Cross-pacific music and sound boutique Nylon Studios, with offices in NYC and Sydney, has signed composer Lydia Davies for global commercial representation. Davies is a talented composer and pianist whose emotive compositions have been seen in major film trailers including a thrilling and sumptuous track for Warner Brothers’ highly anticipated live action feature Wonder Woman, which earned a nomination for a Golden Globe Trailer Award for “The Best Fantasy Adventure.” She also crafted the original music on the trailer for Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, which smashed box office numbers with over $1 billion worldwide gross.
On the heels of industry initiatives such as Free the Bid and the 3% Conference that have sparked conversation about the lack of gender diversity in advertising, Nylon Studios has upheld and strengthened its force behind their long-time mission to champion female talent in the sonic realm of advertising. The signing of Davies further instills the studio’s female-led culture, with its NYC studio being led by executive producer Christina Carlo and the Sydney studio under the aegis of EP Karla Henwood.
Davies’ flair for crafting emotive soundtracks can be seen in her colorful work for dynamic film trailers and commercials. She has also created cinematic tracks for such top clients as L’Oreal, New Balance, MTV and Hugo Boss.
Australia-born Davies is a classically trained pianist who studied at the Yamaha Music School from age five, rapidly elevating to the school’s exclusive composition program at the ripe age of six. Her perfect pitch and innate talent for music composition earned her a number of music scholarships and music and songwriting awards. After earning a degree in Arts, Media and Communications from Melbourne’s Monash University, she made her way to the U.S., studying Film Composition, Film Scoring and Music Composition at Boston’s acclaimed Berklee College of Music.
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