The flow of content continues to make its way to Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project website, the latest being an animated short titled Good Vibrations written, directed and designed by Jérémy Clapin, and produced by Acme Filmworks, Hollywood, for Hill Holliday, Boston.
The four-minute-and-eight-second short centers on a construction worker who’s drilling on a city street with a jackhammer, oblivious to the fact that in the process he’s dislodging a section of sidewalk that’s causing assorted pedestrians to trip–not to mention frustrating a little birdie who’s trying to nibble an errant bread crumb but to no avail.
Meanwhile office workers several floors above find the people’s mishaps entertaining as they watch objects they are holding–including a purse and an umbrella–fly skyward as each pedestrian is upended.
However, the sight of a frail, trembling elderly man walking with a cane seems to sober up the onlookers. One of the office workers struggles to open the window to warn the man of impending danger but it’s too late. The senior citizen already has his feet planted on the displaced, vibrating slab of sidewalk. But the unexpected happens–the shaking of the sidewalk counterbalances the shaking old man. Thus when he stands on the unstable sidewalk, he becomes stable and free of trembling. It’s only when the jackhammering stops that he resumes his trembling.
Yet when the drilling ceases, the elderly man takes positive action, moving a construction warning sign so that it cordons off the treacherous stretch of sidewalk, helping others, including a skateboarding youngster, to avoid an accident otherwise waiting to happen.
Clapin’s ascent
Director Clapin graduated from Paris’ Arts Décoratifs in 1999. Since then he has worked as a graphic artist, illustrator for various publishers and as an indie advertising director. In 2004, he directed his first animated short, A Backbone Tale. His second film, Skhizein, released in 2008, has already been short-listed for the 2009 Academy Awards® and has taken more than 70 awards at international festivals including Cannes and Annecy.
The Responsibility Project has also developed an award-winning pedigree. This past summer its live-action short Father’s Day–directed by Laurence Dunmore via RSA Films for Hill Holliday–won a Silver Lion at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
The Responsibility Project uses entertainment content to create a forum for people to discuss personal acts of responsibility. Through short films, online content and television programming, The Responsibility Project is a catalyst for examining the decisions that confront people trying to “do the right thing.” Individuals can participate in online conversations about personal responsibility and watch live-action and animated film shorts on the project’s online community, www.ResponsibilityProject.com.
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