Alex Lopez has been appointed chief creative officer of McCann Worldgroup Japan, a newly created post. Lopez will work closely with each group agency’s executive creative director (ECD) and senior management to continue raising the creative output and foster a more collaborative environment and strengthen the creative culture to deliver better solutions to clients.
Lopez has 20+ years of experience in global creative agency work with high profile clients in both entertainment and fast-moving consumer goods. He started his career in advertising with Leo Burnett from 1988 until 2001 which took him to multiple countries, including Venezuela, Germany, France and Japan. He then spent five years at Beacon Communications in Japan, a Leo Burnett, Dentsu and Publicis joint venture, where he served as CCO for three years until being promoted to managing director.
Lopez is a digital native with particular passion and interest in new tech trends in mobile, interactive retail, and big data. He decided to explore diverse creative fields, from digital movie studios to tech startups all in pursuit of innovation. He has received creative accolades from major international and Japanese award shows including Cannes Lions and the ACC in Japan.
Rob Reilly, McCann global creative chairman, commented, “Japan is a major focus for us. Alex has the depth, knowledge and creative chops that we need to strengthen our creative leadership in Japan. I have tremendous confidence in him and all of the ECDs that we will continue to push forward with urgency.”
Lopez said: “I am truly excited to return to Japan and join MWG combining my past global and Japan experience with my last 10 years of living in the digital frontier. I am committed to creating new tools, resources and talent from one of the most exciting places on the planet, and with some of the most talented and gracious people I have had the good fortune to know.”
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 โ and those many "Babadook" memes โ 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 โ "Bah-Bah-Doooook" โ 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