Film and commercial production company Cutter Productions, a New York-based shop under the aegis of EP Hillary Cutter, has signed director Nika Offenbac.
Offenbac brings more than a decade of experience in postproduction, animation and visual effects, serving in varied capacities. As a creative director Offenbac has led tour visuals for Skrillex, Tiesto and Theivery Corporation. Her animated films have screened at the Lincoln Center, the Kunsthaus Graz (Austria), and LACMA. She has executive produced rebrands, show packages, promos and campaigns for the likes of truTV, Amazon, Netflix, FX, & HBO. Offenbac’s hybrid talents as a director and producer have also established her as a documentarian working in the feature and television space. As a commercial director she has directed spots and campaigns for Evian, Airbnb, Sears, Ubisoft, Nestle and TBS, among others.
Offenbac was drawn to Cutter Productions not only for its filmmaking artistry but also for its working mission to empower women in all fields of entertainment. EP Cutter has been a fierce advocate for equal, representative and diverse hiring practices in film for over 15 years and runs a women’s mentorship group for up and coming NY directors, editors, writers, and mixers, eponymously named Cutter Connections.
In the big picture, Offenbac cited storytelling as a driving force throughout her career. She identified the stories “we tell others, but also the ones we tell ourselves. Some are entertaining, or clever or beautiful. Others are challenging or just interesting. As a director, my primary responsibility is to that story, both in the telling and the making. Because HOW you create ultimately IS what you create. It’s possible to make a living as an artist but if you’re going to do something, do it big, and do it with compassion and collaborators.”
Cutter shared, “I’ve been admiring Nika from afar for the past 10 years and have always been impressed with her multifaceted ability to do everything from creatively leading animation projects to helming live-action shoots to executive producing long-form content. As more clients look to Cutter to lead projects from development through post, it’s important for us to evolve our creative team and Nika’s expertise in creative direction and long-form content make her an invaluable addition to our roster. It also goes without saying that Nika’s passion for building diverse teams both onset and in postproduction as well as working with our mentorship program to help guide and nurture the next generation of media makers makes her a perfect match for Cutter.”
Prior to joining Cutter Productions, Offenbac was an executive producer/partner/director at And/Or Studios.
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