March 28-30, 2010
Director Joe Murray has come aboard the roster of Rhythm + Hues Commercial Studios. He was most recently handled by Boxer Films for commercials. In that he is adept at live action and effects—and in meshing the two disciplines without losing the human element in his storytelling—Murray dovetails nicely with R+H, a digital studio encompassing live-action and animation directors, visual effects, design and post services….The Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) has tabbed Freakonomics—from the innovative documentary filmmakers behind Super Size Me, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Jesus Camp, Why We Fight and The King of Kong—to serve as its closing gala premiere on April 30. The fest will also host a gala premiere of Letters to Juliet on April 25 and a special presentation of My Own Love Song. Freakonomics is an adaptation of the smash bestselling book, “Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Exposes the Hidden Side of Everything” by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner….Directorial duo Radical Friend—consisting of filmmakers/artists Kirby McClure and Julia Grigorian—has come aboard the roster of Paranoid US for spots and music videos. Radical Friend continues to be repped in Canada by Spy Films….The winners of the 2009 Peabody Awards include the ABC sitcom Modern Family, Fox network’s Glee, CBS’ The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and HBO’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency….
March 25, 2005
The fourth annual Sony “Dreams” project—showing what directors can do when turning loose their creative vision in shorts shot with Sony 24p HD cameras—featured the work of director Samuel Bayer of RSA, James Gartner of GARTNER, Jeffery Plansker of Supply & Demand, Jesse Dylan of Form, Alison Maclean of Park Pictures, Doug Nichol of Partizan, Hank Perlman of Hungry Man, Baker Smith of harvest, Charles Stone III of Brown Bag Films, and Stylewar (a.k.a. Filip Engstrom) of Smuggler….Bicoastal Moxie Pictures has extended its reach across the Atlantic, opening a London shop under the aegis of managing director Dawn Laren who comes over from Studio, London, where she served in the same capacity….Former ad agency creative Harry Cocciolo has embarked on a directorial career, joining production house Tool of North America for exclusive representation….Montreal-headquartered Discreet, a subsidiary of San Rafael, Calif.-based Autodesk, has been renamed Autodesk Media and Entertainment….Adam Chasnow is joining Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco, as sr. VP/group creative director. He comes over from Goody Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco….
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