Bruce Horwitz, owner of final audio mix facility Lime Studios, Santa Monica, and his wife are in the process of adopting two children from Haiti. In the two years they’ve been waiting to bring their kids home, they have visited them several times and befriended the director of the orphanage who’s purchased a piece of property in the hopes of building a school, clinic and a new orphanage there. Horwitz wanted to contribute to that ambitious endeavor in some way. And now he’s giving the ad community a chance to do the same.
Horwitz is co-hosting LIME-AID, an online auction of postproduction services, in collaboration with Global Water Trust, a Santa-Monica based non-profit group working to provide clean water to children throughout the world. GWT is co-founded by Horwitz’s longtime friend Ron Kramer, who is the former principal of Pagan Films, which produced spots and music videos.
Horwitz has assembled more than 50 of the most sought after purveyors of post services to raise $400,000 to build a 75-bed orphanage, a 150-desk school, a clinic and clean water supply for the entire complex in Port-au-Prince Haiti. On Aug. 27 the link to a private Ebay auction–featuring the services of numerous postproduction studios–will be e-mailed to everyone in the production and advertising community nationwide. When the bidding is over on Aug. 30, the winning producers will be presented vouchers for the value of the services purchased. The vouchers are good for six months.
When the producers are ready to redeem the voucher, they book time as usual. Upon completion, producers will send a contribution to GWT and the funds will be earmarked for the project in Haiti.
“People might think that if they win, they have to go get a PO and job number and send a check somewhere like they do for other jobs. What we are trying to get across is there are no financial transactions at the time of the auction,” Horwitz told SHOOT. “It’s really a pledge to use a specific company within six months time. You might not have a job at that moment. That’s ok. As long as you know that sometime in the next six months you are going to need a piece of music or a mixer or some editorial time with a company you work with all the time, pledge the time and when you get the job you will just run it through Lime-Aid.”
Horwitz pointed out that the event will culminate on Sept. 7 with a benefit party at Lime Studios to thank everyone who donated their services and helped Horwitz give back to a country that is giving him so much.
“For my wife and I, just taking the kids out of the country and leaving the country the way it is doesn’t feel complete. What is really needed there is to try and put in motion the projects that will make adoption less and less necessary for those families. That’s schools and clinics. It’s the basic stuff, education and healthcare,” Horwitz explained.
“It’s not about making a better orphanage for kids who are ultimately going to come to the United States and live vastly more privileged lives than the kids in Haiti. It’s about trying to give something back to the country that’s giving us these kids so that more kids shouldn’t have to leave their families. It’s not about my kids, it’s about the kids who I can’t bring home.”
For more information, visit www.lime-aid.tv.
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