Norman Vincent Peale got it right many moons ago when he praised the power of positive thinking. And that credo is put to music as we see and hear a man singing about looking on the bright side no matter what.
And the “no matter what” is seemingly everywhere as he comes out of an office building holding his personal belongings in a box, having presumably just been fired. He’s holding the box upside down and the contents spill out. But he doesn’t care as he keeps on crooning his encouraging song about positive thinking, leaving the contents of his desk scattered on the sidewalk.
He even manages to make a charitable gesture, throwing a coin into a man’s coffee cup. The only problem is that the man isn’t a panhandler and his cup is full of brew.
Still our singing protagonist moves on, walking through a town littered with stores holding going-out-of-business sales, and empty retail/business space for rent or lease. He grabs a newspaper from another gent and opens it up to reveal a headline (“Shares Tumble”) reflecting economic gloom.
Undaunted, our cheery singer continues on his jaunt, folding the newspaper in origami-style fashion to create a bouquet of flowers which he hands to a young lady standing by a storefront entrance.
He then proceeds to his parked car, a Volkswagen Passat, removing a parking ticket from the windshield. Still, he remains merry, hops into the car and begins his drive, entering a tunnel. Singing all the while, he passes a butcher’s truck from which the heads of several lambs stick out. Even though they’re on the way to their slaughter, the lambs happily bob their heads to the tune being sung by the Passat driver.
Finally the Passat speeds towards the light at the end of the tunnel, followed by an end tag that reads, “One Thing You Can Be Sure Of,” a slogan which gives way to the VW Passat logo.
Noam Murro directed “Positive Thinking” via Biscuit@Independent, London, for agency DDB London.
The DDB team included executive creative director Jeremy Craigen, creative director/copywriter Dave Henderson, creative director/art director Richard Denney and producer Natalie Powell.
Shawn Lacy was senior exec producer for Biscuit with Richard Packer and Colleen O’Donnell serving as exec producers for Independent. Producers were Jay Veal and Jason Scanlon. The DP was Steve Keith Roach.
Effects house was Framestore, London.
Editor was Tim Thornton-Allan of Marshall Street Editors, London.
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