Allergy season signals more than inconvenient sniffing, sneezing and stuffiness. It’s actually much more serious, akin to all-out war on a beautiful yet treacherous battlefield.
In this spot we hear the sounds of war, such as heavy artillery, explosions, bombers and copters zooming about. Except this soundtrack instead accompanies pollen, flowers and bees that are the agents of attack during summer allergy season. We see and hear the normally hidden dangers that lurk in an otherwise gorgeous natural landscape.
An end tag then reveals your greatest ally during the allergy war–Johnson & Johnson’s Benadryl.
Steve Cope of Rattling Stick, London, directed “War” for JWT London. Clive Norman was the DP.
The JWT creative ensemble included exec creative director Russell Ramsey, art director Andy Smith, copywriter Ryan Lawson and producer Anna Church.
Editor was Tim Hardy of Cut+Run, London. Post/effects house was The Mill, London.
Sound designer/mixer was Munzi Thind at Grand Central, 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