This spot is the ultimate product shot, with special significance attached. Also unlike conventional product shots, the product is seen deteriorating before our very eyes.
A supered message begins the spot. It reads, “An empty bag?”
Soon it is joined by a second question: “Or a step towards a greener future?”
We then see a discarded empty bag of Sun Chips on a patch of ground and through time lapse over the course of 14 weeks see it decompose before our eyes into the soil.
The camera pulls back to reveal time lapse of the sky, with clouds and different types of weather, night and day passing before our eyes as a plant grows in the soil and eventually blossoms into a flower.
A super then appears which reads, “The world’s first 100% compostable chip bag.”
And then we’re informed that this green marvel is “Coming Earth Day, 2010.”
An end tag relates, “That’s our small step. Tell us yours,” at which point a website address, greeneffect.com, is revealed.
Robert Maya directed and shot “Our Small Step,” produced by Mad Films, Toronto, for agency Juniper Park, Toronto. The flower was CG out of Topix, Toronto.
Maya related, “We captured the time lapse of the Sun Chips bag above ground. The project had to be monitored by an independent lab and a group of biochemists and scientists for its authenticity.
“Even though I am a cinematographer first and foremost I chose to do the photography with still cameras–Canon D5’s and slave them to Mac PowerBooks. I used a program where I could view the live pictures and computer screens 24/7 when required. I had two of these set ups so as to always have a backup in case of any technical errors along the way. None occurred other than a power failure along the way due to a severe snow storm–only lost one day of shooting and a total of 100 hundred frames or :03 of screen time – a fraction of the entire project. I set the cameras to take a photo every 15 minutes, four per hour, 96 per day–for a total of 8,064 pictures of the bag bio-degrading or 268 seconds to cut down to a 45-second finished product. I lit the bags in the tanks filled with compost and cross-lit with 2 ft 2 bank Kino Flo’s– being careful with reflections. It took three days of blocking, lighting, and testing before we were up and running–all this and scientists watching over my shoulders to insure that I was not affecting the outcome. By the end of the three days (of general set up) they were intrigued with our selected medium and technology.
Maya continued, “We shot the above ground time lapse in sunny Florida with its beautiful cumulous clouds and its passing showers to simulate all the typical conditions of outdoor composting. Again I chose to go digital, this time with the Red cam and its 4k imaging capability, comparable to the more than 15 mega pixels of the Canons and its built in intervelometer. We camped out under the stars with the agency and the clients had campfires and s’mores and exchanged war stories. In the end we were all happy to take our small step to a better future for our planet.
The Juniper Park team included art director Dani Maisels, writer Erin Kawalecki and producer Bette Minott.
Visual effects supervisor/editor for Topix was Rob Del Ciancio.
Composer/singer was Marc Robillard of Pirate, 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