Global creative agency Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners (KBS) has hired Amber Wimmer as director of interactive production. She will be responsible for overseeing all digital productions, evolving the agencies interactive process and standards and contributing to the expansion of its creative interactive capabilities.
Wimmer joins KBS from Google Creative Labs where she launched a voice command music making experiment. Prior to that, she was executive producer at The Barbarian Group, Droga5, TBWAChiatDay, and Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
“KBS has a history of producing meaningful stories for brands in ways that’s never been done before,” said Wimmer. “I’m excited to be working alongside an innovative group of people who are creating purpose driven work.”
Madison Wharton, global chief production officer of KBS, said, “Amber brings to KBS her passion for thorough dissection of complex asks along with her relentless pursuit of delivering innovative creative executions. She’s the perfect addition to our New York production leadership team. She pushes the bar for creative excellence and flawless execution and she’s a great mentor for the rising production talent.”
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 โ and those many "Babadook" memes โ 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 โ "Bah-Bah-Doooook" โ 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