Aero Film has signed director Gary McKendry for exclusive commercial representation in the U.S. McKendry joins a directorial roster that includes Klaus Obermeyer, Ken Arlidge, James Mangold, Nelson McCormick, Jason Farrand, and the team of Klinko and Indrani.
McKendry, a native of Ireland and a former agency creative, is probably best known for his storytelling prowess in spots he has helmed for Porsche, Heineken, NASDAQ, Budweiser and DeBeers. He started his directing career in the U.S. with Go Film, later moving over to Partizan. Recently, McKendry has been active in some altruistic film projects, the latest being an emotionally moving spot for Barnardos, an Irish organization that gives support to at-risk children. McKendry is repped by Blinder in Ireland. The Barnardos PSA was done for Dublin agency The Hive.
Seeking spot work again in the States, McKendry met Aero executive producer Lance O’Connor, who happens to live in the same Southern California neighborhood as the director. McKendry said he was drawn to Aero by his affinity for O’Connor, and the company’s high caliber work spanning commercials and new media.
In turn O’Connor was attracted to McKendry’s filmmaking and storytelling, particularly his penchant for emotionally engaging work like the aforementioned PSA for Barnardos, which depicts the plight of a boy with an abusive father, a battered mother, and a brother who’s descended into a life of crime.
McKendry’s storytelling acumen garnered him an Academy Award nomination for best live action short film in 2005 on the strength of Everything This Country Must. Based on a tale in Everything In This Country Must: A Novella and Two Stories from author, and fellow Irishman, Colum McCann, the short is set in Northern Ireland in the late 1980s and centers on a man and his daughter trying to save their horse as it struggles in a river on a stormy night. At its core, it explores the human dynamics that exist when a nation is in a warlike state.
In the advertising arena, McKendry cited one of his strengths as “having worked as an art director and creative director” and thus being able to “understand everyone’s positions.” His alluded to agency experience includes working at New York agencies such as ChiatDayMojo (now TBWAChiatDay), Ogilvy & Mather and Margeotes|Fertita+Partners. At the latter, where he was a group creative director, McKendry began directing spots for agency clients such as AT&T and Crunch.
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