Director To Embark On A Branded Short For Nissan/DirecTV Via TBWA/Chiat/Day
By Robert Goldrich
SANTA MONICA --Director Richard Sears has joined Santa Monica-based Green Dot Films. He comes over from Tate USA, Santa Monica. The helmer has already wrapped his first job under the Green Dot banner, a Cox Communications campaign for Doner in Southfield, Mich.
Additionally, at press time, Sears was about to embark on a Green Dot-produced branded entertainment short for Nissan/DirecTV via TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles. Plans call for the four-minute film to be accessible via DVR on DirecTV.
Green Dot executive producer Rick Fishbein said he was drawn to Sears’ storytelling, both in spots and longer form. The latter, observed Fishbein, is essential in the evolving ad marketplace with branded content fare starting to emerge, as evidenced by the Nissan/DirecTV project.
Indeed Sears is no stranger to short films. In fact his thesis project at the Art Institute of San Francisco, An Evil Town, based on a story by Charles Bukowski, won a short film award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995. He later broke into commercials, first at bicoastal HKM Productions in ’96, before moving on to now defunct Coppos Films in ’01. Sears then joined Tate USA about a year and a half ago. While continuing to be active in short films, Sears also built a feature pedigree which includes the independent movie Bong Water (’97). And in February he is slated to begin shooting another indie feature, Dandelions, a romantic comedy/coming-of-age story.
Sears gravitated toward Green Dot based on its in-house sales force–which he finds attractive for directorial career development–the shop’s commercialmaking expertise, and the chance to diversify meaningfully into branded entertainment.
Best known for his comedic storytelling spots, Sears has also taken on more dramatic fare, including a spot in which kids are seemingly engaged in combat, an intentional misdirection designed to promote Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six video game for boutique agency Ayzenberg in Pasadena, Calif. Meanwhile in the humorous ad vein, Sears’ latest work includes a Progressive Insurance campaign for New York agency G Whiz, in which scenarios are played out that call for offbeat types of insurance (a policy protecting against undue embarrassment). The campaign’s premise is that if such insurance coverage existed, it would be provided by Progressive.
Over the years, Sears has directed commercials for such clients as Nike, Sony PlayStation, Labatt’s Blue, Subway and Sprint. He comes aboard a Green Dot roster that consists of directors Marc Chiat, the team of Coppos/Lee (Mark Coppos and Virginia Lee), Thom Higgins, Jon Nowak, Michael Patterson, Luis Ruiz, Garry Sato and Brent Thomas.
Alex Anderson is head of sales for Green Dot, with Darren Foldes handling the Midwest and West Coast markets. Rich Pring is the company’s head of production.Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More