Rich Schafler of Schafler Artists Management, New York, has signed Minneapolis music company Hest & Kramer, and Santa Monica production shop Uncle for East Coast representation….Dektor Film, Hollywood, has secured Chicago-based independent rep Marguerite Juliusson to handle the Midwest….Director Vadim Perelman, who made a major splash with his feature debut House of Sand and Fog, is once again available for spots via Tate USA, Santa Monica. He had planned on returning to commercials sooner after having wrapped House of Sand and Fog, but he became attached to another film, Talisman, via Universal-DreamWorks. However, his association with that project ended, freeing him to now resume his spotmaking career….Mark Mirsky and Eileen Platt of Mirsky & Platt, New York, have been hired to represent Rogue Creative, New York, on the East Coast…. Editors Hideaway, New York, has added Frank Ferrante as VP of sales….Production designer Paul Martin is now repped by Lyons Sheldon Prosnit, Los Angeles….Production designer Aaron Goffman has signed with The Vertigo Agency, Toronto, for exclusive Canadian representation….DP Enrique Chediak has completed principal photography on Down in the Valley, and is again available for commercials through Partos, Santa Monica…. Cinematographer Bojan Bazelli has wrapped principal photography on director Doug Liman’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and is back for spot assignments at Dattner Dispoto and Associates, Los Angeles….
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