A man holds in his hands the decapitated head of his metal robot friend. The robot is still able to talk but with a weak voice. “I can’t feel my legs,” he says to his human buddy Brian. There is some sort of gooey gunk all over Brian, the robot and the room in which they’re in.
“I’m sorry Gary,” says Brian to the robot.
“It’s so cold,” shivers the robot, sensing that the end is near.
For an explanation as to what happened, a super against a black background reads, “Five seconds earlier,” a segue to the next (actually an earlier) scene which shows the robot in a happier state, fully intact reading a newspaper.
Brian walks into the room and throws a Pizza Pops snack at Gary, urging him to “think fast.”
Clearly the Pizza Pops snack exploded either upon impact of the catch or perhaps the bot took a bite out of it. A parting voiceover issues a caveat to consumers, “Pizza Pops are loaded.”
This offbeat spot is one of four in a campaign for General Mills/Pillsbury’s Pizza Pops directed by Scott Corbett via Holiday Films, Toronto, for agency Cossette Communications, Toronto.
The Cossette team included creative directors Peter Breton and Dave Douglass, art director Colin brown, copywriter Tom Greco and producer Leanne McLellan.
Josefina Nadurata exec produced for Holiday, with Gillian Gardner serving as producer. The DP was Jeff Venditti.
Editor was David Baxter of Panic & 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