SHERMAN OAKS, Calif.-The Visual Effects Society (VES) recently concluded elections for the organization’s board of directors. Elections for the two-year board member positions are held each year with only half of the 36-member board up for re-election each year.
The following board members are newly elected: Robert Abel, president/visual effects supervisor, QR Cyberspace, Los Angeles; Peter Anderson, DP/visual effects supervisor, Peter Anderson Studios, Tujunga; Craig Barron, visual effects supervisor, Matte World Digital, Novato; Phil Feiner, president, Pacific Title/Mirage, Los Angeles; Jeff Okun, freelance visual effects supervisor, Los Angeles; Clay Pinney, freelance mechanical effects supervisor, Culver City; Art Repola, senior VP, visual effects production, Walt Disney Co., Burbank; Doug Smith, freelance visual effects supervisor, Los Angeles; John T. Van Vliet, visual effects supervisor/designer, Available Light Ltd., Burbank; and Joseph Viskocil, freelance pyro supervisor, Los Angeles. The new board members will officially assume their positions at a VES meeting Feb. 17.
The following board members were re-elected: Glenn Campbell, visual effects supervisor, Area 51, Los Angeles; Art Durinski, computer animation director, Durinski Design Group, Los Angeles; Ray Feeney, president, RFX Inc., Hollywood; Mark Galvin, executive producer, ShadowCaster, Santa Barbara; Rocco Gioffre, freelance matte artist, Santa Monica; Charlotte Huggins, producer/COO, nWave International, Sherman Oaks; Dennis Muren, senior visual effects supervisor, Industrial Light+Magic, San Rafael; and Ken Ralston, president, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Culver City.
The following existing board members will continue to serve on the board for one more year (unless they are re-elected for another term next year), completing their two-year term: Edwin Catmull, chief technology officer, Pixar, Richmond, Calif.; Darren Chuckry, executive producer, Dream Theater, Van Nuys; Harrison Ellenshaw, freelance visual effects supervisor, Los Angeles; Jonathan Erland, president, Composite Components Company, Los Angeles; Michael L. Fink, freelance visual effects supervisor, Los Angeles; Richard Hollander, president/senior visual effects supervisor, Blue Sky VIFX, bicoastal; Adam Howard, visual effects supervisor, Pacific Title/Mirage, Los Angeles; Martin A. Kline, senior art director, Sony Pictures Imageworks; Todd Masters, president, Mastersfx Inc., Arleta; James W. Morris, president, Lucas Digital Ltd., San Rafael; Janet Muswell, visual effects supervisor, Stone Circle, Santa Monica; Toni Pace Carstensen, segment producer/ Fantasia 2000, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Burbank; Carl Rosendahl, chairman, Pacific Data Images, Palo Alto; Scott Ross, CEO, Digital Domain, Venice; Alison Savitch, visual effects supervisor, Threshold Entertainment/TDRL, Santa Monica; Bill Taylor, visual effects DP, Illusion Artists, Van Nuys; R.T. Taylor, educator, California State University at Long Beach, Long Beach; and Craig B. Weiss, director of animation/ visual effects, CBS Animation Group, 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