This commercial opens with an upset teenage girl arriving home in the cab of a tow truck. When she enters the house, she joyfully greets her father who is reading the newspaper with his back to the picture window.
After she offers him a bucket of chicken wings and sweetly says she loves him, pop grows suspicious and turns to discover his banged up sports utility vehicle off loaded into the driveway by the flatbed tow truck. His face then pressed up against the window, the father screams as the voiceover asks, “Need a body shop?”
At that point, the logo of the sponsoring body shop appears–and it can be whatever company buys the spot which is being syndicated by PreFab Ads, a subsidiary of Jessen Productions, San Francisco.
“Daddy’s Girl” was written, directed and produced by Chuck Jessen of Jessen Productions. The DP was Vance Piper. Editor was Mike Brand of Emaginate, San Rafael, Calif.
Ad agency veteran Jessen started syndicating TV commercials to auto body shops some 10 years ago. The first such spot, “Sledgehammer,” was shortlisted at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, received Silver recognition from London’s Midsummer Festival, and a Spike Trophy from the International Broadcasting Awards.
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