Director Ben Tedesco has joined Superlounge for exclusive U.S. spot representation. He comes aboard a directorial roster comprised of company partner Jordan Brady, Daniel Sheppard, Jacob Slade and Brett Wagner.
Tedesco made a major splash when his MoFilm Chevy Volt “Spaceship” experiment took him to the 2013 Cannes Festival where Chevrolet’s CMO decreed that the spot would air in the fall, which it did. It was while shooting “Spaceship” that Tedesco first met Brady (the director’s girlfriend was working with Brady’s wife, director Jeannette Godoy). “Jordan was genuinely excited from the first cuts of ‘Spaceship’ and saw its potential,” Tedesco recalled. “I met with so many people whose reactions were cautionary: ‘This is such a tough time.’ But Jordan and (Superlounge executive producer) Dave Farrell have the confidence and belief that with the right amount of work and ingenuity, this can happen.”
“I’ve been watching Ben flawlessly execute heartwarming spots for two years now,” said Brady. “Never mind they’ve been on a shoestring budget, they’re just great stories.”
Tedesco developed his visual narrative style over nearly a decade in production working for directors like Zack Snyder and Jeff Cronenweth. “So many elements must come together in order for a spot to take shape—the look of the environment, the physical acting, and above all I have to find the story within the storyboard,” Tedesco observed. In addition to Chevy, Tedesco’s initial work has included specs for Campbell’s, BP and Doritos. Like Chevy, some LegalZoom spots caught the attention of the brand and have begun appearing as formal web spots. More have been commissioned, possibly for broadcast.
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