The King’s Speech, Inception and Black Swan were the feature film winners at the Art Directors Guild‘s 15th annual Excellence in 2010 Production Design Awards held last night during a gala ceremony at the Beverly Hilton. The King’s Speech and its production designer Eve Stewart took the Period Film category. Inception and its production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas won the Fantasy Film category. And Black Swan and its production designer Therese DePrez topped the Contemporary Film category.
Production designer Jesse B. Benson earned the top honor for commercials on the strength of Dos Equis’ “Ice Fishing” directed by Steve Miller of @radical.media for Euro RSCG New York.
Television winners were: Production designers Dan Bishop for the “Public Relations” episode of Mad Men (Single Camera TV Series category), Robb Wilson King for Secrets In The Wall (TV Movie or Miniseries), Richard Berg for the “Halloween” episode of Modern Family (episode of a half hour Single-Camera TV series), and Keith Raywood, Eugene Lee, Akira Yoshimura and N. Joseph DeTullio for the Betty White/Jay Z episode of Saturday Night Live (episode of a Multi-Camera, Variety or Unscripted Series).
Production designer David Rockwell topped the Awards, Music or Game Shows category for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.
Art Directors Guild chairman Thomas A. Walsh presided over the awards ceremony with Paula Poundstone serving as host for the second consecutive year. Honorary awards were presented to production designer Patricia Norris for Lifetime Achievement and to Syd Dutton and Bill Taylor for Outstanding Contribution to Cinematic Imagery. Three additional legendary production designers were inducted into its Hall of Fame, bringing the roster to 33. The new inductees were Alexander Golitzen, Albert Heschong and Eugène Lourié.
The Art Directors Guild (IATSE Local 800) represents nearly 2,000 members who work throughout the United States, Canada and the rest of the world in film, television and theater as production designers, art directors, assistant art directors, scenic, title and graphic artists, illustrators, matte Artists, set designers and model makers.
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