In this animation spot produced by FlickerLab, New York, for agency +SmithGifford, Falls Church, Va., (and a Spanish language version for ad shop Elevacion, Washington, D.C.), a moustached museum guard stands at the ready to protect a Virginia Lottery ticket on display. His nemesis, the mischievous Pink Panther, stealthily approaches, sliding across the gallery’s pink walls to camouflage himself from view.
The Panther’s arm then reaches out, grabs the guard’s cap and tosses it across the room, causing the sentry to leave his post. This frees the Panther to abscond with the lotto ticket but doing so sets off an alarm and overhead lights.
Seeking a new hiding place, the Panther jumps onto the lottery ticket–after all the game has a “think pink” theme, not to mention a potential $12,000 payoff. The guard returns with the Pink Panther nowhere in sight. Then the Panther’s paw reaches out from the ticket, snatches the guard’s hat and again flings it across the room. The Panther then makes good his escape. The spot concludes with a tag telling us about the new Virginia Lotto scratch-off game.
The commercial has been running on TV and cinemas in Virginia.
The FlickerLab ensemble of talent included director/creative director Harold Moss, exec producer Tammy Walters, background designers Max Porter and Bryan Cox, storyboard artist Frank Gresham, producer Franklin Zitter, 2D animators Nikolay Nachev, Thomas Smolenski, Alisa Harris and Jessica Milazzo, After Effects animator/compositor Bryan Cox and animatic editor Dan Rosen.
The creative team at +SmithGifford consisted of president/art director Matt Smith, creative director Bruce Gifford, copywriter Drew Magary and producer Dana Cole.
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