Stevie Mack is the Special Guest Performer at the NCNW Benefit Gala awards Dinner & Fashion Show Dec 7th @ 5pm
Tickets and Information: 310-674-6700
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Monday, November 10, 2014
Friday, October 10, 2014
Yelp - Rachels review
"Yelp - Rachel's review"
Stevie Mack reads funny comments from people all across the web
Stevie Mack reads funny comments from people all across the web
Friday, September 12, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy - movie review by Stevie Mack
Guardians of the Galaxy (Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Glenn Close and more!) is by far the most entertaining movie
I’ve seen all summer! I had to immediately give in to the willful suspension of
disbelief and allow myself to accept the rules of the film and it’s
environments.
The make up and special FX are so awesome I was surprised to
see who some of the actors were in he credits.
The story is easy to follow and the acting is on point. It’s
not like this story hasn’t been told a million times, it’s just how they tell
it with non-stop action and adventure that makes the difference.
There’s comedy, explosions, chase scenes, and of course, the
love interest, even if the girl is green, she’s still doable.
Here are some plot summaries with appropriate credits:
After stealing a mysterious orb in the far reaches of outer
space, Peter Quill is now the main target of a manhunt led by the villain known
as Ronan the Accuser. To help fight Ronan and his team and save the galaxy from
his power, Quill creates a team known as the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' to save
the world.
- Written by James Hake
After discovering a mysterious orb in another part of the
galaxy, Peter Quill from Earth, is now the main target of a manhunt led by a
genocidal maniac Ronan The Accuser. Being hunted across the galaxy Quill gets
lumped together with a group of misfits that need to learn how to get along
before they can become the "Guardians of the Galaxy".
- Written by Jonathan Harrison
That’s my two cents.
About the blogger:
Stevie Mack is a blogger for many reasons, the main one being his love of entertainment.
Visit his website here: http://www,steviemack.com
Friday, August 15, 2014
Friday, August 01, 2014
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Monday, July 14, 2014
Tuesday, July 08, 2014
Anchorman 2 - movie by review by Stevie Mack
This movie started out on a high note then descended into the worst attempts at Comedy I've seen in a while. Then it got really horrible. Had to turn it off. Yup, that bad.
Problem is, I am a big fan of Will Ferrell, so I found it hard to believe he would do this tom..yup...took it personal. My other movie reviews are much longer and more in-depth than this, so please check those out and be yee entertained and informed to the umfth degree!
I don't see how it got a 75% rating on Rotten Tomatoes
That’s my two cents.
About the blogger:
Stevie Mack is a blogger for many reasons, the main one being his love of entertainment.
Visit his website here: http://www,steviemack.com
Monday, June 30, 2014
What is Cinéma Vérité
What is
Cinéma Vérité
I’ve always preached the
gospel of my understanding of what Cinéma Vérité is, according to how I
comprehended it from textbooks and lectures in film school.
Every now and again I’ll
run into a discussion with someone about it’s meaning and definition. So here,
I will give you my side of the story culled with what I found on Wikipedia
.
I always say reality shows
are Cinéma Vérité because they instigate the desired outcome of the filmed
subject. I use film as a term for any form of video capture because I’m old
school, yup, I still sit in a directors chair with a megaphone and beret.
Some would argue that Cinéma
Vérité is simply capturing film truth as it unfolds, but I tell you, that is
called Direct Cinema. News gathering is Direct Cinema, so long as the subject
being filmed has not been provoked to behave in a desired way to affect a
desired outcome. For example, if you are shooting a riot as it unfolds, that’s
Direct Cinema. As crude as it is, but those street fight videos on the
internet, those are Direct Cinema when they are captured unbeknownst to the
folks engaged in combat.
Here’s what Wikipedia says
about Cinéma Vérité:
Cinéma vérité (/ˈsɪnɨmə http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English - Keyvɛrɨˈteɪ/; French: [sinema veʁite], truthful cinema) is a style of documentary filmmaking, invented by Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about Kino-Pravda and influenced by Robert Flaherty’s films. It combines improvisation with the use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subjects hidden behind crude reality.[1][2][3][4]
It is sometimes called observational cinema,[5][6] if understood as pure direct cinema: mainly without a narrator's voice-over. There are subtle, yet important, differences among terms expressing similar concepts. Direct Cinema is largely concerned with the recording of events in which the subject and audience become unaware of the camera presence: operating within what Bill Nichols,[7] an American historian and theoretician of documentary film, calls the "observational mode", a fly on the wall. Many therefore see a paradox in drawing attention away from the presence of the camera and simultaneously interfering in the reality it registers when attempting to discover a cinematic truth.
