A night janitor goes about his business in a museum, passing priceless works of art as he performs his duties. He makes his way to some beautiful paintings of animals, at which point we see him pick up spread-out pages of newspaper laid out on the floor. The pages are covered with what appear to be bird droppings. He then replaces them with clean newspaper sheets as the camera reveals they are underneath a mounted painting of tropical birds.
An end tag informs us that this wildlife display is part of an exhibit titled Oudry’s Amazingly Life-like Animals, which is at Southern California’s J. Paul Getty Museum through Sept. 2.
This :30 was directed by the team Peter Martin of harvest, Santa Monica, for M&C Saatchi, Santa Monica.
Bonnie Goldfarb executive produced for harvest, with Rob Sexton serving as producer. The DP was Eric West.
The M&C Saatchi team included creative director Martin Dix, art director Jay Gundzik, copywriter Craig Ghiglione and producer Wendy Weger.
Editor was Adam Parker of Chrome, Santa Monica.
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