Writer-producer Marta Kauffman could rest on her “Friends” laurels. Instead, she’s delving into the online series world to explore offbeat material and a new role.
Kauffman turned official first-time director for “Georgia,” a short Web series about a warmhearted yoga instructor-therapist who needs to heal herself when it comes to romance and family.
“Georgia,” with Mary Elizabeth Ellis (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) as the title character and Harold Perrineau (“Lost,” ”Sons of Anarchy”) as her fiance, is on the WIGS YouTube channel. Each of the three episodes runs between five to eight minutes.
“It was so much fun,” Kauffman said of the series, which she wrote and directed. “It was a little bit like guerrilla television. We shot seven pages (of script) a day, and that’s a lot.”
WIGS, which launched last March, is the brainchild of two high-profile filmmakers, Jon Avnet (“Black Swan,” ”Fried Green Tomatoes”) and Rodrigo Garcia (“Albert Nobbs,” TV’s “In Treatment”), who are turning the spotlight on women.
The lineup on WIGS (an acronym for the tag line “Where it gets interesting”) includes original series, short films and documentaries. All feature lead female characters and stories that the channel promises will be provocative and “addictive.”
Avnet and Garcia “want to do grittier, edgier stories about women than you normally see,” both dramatic and comedic, Kauffman said.
“This was an opportunity to tell stories about many different women,” she said of their channel. “Younger, older, whatever the writer wanted to bring to it.”
In her case, Kauffman said, it also allowed her to assume a director’s full arsenal.
“I’m not going to say this was a lifelong dream. But in the process of reinventing myself after ‘Friends,’ I did a version of directing without the camera stuff for many, many years,” she said. “So I was really thrilled to get a chance to do it for real.”
Kauffman and David Crane created “Friends,” the NBC hit that aired from 1994 to 2004.
Others actresses featured on WIGS include Jennifer Garner, Jena Malone, Virginia Madsen, America Ferrera and Julia Stiles. Besides Perrineau, actors who are appearing include Alfred Molina and Stephen Moyer.
New episodes debut Monday, Wednesday and Friday on the channel.
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