video for Bounty, a high profile Olympics spot for GE, a disturbingly moving Metropolitan Police ad, a stop motion short film that pays homage to New York, an operatic aria for Honda, and a percussion performance by a Lexus IS automobile.
As for “The Best Work You May Never See,” best of 2010 entries span such poignant work as Amnesty International’s “Death Penalty,” Montana Meth Project’s “Ben,” and the earlier alluded to Metropolitan Police PSA titled “Wallpaper.” Others take the comedic route, including the California Milk Processor Board’s “Dentist,” Eastpak’s “Battle,” and K&G Fashion Superstores’ “Modern Day Hercules.” Spec fare is also represented like Bridgestone’s “A Boy and His Tire” and HBO Boxing After Dark’s “I Still Have A Soul.”
So head for the polls. Voting results will be published in SHOOT’s Dec. 17 e.dition and online at www.shootonline.com.
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