Production house/media company Bandito Brothers has partnered with producer Sean Cushing and director/VFX supervisor Stephen Lawes to launch design/VFX studio Cantina Creative LLC. The new venture is housed in Bandito Brothers’ Culver City complex on which construction was recently wrapped.
Cushing and Lawes formerly served as exec producer and creative director, respectively, at Pixel Liberation Front (PLF). Their PLF exploits included Lawes serving as a creative director on such films as Iron Man 2, Avatar and Terminator Salvation, and Cushing as a VFX producer on Iron Man, and Superman Returns.
Lawes also served in such capacities as compositing supervisor on Shutter Island, VFX art director on Speed Racer, compositor on The Key to Reserva, digital colorist on Superman Returns, and compositing supervisor/digital effects supervisor on Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. On the directorial front, Lawes’ credits include spots for such clients as US West, Barq’s Root Beer and McDonald’s/Disney via the then Duck Soup Produckions (now DUCK Studios).
Cushing’s credits also span VFX producer duties on Avatar and Terminator Salvation, and he has worked on numerous TV commercials and music videos over the years.
The VFX acumen and resources of Cantina Creative and the collaborative orientation of its partnership with Bandito Brothers translates into a situation in which “creative visions can be realized from concept through completion,” said Cushing.
Bandito CEO Mike “Mouse” McCoy related that having Cantina on the premises “rounds out our capabilities and adds another dimension to Bandito.”
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More