Stevie Mack books his 53rd TV Commercial

Stevie Mack can be seen in the new Bagel Bites commercial with the Silly Clown and Scary Clown animated with Stevie performing the  voiceover for the Silly Clown. Stevie Mack could easily be deemed one of the hardest working actors in show business; 15 movies, 17 TV shows, 10 music videos, 12 industrials, a ton of independent content for streaming and as of this writing, 53 commercials. That's a lot of face time by anyone's standards.

For most actors in Hollywood, booking a commercial is a huge feather in their cap and the highlight of their career. Okay, it's a bright spot at least. For Stevie Mack it's just another day at the office...or is it?

About Stevie Mack:

Stevie Mack voted top dancer by People magazine in the Oscar nominated Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, "Can't Stop the Feeling" music video by Justin Timberlake, which also won a Golden Globe, Grammy and Critics' ChoiceAward.

Stevie Mack can also be seen in recent movies Ghostmates, Expelled, Pup Star, American Bad Boy, and the Emmy winning TV show Shameless on Showtime.


Multi-faceted and multi-talented, Stevie Mack has been performing stand up comedy, and one-man shows since the 90’s and he’s been seen in over 53 commercials pitching everything from soft drinks to real estate.



You can find Stevie Mack at steviemack.com

Stevie Mack Brings Hollywood Comedy to Leimert Park

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

Hollywood, CA – Stevie Mack Brings Hollywood Comedy to Leimert Park

 January 2020

Contact: PR Rep – Promac Group www.promacgroup.com
Stevie Mack (Shameless, Last Comic Standing) has been on a mission to cement his brand of humor in the annals of history by hosting, performing and teaching comedy from Hollywood to Leimert Park. Stevie Mack has been performing and hosting stand up comedy since 1990 and has worked hard to earn the esteemed crown of Comedy Guru on the multi-billion dollar airbnb platform. He has taught students from every corner of the globe and received high accolades as the best of the best.

Stevie Mack is celebrated as the longest running comedy host - producer in Leimert Park, consistently producing and hosting comedy shows there for more than two decades.

The Stevie Mack Show runs in conjunction with the Leimert Park Art Walk on the last Sunday of every month (for the last eight years at Ben Caldwell's KAOS Network) and Stevie Mack recently partnered with airbnb experiences to offer his Stevie Mack Comedy Guru one hour comedy crash course to local and international travelers, teaching them comedy then putting them up live on stage at The Stevie Mack Show

Stevie Mack voted top performer by People magazine in the Oscar nominated Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, "Can't Stop the Feeling" music video by Justin Timberlake, which also won a Golden Globe, Grammy and Critics' Choice Award.
 Multi-faceted and multi-talented, Stevie Mack has been performing stand up comedy, and one-man shows since the 90’s and he’s been seen in over 30 commercials pitching everything from soft drinks to real estate.


 Follow Stevie Mack on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at steviemack.com

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 - review by Stevie Mack

I got a chance to see hot tub time machine today and it wasn't what I expected. It seemed like the best part of the movie was in the end credits. 

It wasn’t the laugh-out-loud riot I expected. Sure, expectations are premeditated resentments, but my expectations were based on the trailers and the fact that I was a big fan of the original Hot Tub Time Machine.

Laughs throughout the movie were very minimal and those laughs were mostly generated from shock humor. There were a lot of uncomfortable chuckles here and there but that was about it.

I was hoping this movie would raise the bar for another installment, Hot Tub Time Machine 3: Rise of the Pool Cleaners …  however this one missed the mark and did not beat a path to that end.

The storyline focused on them trying to right a wrong when it should have focused on them influencing various important aspects of American and world history as they did in the end credits, the stuff they teased us with in the trailers. 

Here's some info about the movie from Rotten Tomatoes:

MOVIE INFO

Hot Tub Time Machine director Steve Pink returns to the helm for this sequel set 10 years in the future, and starring Rob Corddry, Adam Scott, Clark Duke, and Craig Robinson. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Rating:

R (for crude sexual content and language throughout, graphic nudity, drug use and some violence)

Genre:

Comedy

Directed By:

Steve Pink

Written By:

Josh Heald

In Theaters:

Feb 20, 2015 Wide

Box Office:

$6.0M

Runtime:

1 hr. 33 min.

Paramount Pictures - Official Site

---

CAST

Craig Robinson 
as Nick

Rob Corddry 
as Lou

Clark Duke 
as Jacob

Chevy Chase 
as Repairman

Collette Wolfe 
as Kelly

Adam Scott 
as Adam Yates Jr.

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

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

Creative Process in Show Business

Everybody who considers themselves an artist must have a creative process in order to be affective. What is the creative process? Well, I can first tell you what it is't; creativity is not a personality trait or a set of skills to test for nor a roster of art classes.

The creative process is full of ups and downs and peculiar mental blank spots. Writers block is a common hurdle/obstacle in the creative process and procrastination is it's evil twin.

For me the creative process involves putting together a set of ideas, words and images that lead to comedy routines, plays, TV shows and movies. There's an old saying, "If it 'aint on the page, it 'aint on the stage". This holds true for the screen, radio and everything else; the world is a stage.

So, writing is the basis for the beginning of the creative process in entertainment, otherwise you just have an idea. Everybody's got an idea, tons of 'em. I'm approached by a lot of people who pitch me ideas for TV shows, and they feel this is a really great idea, "...it's gonna be a hit" is what they tell me with a gleam in their eye, they always have the look, as if the checks have been cut and the champagne poured.

But I ask them that crucial question, "What have you written?"

They pull a crumpled napkin from their pocket, and hold it up like it's the holy grail, "I wrote it all here" Sorry folks, there's no way you can have a treatment, synopses, script, budget outline and shooting schedule on a napkin...next to the mustard stain.

Next crucial question (if they have written all the above), "Do you have a budget, name talent attached or a distribution deal in place?"

I know, that was a curve ball, but that's what the game is all about, being ready too be ready for anything that comes your way. You can never be too prepared, and in show business that second question is the business half of SHOW BUSINESS, A lot of people miss that part because it doesn't seem to be related to their idea of the creative process. It only matters to people who want to see their ideas become  a reality on the screen, any screen. Otherwise, you are just creating art of art's sake and have no desire to make a living  from your art. That's fine too, but that's just show ....not show business.

HOW TO CUT A MOVIE TRAILER

If you are an aspiring filmmaker or an old pro, it's always fun and exciting to learn a new trick or two. My plan was to shoot and cut my movie ideas into movie trailers and use the trailers as pitching tools to attract investors to fund them as features.

After reading up on all the best practices on cutting trailers I eventually had to add my own flavor and style to the mix to come up with a recipe that fits the scope of what I am aiming for.

I did my research cut my trailer, then talked to a few producers about my plans. They suggested I edit my trailer as a short film instead, so I shot a bit more footage, added some animation and special fx to help move the story forward and produced a 7 min short film instead of  a 1 ½ min trailer. Why a short film instead of a trailer? Because a short film has longer legs, you can tell more of the story to potential investors and you now have a product that can be entered into festivals as well as added on IMDb for a movie credit.

Here’s the short film I wrote, produced, directed and star in titled, Apartment X

I found this article to be very helpful, perhaps it will help you as well: HOW TO CUT A MOVIE TRAILER | Filmmaker Magazine

I also found this page on wikipedia to be extremely informative: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailer_(film)

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