Steele Studios, a postproduction and visual effects house, has named Thom Burkhart as sr. producer. He formerly served as head of digital postproduction for Rhythm & Hues for 14 years.
During his Rhythm & Hues tenure, Burkhart upgraded his department to a full HD post facility and shepherded post services for high-profile commercials, features and theme park ride films, working in tandem with such directors as Ron Howard, Jake Scott, Peter Berg, Harold Ramis, Steve Beck, Charlie Watson, Clark Anderson, Michael Patterson, Jay Vigon and Randy Roberts, as well as VFX supervisors Bill Westenhofer, Doug Smith, John Heller, Todd Schifflett and Richard Hollander.
Burkhart worked on features including Life of Pi, The A-Team, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Fast and Furious 3 and 4, X-Men, Night at the Museum 1 & 2, Moneyball, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. His spot credits span such clients as Budweiser, Coca-Cola, GMC, Mazda, Dodge Neon, Geico, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Sears, Honda and Toyota.
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