Director Christine Jeffs has signed with Xenon, the N.Y.-based house headed by exec producer/founder Doug Robbins, for exclusive U.S. spot representation. Jeffs was formerly repped in the ad arena by bicoastal Saville Productions. The director has been active in both feature films and commercials.
Jeffs has been active in feature films and commercials. On the former front, her credits include: American indie Sunshine Cleaning (2008), starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt and Alan Arkin, in which, to raise the tuition to send her son to private school, a thirty-something single mom starts an unusual business–a biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up company; Sylvia (2003), a British motion picture starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig, which explored the relationship between poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes; and Rain (2002), a family drama about the collapse of a marriage and the dissolution of a mother-daughter relationship. Rain–Jeffs’ feature screenwriting and directing debut–was selected for its world premiere in the Directors Fortnight at the 2001 Cannes International Film Festival.
Currently Jeffs is in development on a romantic comedy, Wonderful Tonight, with Castle Rock Entertainment.
As for commercials, Jeffs’ currently airing work includes Kohl’s and North Shore LIJ Health System from DeVito Verdi. Other U.S. ad credits are Seasonique and the U.S. Census, among others. Internationally her spots span such clients as Baileys, Land Transport NZ, Bank of New Zealand, and the New Zealand Police. Jeffs’ commercial work has earned her a shelf full of awards including a Cannes Bronze Lion, New Zealand’s CAANZ creative excellence Axis Award for direction three years consecutively, and a number of Australian awards.
Jeffs began her career in New Zealand as an assistant editor on feature films and documentaries including Crush (1992) starring Marcia Gay Harden, Absent Without Leave (1992), Ruby and Rata (1990) and Send a Gorilla.
Jeffs wrote, directed and edited the short film Stroke (1994), which centers on a lone swimmer who gets revenge on a group of lane swimmers who disrupt her tranquility. Stroke was screened at festivals worldwide including Cannes and Sundance
When not behind the lens, Jeffs lives on a ranch in Auckland, N.Z., with her partner John Toon, cinematographer of Sunshine Cleaning and her other films.
Jeffs joins a Xenon creative directorial roster that includes Jamie Way, Ash Beck, Vico Sharabani, Three Volts and Stacy Toyama.
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