By BY KATHY DeSALVO
CHICAGO-Amazon, a Chicago-based creative editorial shop, has hired editor Scott Taradash. He comes over after 15 months at post house Optimus, Chicago.
Taradash began his career with an eight-year stay at Chicago post house Cutters Inc., where he initially served as an assistant before moving into the editor’s chair, working on spots for clients such as Pert Plus via Leo Burnett Co., Chicago, and Gerber via Noble & Associates, Chicago. When he moved over to Optimus in fall 1997, Taradash related, he intended to remain there a long time.
But when the opportunity at Amazon arose unexpectedly, it was an offer he couldn’t turn down. "It was too intriguing to pass up," said Taradash. "Some of the most fun times I’ve had working in this business were at Cutters, when it was still just an Avid/film editing shop, before they bought into finishing, telecine and audio mixing. It was really enjoyable, and when I got this opportunity to move back into strictly offline, it was a very appealing idea to go back into an all-film editing shop-especially one that’s so lean."
Taradash joins an Amazon editorial roster also composed of company principal Janice Rosenthal, editor Christina Seamonson Smith and assistant editor Katherine Cohn; Laura Kempner serves as producer for the firm.
While at Optimus, Taradash worked on jobs for Budweiser and Oatmeal Crisp, both for DDB Needham Chicago; Gatorade via Foote, Cone & Belding, Chicago; and Tenet Hospital out of BVK McDonald, Milwaukee.
Taradash added that, over the past couple of years, a few of his clients told him he and Rosenthal would be a natural pairing. "They said that our personalities were so similar but our reels were so different, that it would be a great combination." He said he first met Rosenthal last August when it became apparent "we would be a good team."
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