Executive Producer
Alkemy-X
1) The model of the traditional production company is falling away. For us to stay relevant and a contributor within the industry we can not just think of ourselves as creators of the :30/60 spot.
Now more then ever with the digital video boom and the popularity of influencers, it’s all about the content and creating interesting stories without the hard sell.
This means emphasizing our creative ability to our clients is key. We have to tap into our team and show our clients that we can help and partner with them at the early stages of conception to develop thoughtful and impactful content developing their brand stories.
We are all storytellers. It’s all about creating content that is interesting and relatable to a wide audience.
The excitement for me is to continue to build our team with the current trend of our industry at the forefront of my mind. Concentrating on finding opportunities that allow us to be content developers and creators in partnership with our clients is the ultimate goal.
2) As the industry shifts towards more experiential and non traditional branded content targeted towards more savvy consumers, we have seen a dramatic uptick in the asks for episodic branded content series development. Our background in original content gives us a unique edge in that market and lead Droga5 to enlist us to create a 5 part episodic content series profiling 5 influencers for the new google Pixel3 lunch this last year called #Unswitchables. In developing this series with our agency partner, we put together a classic Hollywood style writers room, with head writers from notable comedy central shows like “The Daily Show” and “Nathan for You”. Over a month long production schedule, James David from “Hood Adjacent” fame lead our characters through a process that inevitably ended in their phone switch. This type of content which seamlessly blends the entertainment world of soft scripted reality and product centric branded content is a strong example of the industry shift away from the traditional 30/60 second spot and engaging with viewers in a more relatable way.
4) As large multinational ad agencies strive to fulfill the growing amounts of content that their clients are asking for, they are taking post-production and now increasing amounts of live action production in-house. This trend of agency in-house capabilities has lead many production companies to expand their offerings into the creative & strategy space that has traditionally been dominated by ad agencies.
As production companies and large agencies vie for the same brand clients, the real question becomes; “who has the larger bureaucracy and overhead that eats up client retainers?” As smaller business’, its much easier for production companies to get into the creative and strategy space as compared to the behemoth agencies of yesteryear. Our flexibility to scale up to meet a larger clients needs and scale down during lulls in production, makes us a more agile competitor in a world of decreased AOR relationships and increased per project RFP’s.
This fight over the same slice of the production/creative pie will inevitably become more and more intense.
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