Creative agency Johannes Leonardo has hired Dana May as integrated head of production. She will assume her new role on Monday, Oct. 3, and report to co-founders and chief creative officers Jan Jacobs and Leo Premutico, and president Bryan Yasko.
May will be tasked with growing the agency’s integrated production department, as well as taking on added responsibilities with existing and new clients to build out fresh capabilities.
She joins Johannes Leonardo from McCann NY where as executive producer she worked on the Verizon Wireless account. Prior to McCann, May served as head of production at CHI&Partners on clients including The Wall Street Journal, Diageo, Samsung, InterContinental Hotels Group. She also spent time at Droga5 as senior producer on PUMA, Activision, Unilever, NET10, Rhapsody and UNICEF. Her body of work over the years has been recognized with top industry accolades including Cannes Lions Grand Prix, Clio Awards, the ONE Show, AICP Show and D&AD honors.
“I have been following the epic ideas and executions coming out of Johannes Leonardo for years, and can’t wait to work with some of the industry’s leading talent, while helping contribute to its growth trajectory,” said May. “It feels like the perfect time to make the move to an agency that I know will keep me feeling inspired and challenged.”
Yasko said, “With the success of adidas and our entire roster of clients, we are fortunate to have our business evolving progressively in addition to, and beyond, advertising. We are producing work in-house, launching global event activations, designing and executing innovative retail environments and pushing the boundaries of VR experiences. Dana will be instrumental in pushing our capabilities even further.”
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