Production and management firm Anonymous Content has added the two-man filmmaking team of David and Ian Purchase to its Commercial, Integrated, and Feature Film divisions. The Toronto-based directing duo, who have put together an impressive string of guerilla-style spec spots and indie endeavors, made a major splash recently with a spec short film based on the popular Half-Life video game which they have been fans of and playing for nearly a decade.
On a shoestring budget, the Purchase Brothers shot and deployed a grab bag of post and effects software to make Escape from City 17, a spec short for Half-Life that has the look and feel of a big budget action movie. David and Ian posted the short online and it became a YouTube sensation overnight, generating more than 500,000 hits during its first 24 hours. By the end of the first weekend, the film exceeded a million hits and earned the lofty status of the number one piece of content viewed worldwide during that period. The Internet community and gaming sites globally were abuzz. A traffic overload caused the Purchase Brothers own website to crash.
The short resulted immediately in the up-and-coming directorial duo securing its first production house roost, Toronto-based Sons and Daughters, for spot representation in Canada. Now Anonymous has secured the young directors for work across the spot, integrated and feature film disciplines.
By the way, a second spec Half-Life installment is in the works, with the Purchase Brothers estimated it should be completed in a couple of months.
Dave Morrison, head of commercials for Anonymous Content, said, “These guys [David, age 25, and Ian, 23] are the future of the business, and are perfectly suited to create content in any economic climate. Their ability to handle and understand all areas of production and post make them the ultimate students of filmmaking. We’re looking forward to getting them in front of agencies and studios.”
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 — 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