Bicoastal Saville Productions has signed film director and Vanity Fair special correspondent Matt Tyrnauer for exclusive representation in commercials and branded content.
Tyrnauer is perhaps best known for this year’s breakout documentary feature Valentino: The Last Emperor, a film that focuses on the relationship between Valentino, the flamboyant fashion icon, and his partner in life and in business, the enigmatic Giancarlo Giammetti.
For 16 years Tyrnauer has been an editor and writer for Vanity Fair magazine, where his feature articles included profiles of Martha Stewart, Siegfried and Roy, Tommy Hilfiger, Philippe Starck, Frank Gehry, green design pioneer William McDonough, producer Robert Evans, and writer Bret Easton Ellis. In 2004, Tyrnauer profiled Italian fashion designer Valentino and developed a strong rapport with him. Having long harbored ideas of returning to film, which he had studied at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Tyrnauer got Valentino’s permission to make a documentary about him.
Shot with restraint and simple style, Valentino uses a cinema vérité approach to capture the lives and lifestyles of Valentino and Giammetti. By now most of the fashion fluent have seen the comical canine clip from the documentary that has made its rounds on the web, but in fact, the film goes beyond the surface of Valentino’s over-the-top glamour. Valentino is a warts-and-all portrait that digs deep into one of the industry’s greatest partnerships–at times to the subjects’ discomfort. Tyrnauer captured the glory of Valentino’s 45th anniversary, the bittersweetness of his decision to retire, and the end of the alta moda era with the sale of VFG to private equity firm Permira. But in the end it is the duo’s unique relationship that takes center stage.
The movie premiered to an audience of 1,500 at the Venice Film Festival. Tyrnauer described the film as being “a universal story. It just happens to be about fashion. It wouldn’t matter if they were two walnut farmers living near Mount Vesuvius. That’s the key to all film projects–documentaries, features or commercials–to find a story that touches everyone.”
“Matt has remarkable observational skills and filmmaking expertise,” related Johnny Doran, Saville’s executive producer. Doran said the director has “an enviable knowledge about the positioning of brands, in particular luxury brands, making him an ideal partner to collaborate with on commercials and branded content projects.”
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