By KATHY DeSALVO
U Ground has added director Jacques Rey to its roster. Rey comes over to the L.A.-based production house from bicoastal/international Propaganda Films, which has represented him since early 1997.
A graduate of Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Rey began his career in the early 90s, working as a storyboard artist and then as a production designer on feature films (e.g., Batman & Robin) and music videos (Busta Rhymes Fired Up, Ice Cubes We Be Clubbin).
According to Rey, it was around the time he began doing production design that he first forayed into directing. I was doing it [production design] as a means to get more involved in the whole production, he said. Besides providing employment, it was kind of a way of educating myself in what I was going to be seeing as a director. It also helped make me knowledgeable in how to get things done extremely quickly.
Reys first spot through Propaganda was a big-budget, special effects piece, Factory, for Cheetos via DDB Needham Chicago-a break the director owed to Propagandas strong working relationship with DDB executive producer Greg Popp. In addition to live action, the spot used heavy design, CGI and animation (from Renegade Animation, Burbank) to create an industrialized fantasy Cheetos factory.
Reys other credits include nine spots (shot in four days) for 7-Up via Young & Rubicam, New York, a quick-cut, youth-oriented campaign characterized by what Rey termed gross, lewd humor. He completed a six-spot package for the Humane Society via Glennon & Company, St. Louis, which offers humorous reasons why people should have pets. Rey also directed a comedic Southwestern Bell spot via DMB&B, St. Louis, in which a generals phone conversation, from a missile command center to the president, gets repeatedly interrupted by incoming calls.
While Rey credited Propaganda with successfully helping build his reel, he said he was seeking a smaller production company, one that could offer greater attention and help him concentrate on his goals. I just felt it was better to go to more of a boutique shop, he explained. I like comedy a lot, I like great visuals, and I also like movement, kinetic energy. Thats basically where I want to go. They dont all have to be comedy, but they have to fulfill two of the three.
U Ground president/executive producer Andy Rosen said he looks for directors he can offer something. For someone like Jacques, I feel very motivated and passionate, he said. I feel I can play a part in his career. And having been a company that had, and still has, a lot of European talent, I was looking for somebody local and someone who is very focused on advertising.
What clinched the deal for Rosen was Reys impressive work. What I look for [in a reel] is intelligence, Rosen said. It either hits me or it doesnt, and when it does, I get excited: I cant see a life without it. Jacques work is very funny, has incredible composition, art direction and set direction.
U Ground, which recently formed a strategic alliance with bicoastal, Chicago and Atlanta-based Crossroads Films (SHOOT, 1/15, p. 1), represents a directorial roster composed of Rey, Paul Andresen, the bolexbrothers, Peter Christopherson, Daniel Gruener, Hammer & Tongs, Rad-ish, Marc Over, Mike Wang, Martin Weisz and Harvey White. The company is repped by Santa Monica-based Lisa Giminez on the West Coast; Chicago-based Susan Prickett in the Midwest and New York-based Commercial Artists Management on the East Coast. U Ground is now also sometimes going by its former moniker, The Underground.
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