Street Talk
Director Aaron Ruell has joined Area 51, Santa Monica, for exclusive representation in spots and music videos. Ruell is best known for his acting role as older brother “Kip” in last year’s hit comedy Napoleon Dynamite…. Noam Murro–who earlier this year won the Directors Guild of America Award for outstanding directorial achievement in commercials–has reportedly signed on to helm Warner Bros. Pictures’ new version of Strangers on a Train. The property was first made into a film in 1951 by Alfred Hitchcock. Murro directs commercials through Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles…. Noted still photographer Simon Stock is making a foray into spot directing, signing with Godman, London, for representation….Animation director Chris Hauge has come aboard the roster of San Francisco-headquartered animation studio Wild Brain….Editorial house Final Cut, with offices in London and New York, has launched a shop in Santa Monica. The new West Coast office opens with partner/lead editor Eric Zumbrunnen, editor Jim Weedon and executive producer Saima Awan. Zumbrunnen comes over from Spot Welders, Santa Monica. Weedon shifts over from Final Cut, New York, where Awan had been freelancing as a producer….Editor Anthony Marinelli has joined Cut+Run, New York. The move reunites him with editor Chuck Willis who founded Cut+Run, New York. Willis and Marinelli earlier worked together at Crew Cuts, New York….Dan Murrell has joined postproduction house LaserPacific, Hollywood, as chairman/CEO. He formerly served as CEO of Home Box Office Asia….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