By Carolyn Giardina
MONTREAL --Technicolor Creative Services, Montreal, has launched 4 Westmount Square (4WS), a unit dedicated to servicing commercial postproduction and visual effects.
“Commercial clients have been coming in for color grading; Technicolor saw the market and the opportunity,” explained director of commercials Patrice Cormier. There are a limited number of color correction suites available in Montreal and that has sometimes prompted local commercialmakers to go to Toronto to work, he related, explaining that with the color correction services, the hope is to keep more work both in house and in the city.
4WS opened with two Smoke/Flame suites, a 2D and 3D graphics unit, and color correction services using Autodesk (Discreet) Lustre in a theatrical, nonlinear environment.
Cormier explained that the new unit will operate in shared but separate space from TCS Montreal, which focuses on long-form work. The new venture was designed to cater to what agency clients expect in terms of facility design, comfortable suites, staff, project management and client services.
Cormier’s career has focused on advertising; he earlier worked as a spot editor at Montreal’s Buzz Image Group. From ’97-’02 he was interface specialist at Autodesk (then Discreet), during which time as a project head and senior trainer he visited more than 300 post houses around the world. He then returned to Buzz as VP business development; during that time he was the architect of Buzz’s HD unit.
At 4WS, Cormier designed the dedicated commercial Smoke/Flame rooms for client-attended sessions. He said the Smoke/Flame combo was an easy choice as “it’s the only thing, I think, for doing commercials. It can work in real time, and clients ask for it by name.” The graphics unit includes a variety of software including Mac graphics, Final Cut Pro and Maya.
Color correction is particularly unique, as 4WS is one of the first facilities in the world to offer to commercial clients a nonlinear Autodesk (Discreet) Lustre color grading theatre. This theatrical environment is equipped with a NEC digital projector; the workflow also incorporates Filmlight’s Northlight Film scanner and the Arrilaser film recorder. The Lustre combines Autodesk’s Incinerator for added power. Source materials may include HDCAM SR, HD D5 or 2k data. This theatre will be shared with TCS’ long-form business, while construction is planned for a second Lustre suite dedicated to commercial work.
“For commercials, I think the advantage to Lustre is to see the final project actually conformed [in shot order],” said Nico Ilies, chief commercial and feature colorist. “Typically you only see the final project at then end.”
HD capabilities, he added, are another plus. “In the next year we expect a demand for HD [commercials],” he predicted. “The footage can be scanned, and you can create multiple commercials, right away. You can create SD, HD, film and you are not restricted to the format.”
Also available for commercials is newly hired colorist Vickie-Lynn Roy. The 4WS team also includes creative director Louis-Martin Duval, executive producer Guyaine Dutil, editor/effects artist Jean-Marc Laurin, and art director Emmanuel “Maz” Mazeron.
Cormier reported that Technicolor also plans to take advantage of synergies with its other commercial businesses: 49 Ontario (formerly Toybox) in Toronto and The Moving Picture Company in London. He reported that the Montreal business has already been tapping into the larger 3D capabilities in Toronto for a commercial project, and plans also call for the launch of a new Web site for this complete group of commercial post businesses.
TCS/Montreal and 4WS are also connected to Technicolor’s private high-speed network that links with other Technicolor companies in cities including London, Los Angeles, New York and Toronto.
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