Go behind-the-scenes at a one-of-a-kind comedy festival with a very funny and talented comic.

This mini documentary  showcases hilarious stand-up comic Jeremiah Watkins at a Houston comedy festival as performs various sets, hangs with fellow comics, and goes on a wildly popular podcast.  He also hosts his own podcast that includes short interviews w/ Doug Stanhope, Eddie Pepitone, Josh Potter, Kurt Metzger, and Kevin Ryan.

The piece provides a glimpse to what life is like on the road for a popular headlining comic.

Ed Hill’s first ever comedy special, originally slated to tape in March of 2020, received the COVID treatment. In his case, this meant a closed set for filming with just a handful of family and friends. They sit in a circle for the entirety of the set, AA-style, facing Hill. The Taiwanese Canadian comedian maximizes the emotional impact of this support group-type set up, and his hour is all the better for it. This isn’t a laugh-a-minute set, and that’s not Hill’s aim, either. He takes his time letting anecdotes unfurl themselves. Candy and Smiley is loosely structured around nuggets of wisdom Hill imparts about goodbyes, differences and other certainties of life. None of them are particularly earth-shattering, but most truths in life aren’t. Hill himself knows that well; he recalls vowing as a teenager that he’d be different from his parents, who themselves immigrated to Canada in search of a different life. No matter how much we try to separate ourselves from our origins, those inevitabilities catch up with us sooner or later.—Clare Martin

https://www.pastemagazine.com/comedy/best-of-the-year/best-comedy-specials-of-2021-so-far/#10-danny-jolles-six-parts

Over the past several years we have produced over 80 documentaries for  international distribution.  For over the past decade, RabbitView has produced documentaries for The Documentary Channel and CTV, TV commercials, a weekly TV Real Estate series for Corus Customs Network, and a national ad campaign for Le Chateau.  Our work has also appeared on such broadcast outlets as ESPN, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Dish, DirectTV, Spectrum, Google Play.

We draw upon this experience so entrepreneurs and corporate clients can have on-going content that is authentic and engaging.

In the early 80’s Anvil toured with the likes of The Scorpians, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi and Guns N’ Roses.  While all of those bands went on to enormous fame and riches, Anvil certainly did not.  And while lead singer and guitarist Steve “Lips” Kudlow ends up as a delivery driver for a catering service company he is determined to remain steadfast in his dreams of having the band making it.  He is resolute in keeping the band together regardless of the financial, family and practical obstacles that they encounter.  Steve is endlessly industrious is coming up with ways to finance the band’s efforts is unwavering in his spirit and passion as he gets the band together to record their 13th album and subsequently go on a European tour.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil is an endearing story about resilience and determination.  Following the band’s improbable dream provides insight into their unique friendship and bond, and leads to an examination of broader examination goal-setting, loyalty, success, heartbreak, and external validation.  There is an undeniable appeal to the band’s commitment.  The film’s tagline is “At fourteen, they made a pact to rock together forever. They meant it.”

The film is directed by Sacha Gervasi who was originally a roadie for the band while at the height of their success.  It is clear he recognized that the band (and their lead singer in particular) have an unflappable nature that resonates.  The film is a fantastic mix of humour, poignancy, and inspiration.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil is a highly entertaining documentary that inspires us to seek out subjects that are similarly consumed by a personal quest.

Just finished the filming of comic Ed Hill’s comedy special “Candy & Smiley” – Ed is a fantastic comic and great storyteller. The show was originally slated for a big theater in March but obviously the pandemic forced the production to change course. The result was an very unique comedy show in front of an intimate audience. Now on to editing this one of a kind comedy piece. It is scheduled to be distributed by Comedy Dynamics.

Originally from Taiwan, Ed is an award winning comic who moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, thinking he was on vacation at his father’s discretion.

