Carnage, a production company specializing in advertising and digital content for car brands, has been launched. Backed by Rogue Films and a private equity partner, Carnage is a creative collective including noted directors, producers and key members of the BBC’s original Top Gear team.
The new shop is run by Ben Hampshire, the former managing director of The Mill LA, with commercials director Sam Brown who serves as executive creative director. Directors alongside Brown are Phil Churchward, the series director of Top Gear, Mark Jenkinson, Ehsan B, Richard De Aragues (TT3D: Closer to the Edge), and a range of other directors attached specifically to do car work through Carnage.
The group also includes cinematographers, production designers, stunt coordinators, location managers, precision drivers, and production managers–all united by their professional expertise with car brands, and a genuine love of cars.
Carnage will produce commercials, online content, film and television, digital, experiential, and behind the scenes films. The team will work alongside partner agencies as well as create content directly for clients.
Hampshire said, “After seven years growing The Mill in LA, the opportunity to build a brand from scratch was what lured me back across the pond. I’m a huge petrol head and very excited to be leading this totally unique proposition.”
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