White Plains, New York-based computer animation/visual effects house Blue Sky Studios has closed its commercial division. The company, which is owned by 20th Century Fox, will now focus on animated features. Currently in the works is Ice Age, to be directed by Chris Wedge….Director Roger Lunn has signed with New York based Link for U.S. representation. He is repped in Europe by Frontier Pictures, London….Sound designer/music composer Claude Letessier has joined Primal Scream, Santa Monica…. Chicago-based Chameleon Music is launching SoundPunks, an Internet music and sound design division ….Director Michel Gondry of bicoastal/international Partizan is wrapping up work on his feature film directorial debut, Human Nature, which will open in theatres in March; Gondry will be available for commercials at the end of October…….Director McG is again available for spots via Los Angeles-headquartered A Band Apart Commercials after wrapping his feature directing debut, Charlie’s Angels….Lizzie Friedman and Francesca Silvestri, who head the Hollywood-based motion picture/TV division of bicoastal commercial house Moxie Pictures, are co-producing A View From the Top for Miramax Films. Gwyneth Paltrow has committed to star in the film, which Friedman and Silvestri sold as a property to Miramax in 1999, when they maintained Friedman/Silvestri Entertainment. Friedman and Silvestri came aboard Moxie earlier this year (SHOOT, 6/23, p. 1)….
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