Psyop has added to its roster the Argentina-based Buda.tv, an animation studio and directing collective formed in 2016 by Martin Dasnoy and Dalmiro Buigues. With respective backgrounds in directing animated films for brands like Google, Nike and the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympics Games, and branding for television networks such as Discovery, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, Dasnoy and Buigues combine stylistic character design and motion graphics with beautifully crafted narrative storytelling. While their work tends toward 3D animation, Buda.tv continues to experiment with different styles and aesthetics, always looking to break rules and conventions to convey stories in the most unique way possible. In 2020 Buda created a collaborative project for Mate, the popular Latin American beverage, carefully selecting friends and colleagues with very different visual styles to participate. Within a month of launching, the film gained over 3 million views and 30,000 shares on social media….
Amsterdam-based design and motion graphics studio PlusOne has brought Manuel Ferrari on board as creative director. Ferrari has been making waves in the animation industry since 2003. His wide experience has seen him work with a range of world-class brands and studios over the years including Duvel, Nespresso, Whatsapp, Mini, Ambassadors, Glassworks, Post-Panic, Christian Borstlap, and Louis Vuitton….
FuseFX, a visual effects company that specializes in providing services for TV, film and commercials globally across eight studios, has named Julian Sarmiento as its global director of virtual production and real-time. This is part of FuseFX’s efforts to integrate virtual production and real-time services into the company’s key service offerings. Sarmiento brings 20 years of combined experience in visual effects, location-based entertainment, and virtual production to FuseFX. He has long worked on pioneering technologies such as immersive/interactive media, virtual production, digital characters, and live real-time performance. Prior to joining FuseFX, Sarmiento held positions including VFX supervisor at Mirada Studios and executive creative director at Digital Domain….
Oak Leaf Productions, an independent, minority-owned, full-service production, content and media company in L.A., has appointed Daniel Marin as its head of production. A marketing and media industry vet with more than 20 years of experience, Marin has created, built and led production at firms within Publicis and WPP and most recently at JOAN…
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