Production and management firm Anonymous Content has added the two-man filmmaking team of David and Ian Purchase to its Commercial, Integrated, and Feature Film divisions. The Toronto-based directing duo, who have put together an impressive string of guerilla-style spec spots and indie endeavors, made a major splash recently with a spec short film based on the popular Half-Life video game which they have been fans of and playing for nearly a decade.
On a shoestring budget, the Purchase Brothers shot and deployed a grab bag of post and effects software to make Escape from City 17, a spec short for Half-Life that has the look and feel of a big budget action movie. David and Ian posted the short online and it became a YouTube sensation overnight, generating more than 500,000 hits during its first 24 hours. By the end of the first weekend, the film exceeded a million hits and earned the lofty status of the number one piece of content viewed worldwide during that period. The Internet community and gaming sites globally were abuzz. A traffic overload caused the Purchase Brothers own website to crash.
The short resulted immediately in the up-and-coming directorial duo securing its first production house roost, Toronto-based Sons and Daughters, for spot representation in Canada. Now Anonymous has secured the young directors for work across the spot, integrated and feature film disciplines.
By the way, a second spec Half-Life installment is in the works, with the Purchase Brothers estimated it should be completed in a couple of months.
Dave Morrison, head of commercials for Anonymous Content, said, “These guys [David, age 25, and Ian, 23] are the future of the business, and are perfectly suited to create content in any economic climate. Their ability to handle and understand all areas of production and post make them the ultimate students of filmmaking. We’re looking forward to getting them in front of agencies and studios.”
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