WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Interface Group has hired designer/animator Carol Hilliard and editor Ruth Cooper.
Hilliard comes over to the creative services department of the Washington-based post/effects house from Big Shot Productions, Baltimore, where for the past year she was a designer/animator specializing in 3-D animation and created special effects graphics for such clients as Discovery Channel, MCI and the National Aquarium. Prior to working at Big Shot, Hilliard was at OT Sports/ABC Interactive, Hunt Valley, Md., where she was a designer/animator creating opening animations and flying logos for computer games including ABC Sports’ "Monday Night Football" and "Heroes of the Gridiron." Two of her animations were included on the 1997-’98 Alias/Wavefront reel.
From 1994-’97, Hilliard also was a designer/animator/illustrator at Totally Incorporated, Alexandria, Va., where she created graphics for broadcast, corporate presentations, virtual walk-throughs, print and multimedia. Her work earned her both a ’95 Telly and a ’95 Invision award.
Hilliard has also freelanced as a designer for Base Productions, Vienna, Va., where for the past three years she has created packaging and promotional artwork for independent films and sports video magazines.
Cooper
Prior to joining Interface, Cooper spent six years at Washington-based Roland House, where she edited long-form projects. She joined Roland House as an editor and was promoted two years later to senior editor. Before her stint at Roland House, Cooper spent two years as an assistant editor at Producers Video, Baltimore.
The Interface Group’s services include graphics design, computer animation and special effects production, compositing, editing, studio production, film-to-tape transfer and duplication.
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