Jessica Dierauer has been promoted to executive producer of music and creative content at Young & Rubicam, New York. Reporting to Lora Schulson and Nathy Aviram, co-executive directors of content production, Dierauer will be responsible for everything related to music–from licensing tracks and hiring composers, to creating new opportunities for Y&R’s clients throughout the entertainment industry.
She previously served as executive content producer for Y&R New York where for the past two years she has produced and executed integrated campaigns, websites, new media applications and events for clients like LG, Office Depot and Malaria No More. In 2010, Dierauer produced Y&R’s music seminar at the Cannes Lions Festival, which featured influential musicians Trevor Horn and Thomas Dolby, and New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones.
“As music and brands continue to become more closely aligned, this creates a stronger need for musical specialists within an agency,” said Jane Barratt, president of Y&R New York. “Music has always been one of Jessica’s favorite parts of the production process. She’s paired bands like The Brazilian Girls with Axe and James Pants with Levi’s. Her strong connections in the music, entertainment and production industries will no doubt bring great opportunities to current and potential clients.”
Prior to Y&R, Dierauer was senior producer at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, N.Y.
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