Damian Stevens, who exited his post as director of integrated production at Saatchi & Saatchi LA in November, has partnered with three editors formerly of bicoastal Lost Planet–Kim Bica, Paul Martinez and Geoff Hounsell–to launch Los Angeles-based editorial house Arcade. The new venture also maintains a finishing and graphics division, Airship, under the aegis of noted Smoke artist Chris Homel who was most recently at Elephant Post, which is a sister shop to Lost Planet.
The coterie of talent at Arcade also includes editors Patrick Griffin and Christjan Jordan. The former is another Lost Planet alum while Jordan comes over from bicoastal Cosmo Street.
Arcade has already wrapped several projects for such agencies as Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, BBDO New York and JWT New York. The latter brought to Arcade a Trident commercial directed by Baker Smith of Santa Monica-based harvest. At press time, the edit shop was about to embark on a job for Doner, Detroit.
Stevens had been with Saatchi for the past four years. During his tenure there, he had occasion to work with Martinez on several notable jobs for Toyota. Though Stevens didn’t collaborate with Bica and Hounsell before, he said he’s been a long-time admirer of their work.
“My time at Saatchi was the best of my career,” related Stevens. “But the opportunity to work with this kind of talent and to be partnered in and help to build a new company was just too good to pass up.”
Part of what Stevens and his colleagues are building is a business model whereby Arcade and
Airship offers offline, online and graphics. “On the picture end of things, we do everything from soup to nuts aside from transfer,” said Stevens. “We want to make sure that our clients can access the best creative workflow possible. And in today’s challenged economic environment, packaging the finishing with the offline allows us to be competitive in getting the job. We’re all often asked to back into a number–but with diverse services like we’re providing, you can creatively make that number happen without compromising the work.”
This marks Stevens’ first career foray into the post arena. His prior experience spans the agency and production house sides of the business. He started at FCB L.A. and Orange County as a producer, then moved over to Hal Riney & Partners, San Francisco, had a permalance arrangement at TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles, for about a year before becoming a senior producer at Fallon Minneapolis. Stevens then served as an executive producer at production houses Moxie Pictures and then the former JGF before coming aboard Saatchi.
Among editor Hounsell’s notable credits are the split-screen NBA Playoffs campaign out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. He won an AICE Award for a Montana Meth spot and an MVPA best editing award on the strength of The White Stripes’ “Hardest Button to Button.”
Bica first cut her teeth on Nike out of Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore. Her editing credits include Martin Scorsese’s American Express “Members Project” spot campaign, as well as short film The Kinda Sutra–directed by Jessica Yu of bicoastal Nonfiction Unlimited–which debuts this month at the Sundance Film Festival.
Meanwhile Jordan has cut commercials for such clients as Miller Lite, Burger King and Volkswagen. And Griffin has edited for noted directors Bryan Buckley, Spike Lee, and the Happy helming team.
Airship’s Homel made his first industry mark at Red Car, which has studios in Santa Monica, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Miami, Dallas and Buenos Aires. He has collaborated with such directors as David Mamet on spot work for Ford Edge and Aaron Ruell for Nintendo Wii.
Stevens is in the process of adding to the Arcade support team. He just hired producer Alison Maldonado, formerly of Lost Planet, and secured independent rep Stephanie Stephens to handle the West Coast. Stevens remains on the lookout for representation in the Midwest and on the East Coast. He foresees Arcade and Airship in the near future launching a sister studio in New York.
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