In this Spanish-language spot, a young man packs some belongings into a car. He is moving away from home, perhaps to go to college. The time is ripe for father and son to have a heartfelt talk upstairs in the boy’s soon to be former bedroom.
The man looks at his son lovingly and tells him he is going to pass on to him a family heirloom that his great grandfather gave to his grandfather and then to his father and finally to him. Now he must pass this precious gift on to his son.
The dad then proceeds to take a piece of chewed gum out of his mouth and hands it to his boy. The lad accepts it, pops it into his mouth and smiles, acknowledging that the gum still tastes great.
A message appears on screen: “The ridiculously long lasting gum. Stride.”
Luis Gerard directed the spot via production house Hocus Pocus for JWT Puerto Rico.
The JWT team included chief creative officer Jaime Rosado, art director Andres Justo, copywriter Lizette Morazzani and producer Noro Sebastian.
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