By SANDRA GARCIA
New York-based animator/director Julia Tortolani has signed with Wild Brain, San Francisco, an animation studio whose commercial production is overseen by exec. producer Paul Golden. Tortolani spent the past six months freelancing in the New York market; her last staff position was as head of design and animation for new-media projects at bicoastal/ international @radical.media. She left @radical back in July.
Tortolani chose Wild Brain for its diversity in animation styles, where she could expand on her own work, which includes 2-D cel, drawn, cutout and her signature style, photo collage. But more importantly, she was also seeking a facility to support her creative vision. Wild Brain really offered a great connection into a full-service animation production company that was well-known and well-regarded in the business, said Tortolani.
Tortolani began her career at New York-based animation studio Vanguard Media while still studying illustration at Parsons School of Design in New York. She worked first as an animator on MTVs Liquid Television Autoguard 2000, an animated short, and was then promoted to director of animation on several CD-ROM titles, including Byron Preiss Cartoon Studio and Merriam-Websters Animated Childrens Dictionary.
After graduation Tortolani was hired by @radical.media to start up its new-media department where she worked on Web site development, interactive touch screen kiosks and CD-ROM design. At the time, CD-ROMs were just breaking onto the scene and it was through that new-media boom that I was able to get a lot of work, explained Tortolani, who gradually introduced animation to @radicals repertoire.
It was through @radicals close relationship with Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore., and the encouragement of @radical partner/executive producer Jon Kamen that Tortolani got the opportunity to direct and animate a :90 trailer for Nike NYC Basketball titled NYC, a 2-D cel-animated short that chronicles a mock basketball game between Los Angeles and New York. NYC won an Ad Age Animation of the Year Award in 1995 and its success subsequently won Tortolani more work with Wieden & Kennedy for Coca-Cola (Skateboard, Boutique, Wave, T-Shirts, Businessman and Hairdresser) and Microsoft (Origami). Jon Kamen was super supportive of my career and it was those wonderful opportunities that allowed me to branch out and move on to the next level, said Tortolani.
Since joining Wild Brain, Tortolani has already completed a :15 opener and :5 close for a show called Out of Your Mind, which airs daily on Noggin, a new educational cable television channel launched this month. Tortolani would like to remain New York-based but noted theres a possibility she might move to San Francisco.
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