Owen Roizman, Kees Van Oostrum, Lowel Patterson to serve as VPs
The Board of Governors of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) has held its annual election to appoint its new slate of officers. Richard Crudo will serve as president, along with VPs Owen Roizman, Kees Van Oostrum and Lowell Peterson; treasurer Victor J. Kemper; secretary Fred Goodich; and sergeant-at-arms Isidore Mankofsky.
The members of the Board, elected in May by the organization’s active membership, include: Curtis Clark, Dean Cundey, George Spiro Dibie, Richard Edlund, Fred Elmes, Francis Kenny, Matthew Leonetti, Stephen Lighthill, Michael O’Shea, Rodney Taylor and Haskell Wexler. Alternate Board members consist of Kenneth Zunder, Steven Fierberg, Karl Walter Lindenlaub, and Sol Negrin.
“I am honored to have another opportunity to serve this great organization,” said Crudo, who previously served three terms as ASC president from 2003 through 2005. “Our 94-year history makes us the longest standing group in the motion picture industry. As always, we will be aggressively promoting our art and craft, as well as the related interests of cinematographers everywhere.”
The ASC carries out its mission of inspiring the next generation of filmmakers through many industry events and initiatives, such as its Student Heritage Awards, Breakfast Club seminars, panel discussions by their Education and Outreach committee, the burgeoning Friends of the ASC membership level, and the org’s ongoing collaborations with other industry associations vital to the image-making process.
“I want to thank Stephen Lighthill for his hard work and dedication during the past term,” Crudo added. “We operate in an astonishingly fast-moving world, and I look forward to working with him and the other Board members as we expand our efforts on all fronts, from pre-visualization through post-production and image delivery.”
Crudo is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, serving as an Academy governor and chairman of the Cinematographers Branch. In addition, he has chaired and co-chaired the ASC Awards for several years throughout the past decade.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Crudo began his film career as an assistant cameraman. As a director of photography, he has shot a wide range of feature, television and commercial productions. Among his feature credits are Federal Hill, American Buffalo, American Pie, Music From Another Room, Outside Providence, Down To Earth, Out Cold, Grind, Brooklyn Rules, and My Sexiest Year. He has also directed several independent films, and currently shares cinematography duties with Francis Kenny, ASC on the popular FX Channel series Justified.
ASC was founded in 1919. There are 330-plus active members today who have national roots in some 20 countries. There are also 150 associate members from ancillary segments of the industry.
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 โ 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