Emmy-winning visual effects house Zoic Studios has opened its new New York studio, led by veteran VFX producer Colleen Bachman as executive producer. The 3,000 square foot Hell’s Kitchen facility will handle VFX and Flame finishing for projects across TV, commercials, films, games and experiential. The studio will leverage Zoic’s in-house pipeline to collaborate with both its Culver City, Calif. and Vancouver offices. Upcoming projects through the commercial division include campaigns for Grey and Hasbro. The episodic division is working on a diverse slate of series, including season 4 of Cinemax’s Banshee, the debut season of the Cinemax drama Quarry and NBC’s new drama series Blindspot.
The New York studio will fit up to 30 artists and reunites Bachman with veteran VFX supervisors Jeff Wozniak and Nate Overstrom, with the trio formerly working together at Look Effects. The commercial division has recently added Minerva for representation on the East Coast. Comprised of industry veterans Mary Knox and Shauna Seresin, Minerva represents a carefully chosen roster of talent to ad agencies and direct to clients.
Wisconsin-native Bachman joins Zoic’s New York studio after serving as the EP of film and TV at Psyop, where she recently worked on the Golden Globe-winning feature Joy and the highly anticipated Zoolander 2. She boasts over 15 years of experience in the visual effects industry, with stints at major studios and boutique shops alike. After studying at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, she gleaned an interest in postproduction while working as a PA on her first feature. She started out answering the phones and quickly worked her way up to coordinator at several LA boutique post facilities, learning the process hands-on. She spent the next decade as a post producer for major studio feature films, working with New Line Cinema and Fox Searchlight Pictures on such titles as Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited, Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, as well as The Golden Compass, Son of the Mask, and The Fountain. In 2008, she made the move to NYC and joined Look Effects as sr. staff producer, where she produced VFX for such effects-driven features as Life of Pi, Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Black Swan and Moonrise Kingdom.
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