Integrated production and content creation studio Humble has hired Jason Mayo as director of business development. Mayo joins Humble, which is headed by founder/president Eric Berkowitz, after a 14-year tenure as a partner at Click 3X. In addition to helping continue the evolution of Humble, Mayo will play a key role in the growth of its sister company, design and VFX studio Postal. Mayo will work alongside creative director Sam Stephens to add top talent as well as continue to build and develop its already strong footing in the post world. In his spare time, Mayo also writes the dad blog Out-Numbered….
Shure, manufacturer of microphones and audio eletronics, has named Livella Brand Group as its sales representative for the Central Region of the United States. Livella Brand Group, a new rep firm located in Gardner, Kansas, will manage sales for the complete Shure line of professional audio products to dealers and systems integrators in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Southern Illinois. Shure Incorporated is headquartered in Niles, Illinois. The company also has regional sales and marketing headquarters in Eppingen, Germany, and Hong Kong, China, with more than 30 additional manufacturing facilities and regional sales offices throughout the Americas, EMEA, and Asia….
Dattner Dispoto and Associates has booked DP Lyn Moncrief on the Blake Robbins-directed feature The Scent of Rain and Lightning….
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