Dowland, Moran, Jones Brought Over From Framestore UK To Lead Stateside Charge
Framestore NY has launched a film division offering VFX talent and resources to the feature filmmaking community working on the East Coast. The first major project to come out of the new department is Salt, a Columbia Pictures film directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Angelina Jolie. As the lead VFX studio on Salt, Framestore NY worked on 339 shots, blending its VFX and CGI work into the movie. Also coming out of the film division has been work on Clash of the Titans, as well as the upcoming movies Morning Glory and The Smurfs.
The new studio department is benefitting from an infusion of talent from Framestore U.K. Sarah Dowland has been brought aboard as VFX executive producer to set up and develop the film division. In the U.K. she worked on some of the most high profile Framestore UK films including Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and V for Vendetta.
Also new to Framestore NY are VFX supervisor Ivan Moran and CG supervisor Theo Jones. Moran was VFX supervisor on Triangle and at Framestore UK worked as the compositing supervisor on several of the house’s larger features and was instrumental in developing many of the compositing tools used for the underwater sequence on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as well as for the polar bear work on the Oscar-winning The Golden Compass. Jones meanwhile at Framestore UK led the development of the water pipeline for Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy and worked on Doom before moving on to the development of creature rendering on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and the ocean simulation on Superman Returns.
“Just as we recognized an opportunity to provide premium VFX/CGI to the East Coast agencies seven years ago, we are now recognizing a demand for top level film VFX/CGI,” said Jon Collins, president of Framestore NY. “I would not have done this if I didn’t feel that I had exactly the right team to bring Framestore’s exacting standards to the New York film department–fortunately in Sarah, Ivan and Theo I have three people who have several years of film experience at Framestore.”
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