Since then, Ed has performed all over the world. He was voted “Best Vancouver Comedian of 2016” by West Ender Magazine, and “Best Vancouver Comedian of 2015” by West Ender Magazine and The Georgia Straight, and named “Comic to Watch” in 2018 by Reader’s Digest Magazine and in 2015 by Canadian Immigrant Magazine. He has also appeared on AXS TV’s “Gotham Comedy Live”, “Laughs” on FOX, TED talks, Bite TV’s “Stand up & Bite Me”, and XM Radio’s “Laugh Attack”. He was also invited to perform at the Just For Laughs Northwest Comedy Festival, Comedy Masala in Singapore, Live Comedy Club in Taiwan, the Hong Kong Comedy Festival, NXNE, San Francisco Comedy Festival, and many more.

Ed’s tweets have also been featured on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon”, Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, DOSE, and Distractify.

Behind-the-scenes content always provides insight into what a sub-culture is like and provides an opportunity to see authentic moments that are often both genuine and humorous.

In this video road comics Angelo Tsarouchas and Noel Elgrably hang out a the ‘Comic’s Condo’ while performing at Rick Bronson’s The Comic Strip in Edmonton Canada.

In this piece the comics are having a morning coffee – around noon – after a late night show. Topics include, helping out fellow comics trying to make it, life on the road, the different scope of shows and audiences, getting a greencard, Canadian women, and craving cigars.

We look forward to the opportunity to cover a wide variety of eclectic comics, highlighting their diverse journeys and stories.  The world of comedy is rich with many compelling individuals. They are all on unique paths and the opportunity to chronicle these tales will definitely help us attain our goal of telling absorbing narratives with captivating visuals.

Jake Hirsch is a hard-charging manager with a diverse roster of talent.  He has his pulse on the comedy industry and in addition masterfully cultivating contacts with established headliners, club owners, and prominent Hollywood executives, Hirsch is known for his strong work ethic and integrity within the comedy community.  Partnering with Hirsch will undoubtedly provide access to a plethora of interesting comics and he will surely have strong strategic approach in marketing our material.

Rick Bronson is a veteran comic, who along with his wife Tammy, owns 3 successful comedy clubs, with a 4th on the way.  Rick has “done it all and seen it all” when it comes to comedy.  In addition to touring extensively as a headlining comic, and hosting a travel show, his clubs have hosted  the industry’s top headliners including: Bert Kreischer,  Ali Wong, Russell Peters, Iliza Shlesinger, Anthony Jeselnik, Brent Morin, Hannibal Buress, Justin Willman, Theo Von,  Michael Che, Jo Koy,  Ari Shaffir,  Marlon Wayans, Moshe Kasher,  Gilbert Gottfried, Kevin Nealon, Norm MacDonald, T.J. Miller, Damon Wayans, Kevin Pollack, Marc Maron, Tom Green, Nikki Glaser, Debra Digiovanni, Caroline Rhea, and many more. ​​​​​​​  As both an established performer and club owner, Bronson will be a fantastic asset in coming up with creative content and enabling access to various comics and clubs.

We have had the opportunity to work with both Hirsch and Bronson on our initial comedy projects and these experiences fueled our mutual enthusiasm to create ongoing doc-style content.  We plan on shooting broadcast shows, digital series, feature-length documentaries, live shows and events, as well as social media content.

Documentary content has the opportunity to be unbelievably compelling because it can provide an unfiltered glimpse behind-the-scenes of interesting subcultures. The comedy club scene and the world of comics certainly exemplifies a setting with colourful characters and scenarios as well as absorbing narratives.

This video highlights one of many shorts set that we filmed for The Jake Hirsch Entertainment Group. It features brash young comic Brett Forte, who has appeared at The World Famous Comedy Store opened for the likes of Bobby Lee and Chris D’Elia, and worked alongside Russell Peters.  He is a young comic on the rise. In addition to filming comics on-stage we look forward to supplementing that content by filming their antics off stage as well.

