Andrew Laurich of production house ContagiousLA, who earned inclusion into this year’s SHOOT New Directors Showcase, is at it again with a spec spot which was entered into the recently concluded MoFilm Cannes Contest. The piece opens on what appears to be a Sovereign Bank credit card bill with various entries such as some seven dollars and change for birdseed, a $47 expenditure at a gas station, $600-plus for airline fare and so on.
We then see those expenditures come to life, starting with a seemingly lonely guy seated on a park bench, pulling birdseed out of a large bag and throwing it on the ground for the pigeons. However, there are no pigeons to be found–only a large chicken (actually a person in a chicken costume) who sits down next to the man. They become fast friends as we see the man driving a convertible with the chicken as a front seat passenger–a super notes that this entailed the $47 expenditure at a gas station. Similarly supered expenditures such as that for a bike rental accompany the sight of the twosome peddling in the park; another bill for a restaurant shows the man and his feathered friend enjoying a meal together.
But we all have our calling and the chicken realizes his when he sees a bird soaring overhead. The chicken tries to fly, flapping his wings but to no avail.
The man knows what he must do as that airfare expenditure comes to life. He drives the chicken to the airport and they bid each other a fond farewell. Later the man looks up in the sky as a plane flies overhead. The comical, parting-is-such-sweet-sorrow moment is tagged by the Sovereign logo.
Laurich directed, shot and edited the spec spot out of ContagiousLA. Natalie Sakai of Contagious served as executive producer as well as producer.
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