Industry vet Jeff Blodgett has been hired as executive producer of Brickyard VFX‘s Santa Monica shop. Brickyard also maintains a home base in Boston. He comes over after five years at Radium/ReelFX as executive producer. He worked out of the Santa Monica office of Radium/ReelFX overseeing visual effects, animation and motion graphics projects primarily for commercials for brands such as Target, Nike, Pepsi, Lexus, and Energizer.
Previously Blodgett spent 10 years at Sight Effects, where he learned the business through his roles as visual effects producer, producer, and senior producer. Jeff has worked on more than 300 commercials over the course of his career.
Blodgett hails from Western Massachusetts and joining a team with a strong Boston foothold was a natural fit. He will be working out of the Santa Monica Brickyard office, and joins just as the company expanded with an additional 3,200 square feet. The space provides a new home for the company’s growing CG team, screening room, conference room, and Autodesk Flame suites.
Steve Michaels, managing partner at Brickyard VFX, cited Blodgett’s experience and “deep ties in the advertising industry…With our recent expansion, we’ve been able to build out our design and CG team and Jeff is the perfect choice to help Brickyard extend our service slate beyond visual effects into more design-centric CG and motion graphics work.”
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