Cinéma vérité can involve stylized set-ups and the interaction between the filmmaker and the subject, even to the point of provocation. Some argue that the obvious presence of the filmmaker and camera was seen by most cinéma vérité filmmakers as the best way to reveal the truth in cinema.[8][9][10] The camera is always acknowledged, for it performs the raw act of filming real objects, people, and events in a confrontational way. The filmmaker's intention was to represent the truth in what he or she was seeing as objectively as possible, freeing people from any deceptions in how those aspects of life were formerly presented to them. From this perspective, the filmmaker should be the catalyst of a situation. Few agree on the meanings of these terms, even the filmmakers whose films are being described.
Pierre Perrault sets situations up and then films them, for example
in Pour la suite du monde (1963) where he asked old people to fish for whale.
The result is not a documentary about whale fishing; it is about memory and
lineage. In this sense cinéma vérité is concerned with anthropological cinema,
and with the social and political implications of what is captured on film. How
a filmmaker shoots a film, what is being filmed, what to do with what was
filmed, and how that film will be presented to an audience, all were very
important for filmmakers of the time.
In all cases, the ethical and aesthetic analysis of documentary form of the 1950s and '60s has to be linked with a critical look at post-war propaganda analysis. The best way to describe this type of cinema is probably to say that it is concerned with notions of truth and reality in film. Also feminist documentary films of the 1970s often used cinéma-vérité techniques. Soon this sort of 'realism' was criticized for its deceptive pseudo-natural construction of reality.[11][12]
As Edgar Morin wrote: "There are two ways to conceive of the cinema of the Real: the first is to pretend that you can present reality to be seen; the second is to pose the problem of reality. In the same way, there were two ways to conceive cinéma vérité. The first was to pretend that you brought truth. The second was to pose the problem of truth."[13]
So, according to the above
Wikipedia page, my argument holds true. The biggest influence on my understanding of Cinéma Vérité came from one of the required text books from my film
school (1992-1997 - also attended USC Film/TV for a brief stint) was Documentary:
A History of the Non-Fiction Film by Erik Barnouw
Thank you for reading this blog and
please feel free to share with others. Reading is still fundamental.
About the
blogger:
Stevie Mack is
a blogger for many reasons, the main one being his love of entertainment. Visit his website here: steviemack.com
What is Cinéma Vérité
What is
Cinéma Vérité
I’ve always preached the
gospel of my understanding of what Cinéma Vérité is, according to how I
comprehended it from textbooks and lectures in film school.
Every now and again I’ll
run into a discussion with someone about it’s meaning and definition. So here,
I will give you my side of the story culled with what I found on Wikipedia
.
I always say reality shows
are Cinéma Vérité because they instigate the desired outcome of the filmed
subject. I use film as a term for any form of video capture because I’m old
school, yup, I still sit in a directors chair with a megaphone and beret.
Some would argue that Cinéma
Vérité is simply capturing film truth as it unfolds, but I tell you, that is
called Direct Cinema. News gathering is Direct Cinema, so long as the subject
being filmed has not been provoked to behave in a desired way to affect a
desired outcome. For example, if you are shooting a riot as it unfolds, that’s
Direct Cinema. As crude as it is, but those street fight videos on the
internet, those are Direct Cinema when they are captured unbeknownst to the
folks engaged in combat.
Here’s what Wikipedia says
about Cinéma Vérité:
Cinéma vérité (/ˈsɪnɨmə http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English - Keyvɛrɨˈteɪ/; French: [sinema veʁite], truthful cinema) is a style of documentary filmmaking, invented by Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about Kino-Pravda and influenced by Robert Flaherty’s films. It combines improvisation with the use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subjects hidden behind crude reality.[1][2][3][4]
It is sometimes called observational cinema,[5][6] if understood as pure direct cinema: mainly without a narrator's voice-over. There are subtle, yet important, differences among terms expressing similar concepts. Direct Cinema is largely concerned with the recording of events in which the subject and audience become unaware of the camera presence: operating within what Bill Nichols,[7] an American historian and theoretician of documentary film, calls the "observational mode", a fly on the wall. Many therefore see a paradox in drawing attention away from the presence of the camera and simultaneously interfering in the reality it registers when attempting to discover a cinematic truth.
Cinéma vérité can involve stylized set-ups and the interaction between the filmmaker and the subject, even to the point of provocation. Some argue that the obvious presence of the filmmaker and camera was seen by most cinéma vérité filmmakers as the best way to reveal the truth in cinema.[8][9][10] The camera is always acknowledged, for it performs the raw act of filming real objects, people, and events in a confrontational way. The filmmaker's intention was to represent the truth in what he or she was seeing as objectively as possible, freeing people from any deceptions in how those aspects of life were formerly presented to them. From this perspective, the filmmaker should be the catalyst of a situation. Few agree on the meanings of these terms, even the filmmakers whose films are being described.
Pierre Perrault sets situations up and then films them, for example
in Pour la suite du monde (1963) where he asked old people to fish for whale.
