Executive producers Allison Nunn and Bob Samuel have resigned from bicoastal Coppos Films to pursue their own vision of a directorial and production management company. Samuel, Nunn and Coppos Films’ owners, director Mark Coppos and exec. producer Bill Bratkowski, described the parting of ways as amicable….Miss Jones, a Santa Monica-based design/live action/visual effects venture, has been formed under the aegis of executive producers Tracy Hauser and Bronwen La Grue. Hauser was most recently exec. producer at Pavlov Productions, Culver City, while La Grue served as head of postproduction at Windmill Lane Productions, Santa Monica. Miss Jones is an autonomous, sister shop of Windmill Lane…..Graying & Balding, the Santa Monica-based production/post house headed by president Ann Kim and director Jim Gable, is phasing itself out of the editorial business to focus fully on its ongoing work in commercial, music video and long-form production….Chicago-based EURO RSCG Tatham doesn’t plan to replace Gary Gassell, its former head of broadcast production who departed the agency a few weeks ago; it has instead redistributed his duties internally….New York-based TAG Pictures has now officially signed director David Rosen, with whom the company had been working informally for the past few months….Director Nick Cassavetes, who recently signed with Creative Film Management International (CFM), New York, for commercials, is slated to embark upon his first ad assignment: an eight spot ESPN package out of Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore……Editor Amy Harvey has left Chicago house Edit Sweet to join Optimus, Chicago….
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