B-Reel Films has signed Los Angeles-based director Will Mayer. The 21-year-old director just finished his first B-Reel Films project for Airbnb/PayPal out of CP+B. He recently completed a six-month long film campaign helping reinvent the image of the U.S. Department of Education, and is currently working on a music video for Steve Angelo. Mayer has been a filmmaker for brands since he was 14, filming snowboard and skateboard videos for Vans. By the age of 16 he was their main filmmaker for the East Coast, delving into documentary and culture content. He later moved to California, establishing himself as a director….Whitehouse Post New York has added commercial editor Mark Paiva to its roster. He has worked with brands including Nike (W+K), Adidas (TBWA Berlin), Hyundai (Innocean), Kia (David & Goliath), and McDonald’s (Cossette). A Toronto native, Paiva has more than a decade of editing experience. In 2009 he helped found Posterboy Edit, which merged with Bijou Editorial in 2014 to help form Saints Editorial. Paiva’s work has been honored at such shows as Cannes, D&AD, AICE and One Show….
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