A belated happy holidays message comes in the form of this spec spot conceived, directed, edited and composited by John Budion of Click 3X, New York. “The Great Escape” opens with empty Coke bottles and cans strewn about the city suddenly moving on their own towards an unknown destination. Cans scurry along the sidewalk. A bottle floats in gutter water through the town.
The Coke containers are seen throughout New York, including in the subway and even Grand Central Station, with one bottle even getting off a train and going up an escalator to a rendezvous point we can only imagine. Finally we see the cans and bottles crawling up the side of a building and onto a tree above a bench on which is perched a sleeping transient who wakes up to find a full bottle of Coca-Cola alongside him, with a decorative bow attached.
He appreciates the refreshing gift as the camera pulls back to show theCoke aluminum cans and glass bottles strategically placed along the tree to spell out “Happy Holidays.”
Budion tapped into the production and post resources at Click 3X to produce the spec piece which was shot by DP John DeFeo.
Does “Hundreds of Beavers” Reflect A New Path Forward In Cinema?
Hard as it may be to believe, changing the future of cinema was not on Mike Cheslik's mind when he was making "Hundreds of Beavers." Cheslik was in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with a crew of four, sometimes six, standing in snow and making his friend, Ryland Tews, fall down funny.
"When we were shooting, I kept thinking: It would be so stupid if this got mythologized," says Cheslik.
And yet, "Hundreds of Beavers" has accrued the stuff of, if not quite myth, then certainly lo-fi legend. Cheslik's film, made for just $150,000 and self-distributed in theaters, has managed to gnaw its way into a movie culture largely dominated by big-budget sequels.
"Hundreds of Beavers" is a wordless black-and-white bonanza of slapstick antics about a stranded 19th century applejack salesman (Tews) at war with a bevy of beavers, all of whom are played by actors in mascot costumes.
No one would call "Hundreds of Beavers" expensive looking, but it's far more inventive than much of what Hollywood produces. With some 1,500 effects shots Cheslik slaved over on his home computer, he crafted something like the human version of Donald Duck's snowball fight, and a low-budget heir to the waning tradition of Buster Keaton and "Naked Gun."
At a time when independent filmmaking is more challenged than ever, "Hundreds of Beavers" has, maybe, suggested a new path forward, albeit a particularly beaver-festooned path.
After no major distributor stepped forward, the filmmakers opted to launch the movie themselves, beginning with carnivalesque roadshow screenings. Since opening in January, "Hundreds of Beavers" has played in at least one theater every week of the year, though never more than 33 at once. (Blockbusters typically play in around 4,000 locations.)... Read More