Tweak Software, developer of RV, an image and sequence playback tool, has been acquired by Autodesk and will be joining forces with Shotgun Software. (Autodesk bought Shotgun last year). Effective immediately, the Tweak and Shotgun teams will be working together to advance review and collaboration technology to equip visual effects, games and animation artists and supervisors with the tools they need to do their best work in a rapidly changing industry.
The entire Tweak staff is joining Autodesk, continuing to work as a unit under the Shotgun banner, led by Tweak’s Jim Hourihan, Seth Rosenthal and Alan Trombla, in close partnership with Shotgun’s Don Parker. In addition to looking for new avenues to further integration between RV, Shotgun and Autodesk, Tweak will continue to develop, support and sell RV as an open and pipeline agnostic tool.
Tweak and Shotgun are hardly strangers to one another. The two companies have worked closely on combined marketing and trade show efforts over the years. Now with both firms being part of the Autodesk family, they have the opportunity to bring all their tech, teams and experience together, brainstorming on developing and realizing new products for customers.
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