On the heels of bringing creative/director Nando Costa on board as a partner in the company (SHOOT, 6/19), Bent Image Lab, a Portland-based production house and creative laboratory, has signed veteran animator and director Ken Lidster, who comes over from London animation studio Loose Moose.
The addition of Costa and Lidster are designed to diversify and fortify Bent as a content creation studio. Costa’s design and motion graphics work complement Bent’s core CG, stop motion and mixed media animation prowess. And Lidster brings a lauded body of animation work and experience, particularly in stop motion fare, that enhances Bent offerings.
Lidster, a Canadian native, moves to Portland after having spent two decades in England, working at Aardman Animations in Bristol, and then as a founding partner in Loose Moose. He has directed assorted spots, mostly humorous in nature, over the years for such clients as Energizer, Chips Ahoy!, Kellogg’s, Oscar Mayer, Quaker Oats, Target and Lipton Brisk iced tea. For the latter, Lidster helmed lauded campaigns that featured the voices and animated likenesses of Bruce Willis and Danny DeVito, among other celebs.
Lipton Brisk’s “Dojo” directed by Lidster for JWT New York showed a fight pitting martial arts legend/action film star Bruce Lee against the villainous Karate Kid and his master, Mr. Miyagi. The stop motion :30 earned an animation category honor in the 2000 AICP Show, and inclusion into the film archives of New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
Lidster’s work has been screened at festivals and TV stations around the world. His film Balloon won a British BAFTA honor for Best Animated Film of 1991, the Grand Primero Cinanima Solverde ’91, and a Silver Hugo from the Chicago International Film Festival.
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