SANTA MONICA, Calif.-Pete Mayor has been promoted to visual effects artist at The Finish Line Ltd., a high-end commercial finishing house in Santa Monica. Mayor, who is proficient on both the Quantel Henry and the Flame, joined the facility as night operations manager when it opened its doors in August ’95. For much of the past year he has been an assistant Henry and Flame artist working with James Bygrave and Nancy Hyland, respectively. Hyland has since left to join 525 Studios, Santa Monica (SHOOT, 11/13/98, p. 7).
Prior to his association with The Finish Line, Mayor spent a year at Cimityart, a Los Angeles-based animation house. While there he was a production assistant working on a variety of projects including cartoons, commercials and movie trailers for Indian In The Cupboard, Species and Casino.
In his new capacity, Mayor has already been at work on several projects, including spots for UPS, Hamilton watches and Industrial Shoe Warehouse. He joins a visual effects roster at The Finish Line which also includes Henry artists Bygrave, Stan Kellam, Paul Song and Jon Mueller. Company president is Jack Schaeffer, with Sandy Baladino serving as VP and exec. producer.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads โ essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More