Director Marius Holtz has signed with bicoastal RSA USA…. Director Patricia Murphy, best known for her spot work in the U.K., has come aboard Bravo Zulu, Santa Monica, for stateside representation….Word is that director James Dalthorp, formerly of now defunct 1/33 Productions, is headed for Santa Monica-based Area 51 Films….Bicoastal Gartner has added director Raymond Bark….Director Siraj Jhaveri has joined bicoastal Shelter Films….525 Studios, Santa Monica, has entered into a partnership with 3-D/visual effects firm Buf Compagnie, Paris. Via the deal, Buf gains a stronger foothold in the U.S. market. Also, Buf’s technology and workflow methodology are being integrated into 525. Pasquale Croce, a 3-D artist who earlier in his career worked at Buf, has come aboard 525 to spearhead its 3-D division and to train artists to use Buf’s proprietary 3-D database and resources….Phil Price, president and creative director of Click 3X New York, will exit the company effective Feb. 29 to pursue an as-yet-unnamed broadband content venture. Additionally, Click 3X N.Y. executive producer Julie Shevach has assumed the additional title of general manager….Chicago-based animation house Tricky Pictures is disbanding due to the departures of partner/animation director Bruce Alcock, who is returning to his native Canada, and executive producer Harriet Katz, who is relocating to San Francisco. Partner/head of sales Roy Skillicorn said that plans call for some of the equipment and staff to be absorbed into the West Coast office of Tricky’s sister live-action company, Backyard Productions. Skillicorn is considering restaffing the animation shop, although nothing final has been decided yet….Crew Cuts in San Francisco has added editor Mauro Camoroda and executive producer Amy Burlaga….Congrats to the Academy Award-nominated artisans with ties to the spot community including: best director nominees Spike Jonze (of bicoastal/international Satellite) for Being John Malkovich, and Lasse Hallström (of bicoastal/international@radical.media) for The Cider House Rules; Mehdi Norowzian (of bicoastal/international Chelsea Pictures), who directed the Oscar-nominated live- action short film Killing Joe; best cinematography nominee Robert Richardson (of bicoastal Tool of North America) for Snow Falling on Cedars; and sound effects editing nominee Ren Klyce (of Mit Out Sound, Sausalito, Calif.) for his contributions to Fight Club….Director Nigel Dick’s telefilm 2gether debuts Feb. 21 at 8 p.m. on MTV. Dick is repped for commercials and videos via A Band Apart, Los Angeles….
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