AICE has added a category for Original Music to its roster of craft, media and product categories for its annual AICE Awards honoring post production excellence. The category is open to original music scores written by AICE music companies and was created in response to requests from the growing number of music houses that have become AICE members over the past two years.
“When we opened our membership to include companies that are integral to postproduction two years ago, beyond just creative editorial companies, we created competitive categories in our awards to reflect the work of these new members,” said Bob Spector, editor at Beast in San Francisco, who leads the AICE Awards Committee with Utopic editor and partner Craig Lewandowski and Big Sky editor and owner Chris Franklin. “Creating a music category was the next logical step in this process.”
Entries to the category will be judged by representatives from member companies within that category as all of the AICE Awards Craft categories are judged, Spector explained. The competition now totals 22 categories: 16 for editorial and six for other post crafts. In addition to Original Music, this list includes Audio Mixing, Color Grading, Design, Sound Design and Visual Effects.
“I think it’s a great thing when any industry organization focuses on the role that music plays,” said Larry Pecorella, founder and creative director of the Chicago, New York and L.A.-based music and sound studio Comma Music. “It’s an integral part of generating the right emotional response to what you’re seeing on screen. We’re always happy to see great work being recognized and rewarded.”
“All of us are thrilled that the AICE Awards will include original music this year,” said Scot Stafford, principal and composer of San Francisco music house Pollen. “It’s a great opportunity to shine a light on an important aspect of postproduction, which the AICE has chosen to embrace fully.”
“This is a great step for AICE,” said Adam Wiebe, sr. producer at Chicago’s Earhole Studios. “Music has always been an integral part of the post production process, so it’s wonderful to have a category that acknowledges the collaboration that occurs between composers and the rest of the post community. I can’t wait to hear all of the fantastic work that our fellow AICE members have done!”
Winners of the AICE Awards will be presented at the AICE Show, set for Thursday, May 14, at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Deadline for entering is Monday, February 2.
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