A woman in a nightgown raids her refrigerator in the wee morning hours. The tone and pacing of the spot are offbeat and arouse curiosity. At first, there’s an ominous undercurrent to the proceedings.
But ominous turns to odd when she opens the refrigerator door. We notice that the interior door compartments are covered by a sheet of ice. The camera then reveals that the entire inside of the fridge is encased in ice–talk about needing a defrosting.
Undaunted, the woman picks up a nearby broom and starts jabbing its handle into the ice, eventually extricating a bottle of Turkey Hill Dairy’s Ice Tea. A voiceover informs us that the tea is bottled cold, shipped cold and sold cold–and bills the beverage as being America’s number one refrigerated ice tea.
“Refrigerator” was directed by Matt Pittroff of Working Stiff Commercial Film Production, Baltimore, for Harrisburg, Penns.-based boutique agency Pavone.
The Pavone team included creative director Mark Richwine, associate creative director/copywriter Keith Quesenberry, art director Tim Prough, director of broadcast production Josh Iverson and producer Mary Holland.
Steve Blair exec produced for Working Stiff. The DP was Andy Lilien.
Editor was Owen Lang of Cerebral Lounge, Baltimore, which also served as the visual effects studio. LeRoy Konen and Stewart Smith of Cerebral Lounge served as VFX creative director and VFX director, respectively.
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