Director Tim Royes was laid to rest today in London as the industry continues to mourn his tragic passing...
Director Tim Royes was laid to rest today in London as the industry continues to mourn his tragic passing. Royes was fatally struck by a car in Manhattan earlier this month. As a director, he had been repped by Academy Films, London, and earlier RSA. He made his first major mark as an editor before successfully making the transition to the director’s chair. To share and read remembrances and to donate in Royes’ memory to one of his favorite charities, log onto www.timroyes.com….Laura Madalinski, an assistant editor at Outsider, Chicago, was named Grand Prize editing winner at the Trailer Park 2007 competition held the month in the Windy City. Trailer Park is an Association of Independent Creative Editors (AICE)-sponsored event which gives assistant editors the opportunity to showcase their editing prowess by cutting a :90 trailer for a selected feature, either selling or spoofing it in a different genre. Madalinski won on the strength of the trailer she cut for Hero. First runner up in the competition was Ruben Vela of Optimus for his Departed trailer. Second runner up was Outsider’s Brian Hepner for a St. Elmo’s Fire trailer….Sarah Nahas has joined Curious Pictures, New York, as a senior staff producer and bidder. Prior to joining mixed media and animation house Curious, Nahas was a New York-based freelance producer working for production houses on both visual effects and live-action jobs….
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 โ 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