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    SHOOT Creative/Production Industry Survey – Phillip Detchmendy

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    2) It sounds like ancient history, but pre-YouTube it was such a simpler era, really just :30s and :60s for broadcast. There were clients, agencies, production companies and then the networks where the work played. Now it’s a totally different world. Multiple screens and platforms for everything. Mobile is king. We’re moving into an ad-blocked and streaming world. Now there are so many different models of companies that can and do succeed–is it a digital production company or an agency or is it a client, or some new hybrid? All of this change creates tremendous opportunities. More money is being spent in marketing and advertising every year, but where it’s being spent is changing. It’s also the most exciting time ever for creativity. The tools to create and distribute are the most democratic they’ve ever been. But just because everyone can be a filmmaker, doesn’t mean that everyone is a good filmmaker. The role and importance of the individual creative person is greater than it’s ever been before. Plus there are new storytelling mediums, like VR, which will open up tremendous opportunities. To me, it’s more important than ever to know exactly what your core strengths are. And to embrace the change that’s around us. And in all the change and clutter around us, people have a basic innate need to tell and be told stories, and to be entertained.

    7) All of the projects we do are going to continue to be more and more under the microscope and have to do a lot of work for the brand. Not that there were ever throwaway jobs, but now all eyes are on everything. I think we are going to see an increasing trend where there are the larger, more normally funded projects, and then many smaller ones. This is also the year that VR will increasingly come into it’s own in storytelling and advertising. Our recently released The Martian VR Experience is a prime example of this. Marketing money will continue to grow, but how it is spent will change. As consumers have more choices in not watching ads, clients and brands are going to be increasingly sophisticated in reaching them. The most important thing is to know what your strengths are, while at the same time embracing the change that’s all around us.

    Phillip Detchmendy
    Executive Producer
    RSA Films



    Does “Hundreds of Beavers” Reflect A New Path Forward In Cinema?

    Monday, November 25, 2024

    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

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