I’m Happy is a short film by (and starring) Michael Neithardt, who is also executive producer, new business at Psyop. It recently had its world premiere at Tropfest NY in Bryant Park.
Shot in Barcelona, Southern Spain, Southern France and Long Island, NY, the film is the story of a young man who has a heart attack, forcing him to come to terms with the regrets of his life. It explores the conversation in his mind during these his final moments. One part tone-poem, one part dream-scape, the man journeys through an exploration within his own mind and ultimately has to acknowledge the lies he has been telling himself all along.
“Too many people are just walking around, going through the motions of living but not actually doing so,” said Neithardt on the theme of the film. “They wind up in some dead end job, move somewhere they don’t even want to be and give up on all the things they love to do. The idea of becoming that person scares the shit out of me. So ‘What If?’ What if that person suddenly died prematurely? What would be the conversation in that person’s mind in their final moments? This is what I explore in ‘I’m Happy’. I want to inspire people to have this conversation with themselves before it is in fact too late.”
The film was a bit of a family project for Neithardt. Excluding the opening and closing shots, which Neithardt’s father Steve Neithardt drove the camera car for, the whole film was shot on location with just Neithardt’s wife, Vanessa, and their 22-month-old son, Beckett–whom Michael jokingly refers to as his “PA.”
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