Outside Editorial and Big Sky Editorial Company, both in New York, and Margarita Mix Santa Monica topped the spot category nominees for the fourth annual Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) Awards, which recognize creative and technical excellence in the art, science and craft of postproduction.
Outside garnered three nominations while Big Sky and Margarita Mix each earned a pair. Work from Outside and Big Sky accounted for the three nominees in the Outstanding Editing-Commercial category: Outside editor Neil Gust for NASCAR’s “Start Er Up” and Jaguar’s “XF/XK”; and editor Chris Franklin of Big Sky for Bing.com’s “Syndrome.”
For the Outstanding Color Grading-Commercial category, colorist Alex Bickel of Outside scored a nomination for Jaguar’s “XJ Launch Film” while Big Sky’s Valerie Junge earned nominee status on the strength of American Express’ “Members’ Moments.” Rounding out the nominees in the category was colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld of bicoastal Company 3 for Pepsi’s “Pass.”
Company 3 scored another nomination–this one outside the spot realm–for Outstanding Color Grading in TV for colorist Siggy Ferstl on the basis of Yankee Stadium Tribute-Yogi’s Bronx.
Margarita Mix’s two commercial nominees came in the Outstanding Audio Post category, one for mixer Nathan Dubin for Honda Civic’s “Grooves”; and the other for Jeff Levy for Honda Fury’s “Unleashed.” The latter was a shared nomination as Margarita Mix and audio artisans Paul Hurtubise, Richard Cooperman and Thom Blackburn of Santa Monica-based Solid worked on “Unleashed.” Rounding out the category was mixer Parv Thind of Wave Recording Studios, London, for Sony’s “Extreme Detail Bond.”
And the nominees in the remaining spot category, Outstanding Compositing, were: Geoff McAuliffe, Jimi Simmons, Sean McLean and Robin Hobart of Brickyard VFX, Santa Monica and Boston, for NBA’s “Amazing Playoff Moments–Bird Steals The Ball”; Brady Beaubien and Brandon Peterson of Los Angeles-based Interlace Media for the “International Landmark Destruction Campaign” promoting The Day The Earth Stood Still; and Colin Renshaw of Animal Logic, Sydney, for Toyota’s “Ninja Kittens.”
HPA Award winners will be announced and honored during a gala evening ceremony on Nov. 12 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. For a full rundown of nominees spanning the feature and TV categories, log onto www.hpaawardsnet.com.
Already known are the honorees that evening for several other HPA kudos. Ben Burtt will receive the HPA’s Charles S. Swartz Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Post Production. Burtt has worked in every facet of film production for over 35 years spanning directing, producing, sound design, sound editing, editing, voicing and voice design in motion pictures, TV, specialty, educational and documentary. He was the sound designer for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series, has been nominated for 12 Academy Awards for sound effects work and has won four Oscars.
Meanwhile slated to receive the HPA’s Lifetime Achievement Award is post icon Paul Haggar who rose through the studio ranks from the Paramount mailroom to apprentice editor and ultimately to executive VP of Postproduction for Feature Films, a position he held for more than 20 years.
And finally the HPA Engineering Excellence Award winners are DVS Digital Video Systems for the CLIPSTER hardware and software turnkey finishing system; Signiant for its Content Distribution Management (CDM) software which was developed to centrally manage, secure, accelerate and automate the movement of rich media content; and S.Two Corp. for its OB-1 Uncompressed Digital Recorder, a complete system for providing images from digital cameras to post.
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