Director Alec Helm has joined Venice-based production house Hey Baby.
Helm broke into the business as a freelancer and then landed at DDB New York as a jack-of-all-trades—-shooting, editing, photography, directing, even making motion graphics. After successfully filming the making-of videos for several ad campaigns, he began shooting low-budget projects which then led to directing “First World Problems” for the charity WATERisLIFE, and a short documentary for the New York City Ballet. A year and half into working at DDB New York, Helm had already directed work that garnered five Cannes Lions, and won a One Show Emerging Director Award.
Since then, Helm has directed spots for Under Armour, Microsoft, Facebook, Chevy, Capital One, Spotify, Air Canada, Canon, USAA, Enterprise, Glade, Coca-Cola and Land Rover.
Helm is known for creating emotional journeys that follow characters as they evolve. His penchant for drawing the audience into the world of the character via emotion is on full display in a spot he directed for Microsoft and Skype. Helm tells the story of a young girl in Armenia suffering from blindness and, with stunning landscapes and unique architecture, captures the journey she and her family make to cure her condition. He litters the spot with twists and tricks, using points of light, focus, macro shots of webcams, and eye-shaped objects to tell the narrative of her sight being saved in a way that beautifully blends theme, character, and visuals.
Prior to joining Hey Baby, Helm was last repped as a director by production house Tool.
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