Account executive Connie Calhoun has joined hdstudios in Farmington Hills, Mich. She most recently served as executive producer/sales for Mindfield Pictures and Silo Post in Detroit.
Account executive Connie Calhoun has joined hdstudios in Farmington Hills, Mich. She most recently served as executive producer/sales for Mindfield Pictures and Silo Post in Detroit. Her new roost, hdstudios, is a division of Grace & Wild Inc., headquartered in Farmington Hills…. DPs Steve Gainer, ASC, and Patrick McGowan have joined the Stacy Cheriff Agency, Los Angeles…Agent Jeannine Angelique, formerly with Stacy Cheriff Agency, has joined Beverly Hills-headquartered Paradigm commercials and music video operation where she will team with Pattie Lofton to rep DPs and production designers. Angelique is bringing into the Paradigm fold DPs Sergio Arguello, Scott Buttfield, David Kalvert, Joseph Labisi, Eric Larson, Joe Maxwell, Tom McGrath, Michael Ozier, Dave Perkal, Adam Santelli, Kevin Sarnoff, Checco Varese and Colin Watkinson, as well as production designers David Courtemarche, Justin Dragonas, Brock Houghton, Alexander Pacion, Tozar Simich and Teri Whittaker….DP Mike Trim has wrapped this season of Showtime TV series Weeds and is again available for commercials and music videos through the Montana Artists Agency, Los Angeles….
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