Production house Derby has signed industry veteran Claire Worch, founder of indie rep and consulting firm Claire & Company, to handle sales on the West Coast. Claire & Company specializes in live action, animation, commercial production, digital, experiential content studios and more that create advertising for all media platforms. Derby recently added filmmaking duo The Bozzwicks to its roster which also includes directors Lucas Borrás and Nickolas Duarte. Since its launch last fall, Derby has worked with agency and brand partners to produce campaigns for General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, S’well, Blistex, Nestle, Purina, Jim Beam Brands, and Erno Laszlo, among others….
In response to increasing North America sales, Riedel Communications has hired Jake Halverson to serve as sales administrator within the Riedel North America team. Halverson will be responsible for the efficient handling of sales orders in support of outside sales staff, managing customer queries in a timely and knowledgeable manner, and in turn improving the company’s ability to offer responsive, high-quality service and support. Prior to joining Riedel, Halverson served as the used equipment sales manager at Production Resource Group and had a series of technical sales management roles at Bexel. Halverson also served as a customer support coordinator at Calrec Audio and as a quality control technician at 2G Digital. Halverson is based in Burbank, California, and reports to Janis Fontein, manager for finance and operations at Riedel North America. Riedel Communications designs, manufactures, and distributes pioneering real-time video, audio, data, and communications networks for broadcast, pro audio, event, sports, theater, and security applications….
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