The Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) is launching the HPA Awards, an annual competition designed to recognize creative and technical excellence in the art, science and craft of postproduction.
Via the move, the HPA hopes to fill what it views as an awards show void. HPA president Leon Silverman, who is also president of Hollywood-based Laser Pacific Media Corp., described postproduction as a frequently overlooked sector of the industry.
Referring to the creative artisans and innovators in the post community, Silverman related, “Too often their significant contributions are hidden and unacknowledged.” The HPA Awards competition is looking to help post talent attain a higher profile.
Plans call for the inaugural HPA Awards to have 12 craft categories, as well as an award recognizing the Outstanding Contribution to Advancing the Field of Post Production, and Engineering Excellence Awards. Guidelines for the latter will be announced at the HPA Technology Retreat in Palm Springs, which was about to get underway at press time. The Outstanding Contribution honor, which will be awarded at the discretion of the HPA board of directors and awards committee, can be bestowed upon an organization, company or individual.
The 12 craft categories encompass commercials, features and TV, with each discipline having four categories: Color correction, audio post, editing and compositing.
The craft category awards will be judged and voted upon by a jury of peers in each category. A call for judges will go out in early summer.
The HPA Awards will be handed out during a gala ceremony to be held on the evening of Nov. 2. Eligible work for HPA Award entries must have debuted during a period from Sept. 4, 2005, to Sept. 4, ’06.
Entry forms will be available on June 8, and submissions will be accepted from June 15-Aug. 15, ’06. Nominations will be announced on Sept. 25 and final judging is slated for Oct. 14.
The HPA is a trade association that represents the professional community of businesses and individuals who provide expertise, support, tools and the infrastructure for the creation and finishing of motion pictures, TV programs, commercials, digital media and other dynamic media content.
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