January 23, 2009
The Mill, with VFX/post studios in London, NY and L.A., topped the field of spot nominations for the 7th annual Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards. Three of The Mill’s five ad noms came on the strength of its NY office’s efforts on Coca-Cola’s “It’s Mine” directed by Nicolai Fuglsig of MJZ for Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore….Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock has joined Saville Productions for exclusive North American representation in commercials. Spurlock is best known for the 2004 documentary film Super Size Me….Joe Johnson, who most recently served as a creative director at Ogilvy in New York, has joined Publicis New York as executive VP/executive creative director. In his new role, he will work with the agency’s creative teams to develop campaigns for Procter & Gamble’s Vicks global brand…..Noel Haan has joined Energy BBDO, Chicago, as senior VP/group creative director. He comes over from Cramer Krasselt, Chicago, where he served in the same role…..
January 23, 2004
Roman numerals become a bit unwieldy when it comes to conveying the average cost for 30 seconds of ad time on CBS’ telecast of Super Bowl XXXVIII, pitting the New England Patriots against the Carolina Panthers on Feb. 1. Word is that a half-minute timeslot on the Big Game in Houston is fetching an average of nearly $2.3 million, about nine percent more than the going rate for the 2003 Super Bowl….Director Frank Todaro has wrapped a longstanding tenure with @radical.media and formally come aboard bicoastal Moxie Pictures….Red Car, the editorial house with operations in Santa Monica, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Dallas and Buenos Aires, has set up shop in San Antonio. The company has also made a key hire to help coalesce the talent at all its offices, offering a national roster of artisans to the ad community at large. Coming aboard in the newly created role of national marketing director is Valerie Petrusson, whose editing pedigree includes her serving as an executive producer/strategist/consultant for the Santa Monica operation of Crew Cuts. Prior to that, she helped to build editorial house Inside/Out from the ground up….Director/cameraman Vittorio Sacco has signed with Plum Productions for exclusive spot representation in North America. Harold & Motion Pictures, Milan, represents him in Italy while Hot Tabletop, his production shop with partner Piero Cozzi, handles him in Europe….
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