The result is not a documentary about whale fishing; it is about memory and
lineage. In this sense cinéma vérité is concerned with anthropological cinema,
and with the social and political implications of what is captured on film. How
a filmmaker shoots a film, what is being filmed, what to do with what was
filmed, and how that film will be presented to an audience, all were very
important for filmmakers of the time.
In all cases, the ethical and aesthetic analysis of documentary form of the 1950s and '60s has to be linked with a critical look at post-war propaganda analysis. The best way to describe this type of cinema is probably to say that it is concerned with notions of truth and reality in film. Also feminist documentary films of the 1970s often used cinéma-vérité techniques. Soon this sort of 'realism' was criticized for its deceptive pseudo-natural construction of reality.[11][12]
As Edgar Morin wrote: "There are two ways to conceive of the cinema of the Real: the first is to pretend that you can present reality to be seen; the second is to pose the problem of reality. In the same way, there were two ways to conceive cinéma vérité. The first was to pretend that you brought truth. The second was to pose the problem of truth."[13]
So, according to the above
Wikipedia page, my argument holds true. The biggest influence on my understanding of Cinéma Vérité came from one of the required text books from my film
school (1992-1997 - also attended USC Film/TV for a brief stint) was Documentary:
A History of the Non-Fiction Film by Erik Barnouw
Thank you for reading this blog and
please feel free to share with others. Reading is still fundamental.
About the
blogger:
Stevie Mack is
a blogger for many reasons, the main one being his love of entertainment. Visit his website here: steviemack.com
Thursday, June 19, 2014
22 Jump Street movie review by Stevie Mack
It’s $6 movie day (every Wednesday), so you will find me at Rave
Cinemas Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza 15 + Extreme This is where I settle in with a large bucket of popcorn to watch
all the hottest movies.
Plot:
After
making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for
officers Schmidt and Jenko when they go deep undercover at a local college. But
when Jenko meets a kindred spirit on the football team, and Schmidt infiltrates
the bohemian art major scene, they begin to question their partnership.
Now they don’t have to just crack the case - they have to figure out if they
can have a mature relationship. If these two overgrown adolescents can grow
from freshmen into real men, college might be the best thing that ever happened
to them.
I liked the first 21 Jump Street movie adaptation, but I was
skeptical about 22 Jump Street, thinking it would be just a sequel cash cow for
all concerned, but it wasn’t. In fact, it far exceeded my expectations.
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum took bromance to another level in
this flick. They had me rooting for them to triumph over the bad guys as well
as the hindrances in their friendship.
Amber Stevens was so good; I forgot I knew her in real life…LOL…but
true, and this was some of Ice Cube’s best comedy performances since Friday.
There was never a dull moment, tons of jokes, action and Special
FX. The theater had a family like vibe to it, so everyone laughed out loud, long and hard, without fear of retribution, if there is such a thing.
Go see this movie, and go see it at a theater that will allow you
to laugh out loud, long and hard, because you will.
That’s my two cents.
About the blogger:
Stevie Mack is a blogger for many reasons, the main one being his love of entertainment.
Visit his website here: http://www,steviemack.com
Friday, June 13, 2014
A Million Ways to Die in the West - movie review by Stevie Mack
As I settled into my high back velour seat at Rave
Cinemas Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza 15 + Extreme I wondered how many other
Seth MacFarlane fans would be there entertaining the same thought, "Will
this be as bad as the critics and word-of-mouth say? Will it be 1 ½ hours of my
life wasted?"
I’ve always stuck to my own rule of thumb, which is to forget what
others say about a movie and go see it myself. I’m glad I did in this case as
well.
Plot:
Cowardly Albert (Seth MacFarlane) backs out of a
gunfight prompting his long time girlfriend (Amanda Seyfried) to leave him
for another man (Neil Patrick
Harris), the proprietor of a moustache emporium. When Albert unwittingly saves
the life of a beautiful woman (Charlize
Theron), she teaches him how to shoot a gun for the first time in his life
and stand up for himself. But when her husband, a notorious outlaw (Liam Neeson), arrives seeking
revenge for the secret love affair, Albert must save her once again, but this
time on purpose.
Was
it full of toilet humor and crude sex jokes? Yes. Did it have a big dance
number with an awesome original / funny song like Seth MacFarlane is so well
known for? Yes. Did it have racist jokes that I, a Black guy, would laugh at?
Yes. One note here about that, don’t leave the theater until the lights come
on, because at the very end, after the Universal Pictures logo swirls, there’s
a double surprise twist of redemption on the racist joke….nailed it!
