We open on old side-by-side photos of young twin boys who are wearing identical attire. Fast forward to today and while they’re considerably older, not much has changed. The twins are dressed in matching outfits, and have the same matching hair style. They’re seated at the dinner table with mom and dad.
The dinner entree is pizza, and the twins are enjoying their meal, taking bites in synchronized fashion from their respective slices.
An outburst from dad starts with an emphatic “knock it off.” He says that the synchronized shtick “was okay when you were kids, but now it’s just creepy.”
Loud squabbling erupts, with the twins mocking their father in synchronized style.
Mom then intervenes, noting that the “pizza’s good, huh?”
This transitions nicely to the slogan that Pizza Inn is “one thing any family can agree on.”
The :30 for Pizza Inn franchises was directed by Ryan Ebner of bicoastal/international HSI Productions for TDA Advertising & Design, Boulder, Colo.
The TDA team included creative directors Jonathan Schoenberg and Thomas Dooley, art director Matt Leavitt, copywriter Jeremy Seibold and producer Bob Shriber.
Michael McQuhae exec produced for HSI with Doron Kauper serving as line producer. Pierre Rouger was the DP. Eric Beauchamp was assistant director.
Editor was Jon Grover of Cut+Run, New York.
Music was composed by Mark Chu of Yessian Music, New York.
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