A man is fast asleep in bed. He’s roused from his night slumber by the sound of incessant clicking noises.
He gets up, picks up a nearby baseball bat and looks to find the source of the disturbance, thinking perhaps it’s a burglar or intruder of some sort.
He walks through the kitchen and then peers through window blinds, leading him to leave his house and head for the garage. Through the garage door panels, we can see that the light is on and numerous things, presumably bugs that look from afar like locusts, are buzzing about.
He presses the button on his garage door opener. The door lifts up to reveal his car, which is surrounded by computer icon arrows, each one clicking away.
A voiceover relates, “With over 10 million unique visitors each month, AutoTrader.com is the best place to buy and sell a car.”
The AutoTrader.com logo appears and then we see a parting shot in which one of the misguided arrows flies into an electric bug zapper and gets fried.
This spec spot was directed by Andrew Putschoegl, an aspiring helmer who is building his reel. The DP was Kelly Richard, with Jeff Maier, who at the time was with Freddy’s Barn Service, Santa Monica, serving as executive producer.
The concept came from creatives Morgan Halme and Niraj Zaveri who were working independently of their day gigs at Colby & Partners at the time. They are currently at DDB Los Angeles.
Editor was Curtis Schmidt of Crush, Santa Monica. Also contributing from Crush were visual effects artist Terry Silberman and executive producers Steve Weber and Chris Kern.
Colorist was Bob Festa of Riot, Santa Monica.
Sound designer was Paul Hurtubise of music/sound design house Stompbox (a sister shop to Crush), also in Santa Monica.
Supreme Court Seems Likely To Uphold A Law That Could Force TikTok To Shut Down On Jan. 19
The Supreme Court on Friday seemed likely to uphold a law that would ban TikTok in the United States beginning Jan. 19 unless the popular social media program is sold by its China-based parent company.
Hearing arguments in a momentous clash of free speech and national security concerns, the justices seemed persuaded by arguments that the national security threat posed by the company's connections to China override concerns about restricting the speech either of TikTok or its 170 million users in the United States.
Early in arguments that lasted more than two and a half hours, Chief Justice John Roberts identified his main concern: TikTok's ownership by China-based ByteDance and the parent company's requirement to cooperate with the Chinese government's intelligence operations.
If left in place, the law passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in April will require TikTok to "go dark" on Jan. 19, lawyer Noel Francisco told the justices on behalf of TikTok.
At the very least, Francisco urged, the justices should enter a temporary pause that would allow TikTok to keep operating. "We might be in a different world again" after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on TikTok, also has called for the deadline to be pushed back to give him time to negotiate a "political resolution." Francisco served as Trump's solicitor general in his first presidential term.
But it was not clear whether any justices would choose such a course. And only Justice Neil Gorsuch sounded like he would side with TikTok to find that the ban violates the Constitution.
Gorsuch labeled arguments advanced by the Biden administration' in defense of the law a... Read More