Saville Productions has signed spot director Greg Gray for exclusive representation in the U.S. market. He broke into directing with South Africa house Velocity in the late 1990s, breaking through with his BMW “Free Diver” campaign. His other notable credits include commercials for Guinness, Ford, Nike, Axe and Virgin Upper Class. For the latter, Gray helmed the lauded “Love Story”…..Method Studios, which maintains shops on both coasts and in London, has bolstered its talent pool at its New York facility with the hiring of VFX supervisor Peter Marin and senior Flame artist Martin Lazaro. Marin has worked in visual effects since 1997, when he first joined The Mill as a Flame artist. Since then, Marin has served as VFX supervisor at a number of leading facilities, including Framestore CFC in Reykjavik, Iceland, Animal Logic, and Sweden's Redrum, where he worked on the 2009 Cannes Lion Grand Prix winner, “Carousel.” From 2002-2008, Marin was partner, senior creative artist, VFX supervisor and head of 2D and 3D at Stockholm Postproduction, before which he worked on feature projects such as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Black Hawk Down at Mill Film in London. A seasoned VFX talent with over 15 years of experience, Lazaro got his start in the industry as a graphic designer at Metrovision in Buenos Aires, Argentina, designing commercials and TV shows before forming his own VFX boutique, Dynamo Post. After that, Lazaro moved to Spain, where he worked on numerous high-end VFX commercials and feature film projects. Prior to joining Method, Lazaro headed the VFX department as a Flame artist/VFX supervisor at wild(child) and Resident Creative Studio in NYC, where in addition to commercials for clients such as AT&T and Sirius/XM, he worked on music videos for Coldplay, Jay-Z, Kanye West and the Black Eyed Peas, as well as the opening titles for HBO's Entourage….RIOT Atlanta has added Smoke artist Mike Wardner to its talent roster. He comes over from Shooters Post and Transfer, where he edited both offline and online, and expanded his range working on commercials for national and regional campaigns, and feature films…..
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More