A man brushes his teeth. He looks in the mirror and sees the reflection of a boy’s dead body on the bathroom floor.
Later the same man is walking past office workstations. Behind him on the floor is the same dead youngster.
The corpse is omni-present–at the foot of an escalator the man is riding down on, on the grass field of a park the man is walking through presumably with his son, even under a desk at home when the man checks to see if a computer monitor is unplugged. Late at night as the man tosses and turns in his sleep, he awakens to see the body yet again on the bedroom floor.
At his last sighting of the young victim, a super reads, “Kill your speed or live with it.”
An end tag from the U.K. Department For Transport refers to the speed limit in a slogan which reads, “It’s 30 for a reason.”
“Live With It” was directed by Andy McLeod of Rattling Stick, London, for Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, London.
The agency team included creatives Mike Bond, Bern Hunter, Brian Campbell, Phil Martin and producer Lindsay Hughes.
Kirsty Dye produced for Rattling Stick. The DP was Franz Lustig.
The PSA was edited by Andy McGraw of Cut + Run, London.
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