Mirror Films, the Hollywood shop headed by exec producer/owner Eric Barrett, has expanded its directorial roster, adding Greg Pritikin and Robin Hays. The company has also secured Lorraine Schreyer as its director of production.
Feature filmmaker Pritikin’s credits include Dummy starring Adrien Brody, Illeana Douglas and Milla Jovovich. Recently, Pritikin stepped into the digital limelight for directing season two of the IKEA webseries Easy To Assemble starring Douglas, Jeff Goldblum, Jane Lynch, Justine Bateman and Harry Shearer, among others. Douglas created the comedy success which has garnered 5.1 million views and counting.
Pritikin’s first film, the cult favorite Totally Confused, and his latest film Surviving Eden, a satire about reality TV, both comedies, share a sensibility that deals with, in the writer/director’s words, “small triumphs by small people. I like to take actors out of their comfort zone; putting a serious actor in a comedic role creates a challenge for both the actor and the director. And, it’s often funnier to play out the reality of a funny situation than just play a funny part.”
Pritikin is currently in postproduction on a TV pilot called Monster of the House, that he wrote and directed, produced by Allan Loeb. Pritikin has been hired to direct a horror film for producer Joel Silver at Warner Brothers as well as a drama starring Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place star, David Henrie.
Robin Hays
Also joining the roster at Mirror Films is Robin Hays who earned inclusion into SHOOT‘s 2009 New Directors Showcase. Her body of work includes a series of web spots for Honda’s “Blue Skies For Our Children” campaign. The ambitious project consists of 15 short films which feature children speaking about the planet and our future. The films were completely unscripted and unrehearsed. Each piece is built into the fabric of the website where animated flowers each reveal a story. The work garnered Silver at the 2009 Digital Marketing Awards.
Among Hays’ other credits are spots for clients Visa, Bank of Montreal, adidas, and Dr.Oekter.
She and Pritikin join a Mirror directorial roster that includes Kevin Kerslake, Doug Walker, Chris Woods, Mark Williams, Louis Pascal Couvelaire and Bobby Montero.
Lorraine Schreyer
Director of production Schreyer comes over to Mirror from the agency side at Ogilvy West where she produced projects for clients Cisco, Mattel, and BP/ampm. As head of Ogilvy’s in-house production studio, she supervised production of broadcast TV, web content, editorial and VFX.
Schreyer brings to Mirror an extensive background as a line producer on commercials, music videos and long-form videos. With independent features in New York as her training ground, she landed a gig at NBC’s Saturday Night Live and quickly rose through the ranks of production working at Epoch Films and Marcus Nispel’s Portfolio Artists Network. Schreyer would spend the next seven years in Los Angeles, working for production companies such as HSI, RSA, DNA and A Band Apart. She has produced videos for top artists Justin Timberlake, Avril Lavigne, Christina Aguilera and Kanye West, among others, and commercials for brands like McDonald’s, Chrysler, Sprite.
Mirror is repped by Kim Griswold and Doug Sherin of Options in the West and Texas, Reelize Reps in the Midwest, and Michael Eha on the East Coast.
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