Ricardo Diaz has joined the L.A.-based creative shop Omelet as executive digital director. Diaz joins the company from the leadership team at Zambezi, Inc. and more than six years as director of creative technology at TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles. In his new position and as a member of Omelet’s eight-person executive team, Diaz will be critical in helping the company grow and shape its digital discipline while also working closely with the creative and strategy teams to continue to inspire innovative ideas for the digital world.
Bringing more than 20 years of experience to his new position, Diaz has previously spent time with agencies including not only Zambezi, Inc. and TBWAChiatDay, but also The Cannery. He has led digital development and award-winning work for Pepsi, Gatorade, Nissan, the Grammys, and TaylorMade Golf, among other brands.
Omelet solves complex marketing problems for partners, including AT&T, Bravo, Microsoft, Ubisoft, and Walmart. Omelet also maintains divisions–including Omelet Studio, Omelet To Go, and Omelet Brands–to create original brand programming, live interactive experiences, and original owned intellectual property.
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