We open on the exterior of a sports arena which is hosting championship arm wrestling–except once the camera takes us inside, we’re thrown into a whacked out stop motion animation world in which a giant forearm with a clenched fist is seen parading around a wrestling ring as if unbeatable.
Then two much smaller forearms–each wearing a mask like a professional wrestler–enter the ring and proceed to beat the living daylights out of the gargantuan forearm, including hitting it over the fist with small metal chairs. As the two little forearms thrust the championship belt over their fists in triumph, the large forearm in the foreground utters, “Must drink more milk,” the BC Dairy Foundation slogan.
The :30 recently debuted in Canadian theaters and was slated at press time to air on TV in British Columbia.
“Arm Wrestling” was directed by Abe Spear of Curious Pictures, New York, for DDB Canada, Vancouver.
The agency team consisted of chief creative officer Alan Russell, creative directors Dean Lee and Cosmo Campbell, copywriter Kevin Rathgeber, art director Dan Strasser and producer Sue Bell.
Mary Knox exec produced for Curious with John Cline serving as head of production and Viet Luu as line producer. Curious’ Sam Goetz edited the spot.
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