A man gets out of bed, his bare foot crashing through the wooden floor. Next we see him fully dressed and wearing shoes as he walks outside, leaving holes along the sidewalk with each step.
He then puts his foot up on a nearby fire hydrant so that he can tie his shoelace. But the weight of his foot shears the hydrant off its foundation, triggering a fountain of water to spurt skyward.
Our guy’s stroll continues past a group of kids playing soccer. An errant ball heads his way, with the youngsters asking him for some help in retrieving it. The man kicks the ball, sending it like a rocket into the stratosphere.
Finally we see our power footed guy get into the driver’s seat of a car. Predictably when he steps on the gas pedal, the vehicle accelerates to a high rate of speed. A voiceover intervenes, “Got a lead foot? Well you better lighten up because cops are cracking down on drivers who speed.”
Sure enough a policeman has pulls the automobile over and issues him a ticket.
The voiceover continues, “Obey the sign or pay the fine,” which is the new stop speeding slogan of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Rupert Wainwright of Saville Productions, Beverly Hills, directed the spot for agency Tombras Group in Knoxville, Tenn.
The Tombras team included creative director/copywriter Nick Vagott and creative director/art director Brian Porter.
Rupert Maconick exec produced for Saville with Cory Berg serving as producer. Jeffrey Kimball was the DP.
Editor was Scott Philbrook of Fluid, New York.
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