Locksmith Content, a content creation and production studio under the aegis of partners Benjamin Blank and Stephen McDonald, has signed Doug Walker to direct and create commercials and film. Walker joins the company as it embarks on an expansion of its talent roster and the opening of an office in San Francisco.
Previously represented by Mirror Films, Walker is an accomplished editor (with work earning such honors as a Cannes Lion along with several Clios) and continues to be active as a cutter via Beast. He successfully diversified into directing with spots for Nike, U.S. Cellular, Audi, the NCAA and adidas, among other brands.
His documentary short Rhag, about painter and experimental composer Roy Henry Alexander Gover, was chosen for the Special Screenings program at the 2011 Slamdance Film Festival and helped earn him inclusion into last year’s SHOOT New Directors Showcase. His most recent documentary Lost & Found, a search for legendary surfers of the past triggered by Walker’s discovery of 30,000 black and white negatives at a swap meet, recently won best story at X-Dance 2012. The film also was shown at San Francisco’s Ocean Film Festival and will screen on April 28 at the Newport Beach Film Festival.
Walker comes aboard a Locksmith directorial roster that includes Blank, Alaistair McKevitt, Bucky Fukumoto, Kai Sehr, and Michael Sugrue.
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