A platter filled with an appetizing rice dish is placed on a table next to salt and pepper shakers that are shaped like people.
The salt shaker looks at the food placed before him and then glances over at the container from which it came–a package of Knorr Sidekicks. On the package appears the healthy notice that Knorr’s side dishes now contain 25 percent less sodium than before.
The salt shaker is clearly dismayed by this news as he leaves the table, and walks out the front door into a rainstorm.
The shaker walks across a bridge, onto city streets as a pair of human feet passes by, and even finds itself standing beneath a drainage pipe from which water pours. The shaker seems oblivious to the fact that he’s getting soaked. But he’s all too aware of what’s going on as he peers into a home’s window in which a family is enjoying a reduced sodium Sidekicks dish.
Upset over the sight, he bends over, causing water (instead of salt) to pour out from his two eyes which are shaker holes.
A voiceover relates that Knorr Sidekicks contain a fourth less sodium while conceding that, “Not everyone is happy about it.”
David Hicks of Sons and Daughters, Toronto, directed “Salty” for DDB Canada, Toronto, with visual effects from AXYZ, Toronto.
The DDB creative ensemble included creative director Andrew Simon, art director Paul Wallace, copywriter David Ross and producer Andrew Schulze.
Dan Ford exec produced for Sons and Daughters, with Rob Allan serving as line producer. The DP was Adam Marsden.
The AXYZ team included exec producer Wendy Linton, producer Irene Payne, lead animator/shading/lighting Dennis Turner, shading/lighting artist Mario Marengo, tracking/shading/lighting artist Jerry Corda-Stanley, and Inferno artists Andres Kirejew and Terry Power.
The action unfolds to Michael Bolton’s tune “How Am I Supposed To Live Without You?”
Editor was Brian Williams of Panic and Bob, 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