Powerhouse VFX has expanded its offering into the Canadian market with the opening of a studio in Toronto.
Powerhouse’s credits include multi-award-winning projects such as Evil, Stranger Things, The Gilded Age, The Orville: New Horizons, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Servant and Mare of Easttown. The team’s core fabric will comprise the creative leads from Powerhouse’s New York studio, alongside a talented group of Ontario- based artists.
The Toronto team will integrate into Powerhouse’s proprietary remote and cloud- based pipeline; they will adapt this workflow, while also leveraging the physical space of Company 3’s Toronto studio. This robust VFX offering will provide the opportunity for an end-to-end postproduction experience alongside Company 3’s other services across dailies, sound and picture finishing in Toronto.
“This expansion will provide a great opportunity for our clients to continue to partner with Powerhouse on shows beyond New York with new talent and incentives,” commented Ryan Cunningham, executive producer.
“We are excited to be bringing our talent to the Canadian market. Our vision has always been to deliver world-class VFX to our clients, while also providing a safe and collaborative place for artists to work, using amazing forward thinking technology,” said creative director and sr. VFX supervisor Ed Mendez.
The Toronto group will be integrated into the current leadership team based out of Powerhouse headquarters in New York, and Toronto-based Nigel Mendoza will continue his role as sr. producer. Bob Lowery will continue to lead the sales and business development efforts.
Company 3’s CEO and founder, Stefan Sonnenfeld added, “The growth and evolution of Powerhouse into the Canadian market is an exciting next step in providing an expanded and enhanced experience for its clients.”
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
Lee... Read More