Executive Producer, Partner
m ss ng p eces
1) Each year the branded opportunities get richer and more diverse. About twenty percent of our work is now in VR/AR storytelling and we’re seeing a lot of growth in that vertical for us.
I’d also like to think there’ll be a substantial increase in bold ads and campaigns that feed the activist spirit in each of us. The Women’s March helped bring together a lot of great voices with some powerful things to say … and it was a whole new level of awesome. I’m looking forward to effecting a change and helping the greater community.
2) I love that the animated short, PEARL, was the first VR film to receive an Academy award nomination. We’re really pushing for that seminal project that marries the best of creativity and technology … with a brand. Yeah, I know it’s an easy task.
3) We produced a VR film for Oculus on the NBA finals that I’m super proud of. We had several storytelling challenges and worked against some of the common filmmaking “rules” for VR. The first was that we created a 25-minute film when the norm is well under ten minutes. The pacing was super fast at roughly five seconds per shot instead of the typical twenty seconds per shot. I’d say the lesson is not to be so precious with conventional thought and push beyond our comfort zone.
4) Strive to be good to people and to make meaningful positive change.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More