Founding Partner, Chief Creative Officer
Markham & Stein
1) The biggest trend this year has been the rise of the conversation about, and demand for “Content.” It’s a buzzword for the engaging yet perishable storytelling that fills the meat grinder of social and digital media. The sheer demand for volume has de-valued this content to the point where clients want to buy it by the pound, which makes creating great stuff hard, and dilutes whatever time, energy and budget you might have as you have to produce more. I despise the word ‘Content” personally. We used to call it “An engaging story, well-told.” Or simply: “Good advertising.”
2) As clients begin to grasp the true potential of Social, and the channels themselves have matured in their ability to deliver, we have moved very heavily in that direction. We have invested in in-house resources to produce video, as budgets have fallen while demand has risen for a 24-7 resource to craft stuff. And our creative staff has become less specialized from a discipline standpoint: virtually everyone on our team can design, write, program and shoot–so the combined teams are less rigid in their basic construct [art director, writer, producer etc.] as the end result is less excecutionally predetermined [video, digital, print, etc].
3) We’re really proud of the work we’ve done this year for Mercury Marine. As a bunch of guys and girls who love the outdoors, producing stuff that feels organic, authentic and visceral has been both a challenge and tremendously satisfying. Work launches January ‘17.
4) I’d say the rise of the branded streaming channel as a stand-alone engagement opportunity is the next big thing. As more people “cut the cable,” and “Smart” devices become ubiquitous, the limitations of traditional media fall away. Some brands (GoPro, for example) have a huge head start, as most brands simply don’t have enough to say to fill the bandwidth of a channel on their own. Creating a well-rounded engagement that can attract like-minded audiences to tune in (and stay tuned-in) is the challenge, and it’s going to happen soon. In a weird way, it takes us full circle to the birth of broadcast, where a single brand’s sponsorship created the show.
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