A woman carrying a flat oversized box walks into an empty apartment, turns on the light, revealing other boxes. Clearly she is moving into her new abode but doesn’t seem too happy about it as she starts screaming upon the sight of something not yet visible to us.
The camera then reveals a mouse scurrying about.
When we get back to the woman a moment later, she is standing on a chair which she put together in a matter of seconds right out of the box she had been carrying.
A super reads, “Easy to assemble furniture.
A subsequent super modifies that slightly: “Very easy to assemble furniture.”
An end tag contains the Tok & Stok Furniture logo.
Tom Stringhini of Cia. De Cinema, Sao Paulo, directed the spot for DDB Brazil.
The DDB ensemble included creative directors Sergio Valente, Rodolfo Sampaio, Julio Andery, Andre Pedroso and João Mosterio, art directors Rodrigo Tórtima and Tiago Freitas, and copywriter Adriano Matos.
Editor was Fernando Bortoletto of Tribbo Post, Sao Paulo.
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