Every movie has slow parts
and a lot of the same story plots, so to rag on this one for having the same is
missing the forest for the trees. I went to this movie knowing full well what I
was getting into. This is Seth
MacFarlane, the same guy who brought us Family Guy, American Dad,
The Cleveland
Show, Ted
and more! So I expected a cartoonish movie with a lot of hokey humor. Wasn’t
looking for it to be as good as Ted, a lot more went into that movie. Expected
this one to play like a flip-book of one-liners, and it did just that.
That’s my two cents.
About the blogger:
Stevie Mack is a blogger for many reasons, the main one being his love of entertainment.
Visit his website here: http://www,steviemack.com
Sunday, June 08, 2014
Leimert Park Art Walk Comedy Show is Empowering Our Youth
The Leimert Park Art Walk Comedy Show has been Empowering Our
Youth, Elders and Young Adults!
Producing a comedy show with a positive
influence on the community has been the goal and aim of Host Stevie Mack and
Producer Ben Caldwell from the very start and it is working.
Every month the show has a new theme that uses comedy as a vehicle to encourage participants and audience members to engage in social change, healthy living, higher learning, competitive education and wellness. We challenge them to use their mind and dare to grow beyond accepted norms, expected stereotypes and apathy.
The Leimert Park Art Walk Comedy Show is a unique family friendly learning experience, bringing together people from various cultures in a fun, diverse and entertaining comedy showcase touching upon a wide range of topics. Social issues are brought to light, explored and resolved through the vehicle of performing arts; comedy, song and dance.
The Leimert Park Art Walk Comedy Show is a unique family friendly learning experience, bringing together people from various cultures in a fun, diverse and entertaining comedy showcase touching upon a wide range of topics. Social issues are brought to light, explored and resolved through the vehicle of performing arts; comedy, song and dance.
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The Leimert Park Art Walk Comedy Show, Hosted by Stevie Mack (HBO / Last Comic Standing) and Produced by Ben R. Caldwell is a monthly comedy showcase punctuating the evening of the Leimert Park Art Walk on the last Sunday of every month with laughter.
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| Adan Williams (6 yrs old) |
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| Doug Williams III (9 yrs old) |
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| Leroya Sanford (12 yrs old) |
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| Akeyla Aluko |
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| Mark Kushner |
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| Rori Diggs |
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| Steven Briggs |
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| Sardia Robinson |
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| Ty Fance |
Sponsored by:
Inspiration Media (Photography)
Tuesday, June 03, 2014
Friday, May 30, 2014
Arsenio Hall Show Cancelled but Donald Sterling $2 Billion
Arsenio Hall Show Cancelled while Donald Sterling gets $2 Billion
Monday, May 26, 2014
Roger Troutman ~ Do It Roger
I would listen to this while playing Defender Satrgate and Robotron at the video arcade back in the 80's
Monday, May 19, 2014
Friday, May 09, 2014
Saturday, May 03, 2014
Thursday, May 01, 2014
The Rent - Teaser
New trailer for "The Rent" sitcom - Co-Starring Stevie Mack.
This really gives a good idea of the magnitude of the project . Stellar performances all around!
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
The Leimert Park Art Walk Comedy Show Hosted by Stevie Mack - April 2014
The Leimert Park Art Walk Comedy Show, Hosted by Stevie Mack (HBO / Last Comic Standing) and Produced by Ben R. Caldwell is a monthly comedy showcase punctuating the evening of the Leimert Park Art Walk on the last Sunday of every month with laughter.
 | |
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The Leimert Park Art Walk Comedy Show is a unique family friendly learning experience, bringing together people from various cultures in a fun, diverse and entertaining comedy showcase touching upon a wide range of topics. Social issues are brought to light, explored and resolved through the vehicle of performing arts; comedy, song and dance.
 | |
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The Leimert Park Art Walk Comedy Show is held indoors at KAOS Network performing arts space located at 4343 Leimert Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90008
Comedians featured on the April 2014 showcase:
Adan Williams (6 yrs old)
Doug Williams III (9 yrs old)
Leroya Sanford (12 yrs old)
Robert Weems
Ina Romeo
Jaime Lopez
Shayne Michael
Eli Nicolas
Adan Williams (6 yrs old)
Doug Williams III (9 yrs old)
Leroya Sanford (12 yrs old)
Robert Weems
Ina Romeo
Jaime Lopez
Shayne Michael
Eli Nicolas
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| 6 yr old Adan Williams perform on stage while 9 yr old Doug Williams III awaits his turn |
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| Ina Romeo performing at the Leimert Park Art Walk Comedy Show |
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| (L-R) Adan Williams, Doug Williams III, Stevie Mack, Leroya Sanford, Robert Weems, Jaime Lopez |
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| Ina Romeo pose with Host Stevie Mack |
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| Host Actor/Comedian Stevie Mack |
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| Eli Nichols opened the show with full flavor |
Admission: Free
Sponsored by:
Promacgroup Mrktg
KAOS Network
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