Alkemy X has hired Lee Tone as creative director. Tone will focus on leading and implementing the creative vision for the company’s branded content division, facilitating nontraditional projects spanning web series, short films, experiential and interactive. He comes to Alkemy X with a 10-year career as a creative director and copywriter in the agency world, and with extensive experience in brand storytelling that blurs the lines between entertainment and advertising. He joins the team after a successful collaboration with Alkemy X on Samsung’s “Reframe This Space”–a four-episode home decor series that seamlessly infused Samsung’s Frame TV into original entertainment, earning over 30 million online impressions through influencer amplification.
Tone comes to Alkemy X from Barbarian, where he led campaigns for agency clients like Samsung, JBL and AB InBev. Prior to that, he lent his creative expertise to projects for Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, among numerous others. Notable career highlights include his work for the Samsung Galaxy s6 Edge+ and Note5 global launches. Throughout his career, he consistently endeavors to break new grounds in brand storytelling with bold concepts such as his work for Outback Steakhouse. He shook up traditional outdoor advertising for the restaurant chain, causing a commotion (and frantic 911 calls) with the illusion of billboards on fire to promote the brand’s Wood-fire Grill offerings.
“Lee consistently tackles ambitious and bold storytelling approaches that translate into results for brands,” notes Alkemy X president and CEO Justin Wineburgh. “After such a seamless and highly successful collaboration on Samsung’s ‘Reframe This Space’ series, it was no question that he was the best person to take our branded content division to the next level.”
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