A hand-held video game is not necessarily a one-way ticket to life as a couch potato–quite the contrary in this case as we see a male gamer with portable game console in hand playing away as he travels along the streets of San Francisco. And his travels are linked to the game as he’s on a quest to find or do something before other out-and-about gamers who too are playing on their portable systems.
Our protgaonist gamer runs down an alleyway and reaches his destination before several other late arriving players. That destination is a door which he knocks on to reveal an attractive princess-like character who gives him a kiss. The other gamers are clearly disappointed as they thought they were going to win the prized smooch. But suddenly they’re all off again to track down the next goal.
“Roku’s Revenge,” which has run sparingly online and was screened at the NAB Convention, was directed by Jeffrey Karoff for agency/production house Kaleidoscope Productions. Karoff is with Backyard Productions, Venice, Calif. Karoff also wrote the script with Kaleidoscope creative director Jim Samalis. Karen Jorgensen was exec creative director for Kaleidoscope.
Lauren Becker produced for Kaleidoscope. Anghel Decca was the DP.
Editor was Bob Jenkis of Mad River Post, Santa Monica. Visual effects house was Ntropic, San Francisco.
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