Noted Feature Cinematographer's Credits Include Superman Returns, X-Men, The Brothers Grimm
By Robert Goldrich
LOS ANGELES --Bicoastal Sandwick Films has signed noted feature film cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel to direct commercials. He joins the company after having wrapped lensing on director Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns for Warner Bros.
Sigel has shot several movies for Singer, including X-Men and its sequel X2, as well as The Usual Suspects. Among Sigel’s other cinematography credits are director Terry Gilliam’s The Brothers Grimm, helmer David O. Russell’s Three Kings, and George Clooney’s directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
On the spot front, Sigel has served as DP on automotive fare for Mercedes, BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. He also shot Ambush, the debut film in BMW series of films, “The Hire,” out of Fallon, Minneapolis. Ambush was directed by the late John Frankenheimer.
Sigel’s directorial experience spans spots, documentaries, shorts and features. He helmed commercials for BMW–and was earlier repped as a spot director via bicoastal Tool of North America. In 2002, Sigel directed the HBO feature Point of Origin. And he recently directed, produced, co-wrote and shot a short comic drama, The Big Empty, starring Selma Blair as a woman faced with an emotional and physical void in her life. This short was done through Sandwick Films, giving Sigel a hands-on feel for working with the company, which prompted his decision to join.
Executive producer Bill Sandwick said that Sigel has stepped up his commitment to directing commercials, meaning that he comes aboard the shop at an opportune time. Sigel said he hopes to work in a variety of spot genres, noting that while he’s known for visual storytelling and strong images, a number of his film endeavors have entailed strong character work.
Sigel joins a Sandwick Films’ directorial roster that includes Jeff Gorman, Steve Kessler, feature filmmaker John Curran (We Don’t Live Here Anymore), Dave Merhar and Rawson Thurber. The latter two joined Sandwick earlier this year. Merhar is a former DDB Chicago creative director and partner/co-founder of the creative boutique Fusion Idea Lab, Chicago. He came over from bicoastal HSI. Thurber, who wrote and directed the comedy Dodgeball, is the writer and director of the Terry Tate: Office Linebacker series of shorts that morphed into a successful ad campaign for Reebok from Arnell Group, New York.
Sandwick Films’ sales force consists of independent reps Mary Ford of Mary Ford & Co. on the East Coast, Nikki Weiss of Nikki Weiss & Co. in the Midwest, and Stacey Altman of Stacey & Co. on the West Coast.Google Witness At Antitrust Trial Says Government Underestimates Competition For Online Advertising
Federal regulators who say Google holds an illegal monopoly over the technology that matches online advertisers to publishers are vastly underestimating the competition the tech giant faces, an expert hired by Google testified Thursday.
Mark Israel, an economist who prepared an expert report on Google's behalf, said the government's claims that Google holds a monopoly over advertising technology are improperly focused on a narrow market the government defines as "open web display advertising," essentially the rectangular ads that appear on the top and along the right hand side of a web page when a consumer browses the web on a desktop computer.
But the government's case fails to account for a variety of competition that occurs beyond those rectangular boxes, Israel said. In the real world, advertisers have dramatically shifted where they spend money to social media companies like Facebook and TikTok, and online retailers like Amazon.
When you account for all online display advertising, not just the narrow segment defined by the government's case, Google gets just 10% of the U.S. market share as of 2022, he said. That's down from roughly 15% a decade ago.
In addition, advertisers have moved away from placing their ads on the screens of desktop and laptop computers where Google is alleged to control the market, with money migrating to ads placed on apps and mobile device screens. Israel cited marketing data showing display ad spending on desktop and laptop devices has decreased from 71% in 2013 to 17% in 2022.
The government's case "seems to miss where the competition is today," Israel said.
His testimony comes as Google wraps up its defense in the third week of an antitrust trial that began earlier this month in Alexandria,... Read More