A man steps out of his house into a snow drift that comes up nearly chest high. Able to only see his bundled-up upper torso, we hear him optimistically declare, “I can shovel out of this driveway.”
Next up a woman is surrounded by assorted unruly toddlers. She too sees the glass as half full. “I can make it to nap time,” she says confidently.
Then a woman seated at her office desk is dwarfed by enormous piles of papers, files and documents. “I can finish off this paperwork,” she affirms.
Finally a man in his backyard has an unassembled jungle gym that looks as complicated as a NASA rocket. He nonetheless predicts, “I can put together this swing set by sundown.”
A voiceover then intervenes, relating that Dunkin’ Donuts has been making fresh brewed coffee for over 50 years, helping us all to confidently jump start our days.
The parting message then appears on screen: “You Kin’ Do It”
Brian Beletic of bicoastal Smuggler directed the TV campaign, including “Launch” for Hill Holliday, Boston.
The agency team included creative director/art director Kevin Daley, creative director/copywriter Tim Cawley and producer Brad Powell.
Patrick Milling Smith, Brian Carmody Allison Kunzman and Lisa Rich exec produced for Smuggler with Suzanne Hargrove serving as producer. The DP was David Lanzenberg.
Editor was Steve Hamilton of The Whitehouse.
Visual effects house was Mass Market.
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