Two new creative teams have been appointed at TBWAChiatDay LA. Marco Monteiro and Ana Carolina Reis join from AlmapBBDO in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The other new duo at TBWAChiatDay consists of Guy Helm and Chris Rodriguez. Helm comes over from Mistress while Rodriguez joins from FCB LA. All four new hires come aboard as creative directors.
The appointments follow the promotion of Stephen Butler to TBWAChiatDay LA’s chief creative officer, with Fabio Costa and Brent Anderson as executive creative directors.
At AlmapBBDO, Monteiro and Reis worked together for over two years on brands including Volkswagen, Visa, PepsiCo, Bayer and Pedigree. The duo has a host of awards next to their names, including most recently a Gold and two Silver Lions from Cannes 2013. Prior to AlmapBBDO, Monteiro worked for Saatchi & Saatchi and Reis at Fallon.
Helm had been the lead creative at Mistress, working with brands including Hot Wheels, Disney, KIND Snacks, Jagermeister and Playboy. Rodriguez, famed for Allstate’s “Mayhem” in addition to work for brands including Kraft, Hallmark, Bounty and Nike, joins from FCB LA where he was sr. art director.
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