Director Carlton Chase has left New York-headquartered Shooting Gallery Productions and is set to join bicoastal Morton Jankel Zander….Vienna-based co-directing team rad-ish, comprised of Moritz Friedel and Christophe Chruidmak, is about to join bicoastal Go Film….Director Noam Murro and executive producer Shawn Lacy Tessaro plan to start their own production company, Biscuit filmworks. New digs for the shop are currently under construction in Hollywood and should be finished towards the end of the year….Director Rent Sidon, formerly of Los Angeles-headquartered A Band Apart Commercials, has signed with bicoastal Shelter Films….Directors Sanji and Jayson Moyer have come aboard bicoastal Believe Media….The husband-and-wife directing team of Nick Brooks and Laura Kelly, a.k.a. Honey, has joined Los Angeles-based Squeak Pictures for spot representation….Animation house Olive Jar Studios, Boston and Los Angeles, has secured director Bruce Alcock and his Vancouver, B.C.-based studio, Global Mechanic, for exclusive U.S. representation. Alcock earlier served as creative director/co-founder of now defunct animation firm Tricky Pictures….Actor/director Blair Underwood has signed with Hollywood-based Blacktop Films for exclusive representation as a spot helmer….Director Brad Steward has joined Circle Productions, Vancouver, B.C, and Toronto….James Zolliecoffer has come aboard Saatchi & Saatchi LA, Torrance, Calif., as a multimedia specialist. Previously, he worked as a freelance editor and Henry artist in Southern California….Executive producer/head of production Adam Tronick has exited Los Angeles-based Event Horizon/Cronenweth Films…. New York-based editorial house Final Cut has added editor Carlos Arias….Editorial house Billy Williams Enterprises, New York, is changing its name to moondog edit….
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