A banking executive, who’s seated at his desk, looks into the camera and makes a pledge: “At First Bank, we do not clone or endorse the cloning of U.S. currency. It would be against international law and a breach of banking ethics.” He affirms that the $50 you receive for opening a free checking account “is real money and has not been duplicated in a covert genetics laboratory.”
The only problem is that as he makes his impassioned promise, the banker is holding a sheep with two heads, and you can’t help but notice that there are two nameplates on his desk, both carrying the moniker Peter Sinclair.
The banker, presumably Mr. Sinclair, reiterates that the money issued by his financial institution is clean and original. “Get $50 that has never been cloned.”
However, the camera pulls back to reveal a second Peter Sinclair, who looks exactly like the original banker, sitting off to the side.
So much for bank promises. This atypical ad with a bank poking fun at the veracity of bankers during tenuous economic times was conceived by TDA Advertising & Design in Boulder for Colorado’s First Bank.
Brendan Hearne directed “Cloning” via bicoastal/international @radical.media, with visual effects from Framestore, New York.
The TDA ensemble included agency partner/creative director Jonathan Schoenberg, founder/creative director Thomas Dooley, copywriter Joe Nafziger, art director Neal Desai and producer Susan Fisher.
Frank Scherma, Jim Bouvet and Gregg Carlesimo exec produced for @radical, with Cathy Dunn serving as head of production, Diane Castrup as producer and Taylor Steadman as production supervisor. The DP was David Wilson. Phil Elins was assistant director.
Editor was Heidi Black of The Whitehouse, Santa Monica
Marshall Plante of The Syndicate, Santa Monica, was colorist.
The Framestore coterie of talent included senior Flame Artist Raul Ortego, VFX shoot supervisor Eric Rosenfeld, exec producer James Razzall and VFX assistant Sabrina Tenore.
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