The American Society of Cinematographers has announced the recipients of the Los Angeles-based organizations 1998 Presidents Award for contributions to advancing the art of filmmaking: Albert Mayer, senior VP, research and development, and Tak Miyagishima, senior VP, engineering, both of Woodland Hills-based Panavision. Mayer joined Panavision as an engineer in 1968, and Miyagishima joined the company in 55 as a draftsman.
Additionally, the ASC announced the nominees for Outstanding Achievement in features: Remi Adefarasin, BSC, for Elizabeth; Richard Greatrex, BSC, for Shakespeare in Love; Janusz Kaminski, ASC, for Saving Private Ryan; Robert Richardson, ASC, for The Horse Whisperer; and John Toll, ASC, for The Thin Red Line. This is the fifth nomination for Richardson, the third for both Toll and Kaminski, and the first for Adefarasin and Greatrex.
The Presidents Awards will be presented, and the Outstanding Achievement winner named, at the ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards gala, to be held Feb. 21 at the Century Plaza Hotel in 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