Framestore has recently fortified its New York studio with a series of senior creative hires: Corey Brown as executive creative director, Andre Vidal as VFX supervisor, and Keno Naidoo and Theuns Van Rensburg as compositing supervisors.
As ECD of the New York studio, Brown will further bolster Framestore’s advertising division. An established name in the VFX industry with over 25 years of industry experience, including the last 12 years at The Mill in New York, Brown is known as an exceptional problem-solver and highly regarded VFX supervisor and creative leader. Grown has worked alongside A-list directors including Baz Luhrmann, Darren Aronofsky, Peter Berg, Jake Scott, and Simon McQuoid.
VFX supervisor Vidal joins from The Mill. His most notable projects include Bud Light’s iconic “Bud Knight” and Pepsi’s halftime trailer, “The Call,” for the Super Bowl, and the Cannes Lions Grand Prix-winning “Leica 100.” He has also contributed to award-winning campaigns for brands like Playstation, Nissan, DirecTV, Paramount+, and a project for Google Pixelbook which was shot in a zero-gravity airplane.
Naidoo joins Framestore as compositing supervisor (Flame) with a career spanning nearly two decades in his native South Africa. He has extensive experience working in Flame, Nuke, Houdini, and Unreal, color, and on-set supervision, completing projects for Coca-Cola, Nissan, Puma, and Jameson. He has already lent his skill set while at Framestore to the McDonald’s “Knowing Their Order” Super Bowl LVII campaign.
Van Rensburg also hails from South Africa, bringing over 12 years of VFX experience on commercial projects. Most recently, he spent four years in Switzerland as a Flame artist and VFX supervisor, overseeing on-set supervision through to final mastering with brands including Audi, Coca-Cola, and Castle Lite. Prior, he spent time at Searle Street Post and Black Ginger in Cape Town. Since joining Framestore, Van Rensburg has worked on projects including Nissan’s “Town of Basic” and Booking.com’s Super Bowl LVII spot, “Somewhere, Anywhere.”
Jordan Carroll has also been promoted to head of CG at Framestore’s Los Angeles and Chicago studios. As an established member of the Chicago team, Carroll will expand his responsibilities to the West Coast, managing the CG team, and working with department heads to continue raising the team’s creative output.
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