Music video, commercial and feature film director Joseph Kahn has joined Supply&Demand. On the ad front, his clients include Samsung, Adidas, Target, Johnny Walker, BMW, Mercedes, T-Mobile, Budweiser, Bacardi, HP, NASCAR and PlayStation. And the director’s music video credits span such artists as Taylor Swift, U2, Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, Eminem, Wu-Tang Clan, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Aerosmith, Moby, Justin Timberlake, George Michael, Janet Jackson, Black Eyed Peas and Beyonce.
Kahn just wrapped a global campaign for Maybelline in New York. Other recent work includes an Old Navy campaign through CP+B, Miami that scored a million views in its first week online, and Power/Rangers, his dark, bootleg fan film release this year clocked 13 million views in two days.
“I love speaking in 30 second verse,” Kahn related. “Power/Rangers would never have been made had I not been making spots for the past 15 years. People are amazed at the level of detail in the film, but it’s standard practice in commercials. All I’ve done is extend that process over 14 minutes of time.”
“Bad Blood,” Kahn’s latest music video for Taylor Swift, just premiered at the Billboard Music Awards and marks the first project under the Supply&Demand banner. The video follows Kahn’s “Blank Space” clip for Swift, a tongue-in-cheek video that has attracted 850 million visits online.
Kahn’s work over the years has garnered awards such as Grammy Best Video, MTV VMA Best Director, Music Video London Icon Award, MVPA Director of the Year, and a Clio for Visual Effects on Fox Sports. Prior to joining Supply&Demand, he was on the roster of HSI.
“Joseph is a huge brand in the music video world and we see enormous potential with him in the commercial world,” said Supply&Demand founder/managing partner Tim Case. “He’s an incredible creative asset. He loves to work, continues to cultivate a fantastic music video career and his energy is tremendous. We look forward to embracing his talent and elevating his commercial career.”
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