May 22, 2011
Director Matt Aselton, executive producer Marc Marrie and managing director Mal Ward have teamed to launch Arts & Sciences, a bicoastal production house. The trio comes over from Epoch Films and each will serve as a managing partner of Arts & Sciences, working out of its West Hollywood, Calif. office. Aselton joined Epoch’s directorial roster in 2004, helming assorted commercials, and writing and directing his first feature film, Gigantic, which debuted at the Toronto Film Festival in ‘08. Ward had been Epoch’s head of sales since ‘02, and Marrie produced noted spots with Epoch for 11 years….Kim Bartkowski is set to join Arnold Worldwide’s New York office as digital creative director effective July 5. She will report directly to John Staffen, managing partner/chief creative officer at ArnoldNYC. Her first assignment at Arnold will be leading creative teams on digital initiatives for The Hershey Company. Ultimately, she will work across all ArnoldNYC brands. Bartkowski will come over to Arnold after three years at Digitas New York, where she managed creative teams and helped structure creative and media strategies across traditional, digital and mobile channels. As creative director at Digitas New York, she was part of the pitch team that secured new business wins for Comcast and Pantene. Throughout her tenure, she applied creative and digital expertise to brands including American Express, Delta, Hilton, JetBlue, Kraft and Starwood….Director/cameraman Thomas Kloss has joined the roster of Third Street Mining Company, the L.A.-based house headed by exec producer John LaChapelle. Kloss comes over from DNA where he was repped for the past four years. His directorial credits include spots for Target, BMW, Blockbuster, Maybelline, Saturn and Jello….
May 26, 2006
SHOOT’s fourth annual New Directors Showcase–which took place May 25 at the DGA Theatre in NYC–offers a total of 25 helmers (including four two-person teams) from diverse background. Prevalent in the mix are several agency creatives who have acted on their directorial aspirations, including: Adam Goldstein who exited his sr. creative director/copywriter’s post at BBDO New York to join RSA Films; John Immesoete, a group creative director at DDB Chicago, who recently came aboard the directors roster at Backyard Productions; and Shyam Madiraju, former partner/creative director at Ogilvy LA, who now directs via V3 at Anonymous Content….Director Lenard Dorfman has joined Moxie Pictures for commercial and music video representation in the U.S. He comes over from @radical.media…Director Nic Mathieu has signed with A Band Apart, Los Angeles….Los Angeles-based Roses Are Blue has signed director Keith Schofield who’s best known for his music video work….Maysles Shorts, the spotmaking division of Maysles Films, has added directors Kevin Breslin and Rebecca Dreyfus. Both fit the shop’s directorial profile with experience spanning documentaries and commercials….New York design/animation studio FlickerLab has added director of animation Eric Merola….FilmCore, with offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, has entered into an exclusive partnership with London-based The Quarry. The deal extends the global reach of the two editorial houses spanning new and existing clients, opening new collaborative relationships and opportunities with ad agencies and production companies across both sides of the Atlantic….
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