Digital Kitchen has appointed Roy Skillicorn as executive producer to launch, lead and build DK Studios, the company’s full-service content production studio.
Skillicorn brings to the table his career of discovering and nurturing the careers of leading directors, animators, designers, illustrators, photographers, composers and fine artists. Before starting his own production companies–SEED, Backyard, Tricky Pictures and Transistor Studios–he helped other world-renowned startups, including Pixar, Colossal Pictures, and HKM by securing (as their agent and brand strategist) their very first commercial revenue assignments; and Skillicorn continued sharing success with them for over a decade.
DK Studios’ integrated in-house teams draw upon expertise gained from years of experience in live action, editorial, type design, motion design, and 3D to ensure creative consistency throughout the process of a spot or a campaign.
Don McNeill, president and co-founder of DK, said, “Collaborating with Roy made perfect sense to us for the launch of DK Studios. Both DK and Roy maintain our historic loyalty to Chicago and its creative talent. Our other common denominators are our passions for wickedly brilliant work, our appetites for a positive creative culture and for producing inspired storytelling, no matter what the medium.”
“I see the current marketplace as an excellent opportunity for us to come to the table as a collaborative partner to agencies and help elevate their ideas through production,” added Colin Davis, DK Studios’ head of production. “With the addition of Roy to our team, we now have one of the most highly respected evangelists ready to demonstrate to agencies both the value and the creative storytelling powers that come with working with DK Studios.”
Skillicorn continues to support his own successful live action company, Seed Media Arts.
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