By KATHY DeSALVO
Trail Head, a spot production house under the Michael Romersa-owned Stoney Road banner, has added director Joe Schaak. The Minneapolis-based director continues to be affiliated with Twist, Minneapolis, for local projects.
Schaak was formerly repped nationally by another Stoney Road company, now defunct Passport Films. Passports executive producers, Kathrin Lausch and Lise Ostbirk, broke away from Stoney Road to launch Compass Films, New York (SHOOT, 12/11/98, p. 1).
Trail Head was opened five months ago (SHOOT, 8/28/98, p. 1) by Stoney Road and executive producer Gary Buonanno; it offers post/visual effects services via an affiliation with Post Logic Studios, Hollywood and Santa Monica. Schaak joins director Barry Young on the Trail Head directorial roster.
Buonanno said he was very selective in signing directors; he looked at nearly 50 reels and talked to dozens of prospects, seeking someone whose reel had what he called a special hook. He was referred to Schaak by Trail Heads West Coast rep, Rachel Finn, who had repped the director through Passport.
Known for quirky comedy, Schaak developed his reel mainly through regional fare. His recent credits include two Honey Baked Hams spots via Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis: Driving depicts a couple driving home with a baby seat that contains a ham, and in Irresistible, a man tries to hide his ham-snacking from his wife.
Grad School
In 1990, Schaak broke into the business as a PA at now defunct Departure Films, where he segued into line producing for director Ali Selim (now at Area 51, Santa Monica). When Departure closed in 92, Schaak freelance line produced and began making contacts with agency creatives in order to get boards to shoot on the side.
Schaak spent several years freelancing and directing low-budget spots. In 1995, he joined Northwest Teleproductions, Minneapolis, which he said served as a kind of grad school for him: He got the chance to direct around 50 spots for the Armed Forces Television Network, a Northwest client. After leaving Northwest, Schaak formed Twist in January 98 with former Northwest colleagues executive producer Jim Geib and director Rich Michell.
Seeking more national work, Schaak joined Passport last summer. Kathrin and Lise are quality people who know the business very well, he said. But I think it was a challenge in that the roster was more European, and my work definitely has more of an American sensibility to it.
In that way, he continued, I think Trail Head is a better fit. They offered a really nice package. Just the people involved with it-Michael Romersa, Gary and Barry Young-combined with the Post Logic tie. … It was really a great opportunity.
Buonanno said he is talking to other directors and hopes to announce a signing in the near future. Trail Head is repped on the West Coast by Finn, in the Midwest by Chicago-based Marguerite Juliusson and Dawn Ratcliffe, and on the East Coast by Roxanne & Co., New York.
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