The New York-based holding company for a number of video and audio postproduction houses, Creative Content Artists (CCA), is ceasing operations. Nearly all the facilities under the CCA banner have closed. At press time, SHOOT confirmed that the only shop still open for business was Lower East Side, New York. The New York companies shut down by CCA include post/visual effects houses arc.light editorial, Liquid Labs, cyclotron and Crush Digital Media, in addition to music/audio post houses Superdupe Recording, East Side Mix and Barasch Music & Sound. As earlier reported, CCA shuttered Post Perfect in January. CCA, headed by chairman of the board David Carmen, a Washington D.C. lobbyist, came into being last summer as Burning Suits, LLC, after acquiring New York Media Group. The Burning Suits’ moniker was changed to CCA in the aftermath of Sept. 11……Kenneth S. Williams has been named COO of Liberty Livewire Corp., the publicly held Santa Monica-headquartered firm which provides technical and creative services to producers, owners and distributors of entertainment and advertising content. He formerly was president of Technicolor Digital Cinema, a Los Angeles-based joint venture between Technicolor and Qualcomm…..Ohio Edit, New York, has entered into an agreement to handle spot representation for Weta Digital, Wellington, New Zealand, the special effects house owned by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor (winner of two 2002 Academy Awards for Special Effects and Make-Up) and Jamie Selkirk. This deal marks Weta’s first foray into the U.S. commercial market….. Editor Bob Mori joins CO-OP Editorial, Santa Monica, effective Aug. 19. His last staff roost was Cosmo Street, Santa Monica. Prior to that, he was at Superior Assembly Editing Company, Santa Monica….Culver City-based music/sound design house barton: holt has added composer Linda Martinez to its roster. Her composing credits include assorted TV shows, including the upcoming Taken, produced by Steven Spielberg for the Sci Fi Channel. Martinez recently toured with Destiny’s Child as keyboardist, writer and arranger….Composer Dan Marocco has joined Duotone Audio Group, New York….The Mine, Hollywood, has signed director Jeff Byrd for commercial and music video representation….Dana Townsend has joined graphic design/visual effects/CGI boutique SOL designfx, as executive producer of its Venice, Calif. office. The company also maintains a Chicago shop. Her former staff positions include serving as executive producer at digital studio Radium, San Francisco, and earlier as executive producer at Skywalker Sound, San Rafael, Calif….BBDO is closing its Houston office next month….New York agencies Christy MacDougall Mitchell and Communications Plus have merged to form Christy MacDougall Mitchell Bodden….Nathan Hurlburt has joined Match Frame, Austin, Texas, as Flame/Smoke operator. He had been serving as Smoke editor at New York-based Liquid Light….Avid editor/designer Damion Clayton has come aboard Splash Design, New York….Dragonslayer, Sydney, Australia, has signed director Charlie Watson for exclusive representation in the Asian market….Director Nicholas Reynolds, who won a Gold Lion at this year’s Cannes International Advertising Festival for Ikea’s "Dog," has signed with The Third Eye, a production company in Redfern, Australia. Reynolds had been directing ads via The Shooting Gallery, Singapore….
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