A grown man is seated at the kitchen table, writing with a pen. The pen cap is in his mouth, prompting his mom to enter the picture. “Spit it out,” she demands. “It’s yucky.”
He initially resists but finally relents, spitting the cap into his mama’s hand.
She gives him an approving kiss on the head.
But the man’s oral fixation still needs to be satisfied as we now see the pen is in his mouth–but only for a second. Mom notices immediately, without even having to look at her son. She issues an “uh, uh,” putting her boy on notice that he is again out of line.
Then a message appears on screen which reads, “You can only baby them when they’re babies.”
However, protective parents still have the option of laundering their offspring’s clothes with Fairy Non Bio detergent, a brand carrying the slogan, “Soften the world while you still can.”
Aleysa Young of Partners Film, Toronto, directed the three-spot campaign, which included “Pen Cap,” for Leo Burnett, Toronto.
The Burnett team included creative directors Heather Chambers and Israel Diaz, copywriter Steve Persico, art director Anthony Chelvanathan and producer Jacqueline Bellmore.
Gigi Realini served as exec producer and line producer for Partners. The DP was Catherine Lutes.
Editor was Mark Paiva of School Editing, Toronto.
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