This spec spot takes us to a dreaded place, the dentist’s office. We see the dentist scraping away at a patient’s teeth, removing the remnants of food from in-between those pearly whites. In this case, the food is chocolate, which the dentist goes off to the side to examine and sniff. Those two sensory experiences are enough for him to then astonishingly taste the bit o’ chocolate which he licks off his scraping tool.
Evidently the dentist has a sweet tooth as he positions the overhead light so that it blinds the patient. Thus the dentist can go unnoticed as he continues to scrape off and eat each morsel of chocolate.
A product shot of Ferrero Rocher candy–a delectable mix of chocolate and nuts–perched on a nearby dental tray concludes the spot, accompanied by the slogan, “It’s that good.”
This offbeat spot was directed and produced by Chris Drechsler, who’s fashioning spec work to showcase his directorial talents and possibly land a slot on a production company roster. Titled “Dentist,” the spot was conceived by Jeff Vinick who is presently the creative director at New York agency Renegade. Vinick came up with the idea for “Dentist” independent of his roost at the time, which was Merkley in New York.
The DP was Mike O’Shea. Editor was Michael Schwartz of Breathe Editing, New York.
The music track was donated by composer Robbie Kondor of Kondor Music, Bedford, N.Y.
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