This spot puts us smack dab in the middle of that awkward date moment when the man is looking for more than a good night kiss as he attempts to invite the woman into the house for a longer evening.
We first focus on a young man who asks his receptive date if she’d like to come in and “feed the goldfish.” She doesn’t know quite how to react.
We then see other males coming up with their own excuses for their dates entering their respective abodes. Rather than “feed the goldfish,” they come up with such lame reasons as “to look at my new gerbil” or “to descale my kettle,” “grout my tiles,” “pet my puppies,” “reboot my hard drive” and “dust my lamps.”
Finally the spot returns to the first guy who asks his date to “come in for a coffee.”
Now that’s an invite she feels comfortable with, and seemingly all the other guys have come up with the same “coffee” line as we see a succession of front doors close behind them, signaling that the couples are continuing their dates inside.
Next comes an atypical product shot, with a couple of mugs and a jar of Mellow Birds instant coffee perched on an end table that’s shaking due to some nearby extracurricular activity.
A voiceover relates, “It’s coffee but not as full on. Mellow Birds. Born to Be Mild.”
This Mellow Birds Coffee spot was directed by Stephen Pearson of Hungry Man, London, for agency Work Club, London.
The Work Club team included copywriters Ben Mooge, Sally Skinner and Lucy-Anne Roynayne, art directors Simon Whybray and Jade Tomlin and producers James Turnham and Karen Slade.
Matt Buels exec produced for Hungry Man with Tim Nunn serving as line producer. The DP was Ed Wilde.
Editor was Alaster Jordan of The Whitehouse, London.
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