Production house Hey Baby has added director Rob “Whitey” McConnaughy to its talent roster. Previously repped by humble, McConnaughy is both a Cannes Lion winner and a creator of the MTV pranking phenomenon Jackass.
McConnaughy first made a name for himself as a photographer and director on the snow and skateboarding scene, with over a dozen of the best-selling films in the genre to his credit. He also served as photo editor for the leading snow publication Blunt, while also filming the videos for the influential skate mag Big Brother.
After writing for and shooting the first two Jackass movies, McConnaughy moved into advertising in the mid-2000s when Nike approached him to helm a series of skateboarding spots and short films directly for the brand. Since then, he’s cast his net far and wide across the worlds of action, sports and comedy, and found a certain edge for work involving hidden cameras and real people.
McConnaughy’s ability to communicate clever concepts with flawless execution has led him to direct content for brands including Honda, Coors, Burger King, Progressive, Chrysler, Coca-Cola, EA Sports, Activision, Sprint, Dodge, Samsung and Verizon. McConnaughy’s Jeremiah Weed spot for Diageo featuring ZZ Top nabbed the Cannes Bronze Lion for Branded Content, while his Nike “Hyperdunks” campaign featuring Kobe Bryant jumping over a speeding Aston Martin was a viral video hit.
McConnaughy’s fluency for DIY guerilla-style filmmaking has also found a perfect home in the music world, leading him to direct videos for artists such as The Gossip, Band of Horses, Superchunk, and Red Fang, along with a particularly memorable clip for OFF! starring a blood-soaked Jack Black.
Whitey’s many-sided skillset and flexible approach to both commercial and content production perfectly dovetails with the vision of Hey Baby, explained executive producer/partner Johnny Parker. “Whitey can helm these massive, robust comedy campaigns, but he’s also not afraid to roll up his sleeves and do things lean and mean. He shoots, he edits, he can take a project from soup-to-nuts. In today’s commercial landscape, where budgets are tight yet there’s more creative opportunities than ever before, having that agility is a huge asset.”
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