Bicoastal production company Ruckus Films has brought director Tim Wilkime aboard its roster of comedic talent for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. Wilkime is a director with expert comedic timing as reflected in work for Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Late Show Starring James Corden, and other major comedy players. Signing with Ruckus marks Wilkime’s first representation in the advertising arena.
Wilkime launched his comedy career as a staff director at CollegeHumor.com where he directed over 50 sketches including the Webby Award-winning viral sensation If Google Was a Guy which, nearly 10 years later continues to rake in clicks with over 52 million views. He also directed episodes of Adam Ruins Everything and his short film Milton premiered at SXSW in 2019 where it won the Vimeo Staff Pick Award.
He currently lives in New York where he directs for SNL. He’s helmed several hit sketches, including “The Black Lotus,” “BeReal” and “Wing Pit” as well as a wide assortment of others by SNL comedy trio Please Don’t Destroy.
“As a long time fan of [director] JJ Adler’s work, I was excited for her when she founded Ruckus Films,” Wilkime said, “Years later, I’m even more thrilled to be joining Ruckus’s roster of directing savants. I look forward to collaborating with them and creating work that is hilarious and impactful.”
Ruckus managing partner Greg Jones said, “Tim’s comedy style is so fresh, spontaneous, and inventive, but it’s also sneakily calibrated to appeal to the widest possible audience. Given his background directing for so many massive comedy platforms, it’s no wonder those skills are so sharp. Across advertising, directors with backgrounds in sketch have proven how seamlessly those comedic skills translate to 30-second stories. Tim is going to be no exception here. We’re so excited to be part of what’s next for him.”
And to avoid any potential confusion, Tim’s last name used to be Wilkerson, but after marrying wife Madelyn Wilkime, he felt entitled to her last name. So now, it’s Wilkime.
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