Frank Kunkle has joined SMPTE as its new director of marketing. He is guiding development and implementation of a robust marketing strategy, including campaigns, events, digital marketing, and public relations, while supporting SMPTE’s ongoing implementation of its three-year strategic plan. Kunkle most recently served as marketing manager at the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). At ANSI, he developed and executed marketing plans with a focus on growing the institute’s subscription-based product for access to standards, stimulating membership, developing lead acquisition tactics, managing the brand of the institute’s standards platform, driving market analysis, mining data to inform future marketing campaigns, coordinating trade show representation with colleagues, and overseeing advertising opportunities and media placement. Earlier, as marketing strategy manager at the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), Kunkle designed and managed marketing, social, and digital media campaigns for 50 products; unified the marketing strategy across all of SIAM’s program areas; and leveraged data and metrics across these platforms to drive and evolve marketing tactics. He also managed product and web development for custom systems designed to facilitate SIAM’s M3 Challenge (delivered to 50,000+ students online to date), led improvements of data management systems, served on the staff committee responsible for an overhaul of siam.org, and curated content and media across m3challenge.siam.org with an emphasis on encouraging young people to pursue careers in mathematics and science. Kunkle earned dual bachelor’s degrees in strategic communication (public relations concentration) and psychology from Temple University and subsequently began his career working in public relations, press relations, and event planning with several Philadelphia-based agencies. In his new position with SMPTE, Kunkle is based at the Society’s White Plains, NY offices and reports directly to SMPTE executive director Barbara Lange….
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