This is a story of friendship–except that normal lass Vicki Platt’s gal pal is none other than the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. We see various slices of life depicting the girls bonding–they go dress shopping, play in the park, do some video game-driven dancing, and there’s even a brief confrontation with a mutt reminiscent of Toto.
Their friendship culminates with the gals catching a movie at the local cinema as part of the two for one ticket deal perk offered to Orange mobile customers on Wednesdays (at participating U.K. movie houses).
This charmingly offbeat :60 was directed by Hank Perlman of bicoastal/international Hungry Man for Fallon London.
Matt Buels exec produced for Hungry Man, London, with Tim Nunn serving as line producer. The DP was Danny Cohen.
The Fallon team included creative director Richard Flintham and producer Gemma Knight.
Editor was Alaster Jordan of The Whitehouse, London. Visual effects house was MPC, 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