While the antics of comedians certainly will provide a lot of fodder for great viewing, we are trying to connect with entrepreneurs, leaders, trail-blazers, influencers or pundits who provides a service or product, or are beacons of a particular community, niche, lifestyle or subculture. These people/groups often have stories worth sharing and the creation of a systematized filming/editing workflow enables greater accessibility of professional on-going doc-style content.

RabbitView has had the opportunity to create numerous  “Day in the Life” style videos.  The subject matter of these productions has ranged from athletes, to entertainers, small business owners and even the victim of a car accident.  Invariably these documentary style videos have generated the most positive feedback for us.  The reason is simple; these documentary style productions enable the subject matter’s authenticity to be highlighted.  Subjects are not reciting lines or regurgitating a prepared script – they are in their everyday environment being genuine and our anecdotal evidence suggests that viewers connect with subjects that are real and sincere regardless of the subject matter.

As video producers we are constantly viewing content on-line, seeing how different individuals, companies and organizations are using video to highlight what they do.  It is important to keep on top of not only the sorts of subjects and topics that are being filmed, but also the different styles and techniques video producers are employing to tell these stories.  It is becoming very apparent that the ‘day in the life’ documentary style of story-telling is becoming more predominant for all types of businesses to highlight what they do.  The Ultimate Fighting Championship has a series where they follow fighters before their fights – instead of seeing canned interviews and staged press gatherings, viewers can see intimate moments of the fighters with the family and friends, the down times between training sessions, as well as their actual training. Viewers are able to connect with the fighters, see them as likeable husbands, fathers, sons and friends, and in turn are more likely to root for them, look for their upcoming fights, follow them on soical media, and perhaps buy their next pay per view event.

These sorts of videos are not limited to high profile athletes or celebrities.  Recently I had the chance to view mini documentaries from Travelocity – the travel company filmed a series of shorts where they gave free vacations away to “deserving” families.  These were not your standard travel advertisements with smooth talking models walking the beautiful beaches in slo-motion of sunny beaches accompanied with slick visuals of various global destinations.  Rather they told the backstory of people with varying backgrounds who have not had the chance to travel in the past.  The anticipation builds as the “deserving” families discuss the reasons they have not been able to travel and then are ultimately rewarded with a free vacation – their reactions are emotional and real.  Their tears of joy are then followed by a montage of intimate images showcasing the family having the time of their lives, talking about how wonderful travel is and important travel can be to attain a well balanced life.

Expedia – Video Documentary Advertisement

We generally click away from advertising as quickly as possible when watching TV or surfing the web.  Although ads are generally no more than 30 seconds and are essentially paying for the content we watch, we generally have no patience for them (with the exception being Super Bowl ads). The “day in the life” documentary style pieces buck that trend by being more subtle.  It is compelling to watch an unsuspecting family receive a free trip, be very appreciative, and then see footage of them actually going on that trip.  Obviously we are conscious on some level that the company responsible for the trip is trying to build good will and ingratiate us to them.  However, we are not as apt to be cynical and turn away because the content is real and absorbing.  In turn, because we are genuinely engaged, the advertiser might have succeeded in their goal of building allegiance.  Viewers will likely become more mindful of the use of documented stories by advertisers – as they grow in popularity – so they are less prone to being manipulated by advertisers’ agendas.   Regardless, the importance of and power of telling a genuine story to highlight a person, service, event, business, etc., cannot be negated.  Viewers can assess for themselves if the subject matter is indeed genuine and inevitably the more “real” it feels, the more likely the video will be viewed  positively and yield favorable results for the producers.

From a video producers perspective, these documentary style of videos are more fulfilling to produce than tightly scripted pieces.  Generally, with “day in the life” chronicles, you are filming individuals that are sincerely passionate about what they do and we get to exercise our skills as visual storytellers.  Invariably when going to meetings with perspective clients, these are the videos we show because they are the most engaging.  We recently filmed a “day in the life” video with Wayne Lee.  He is a corporate hypnotist and speaker.  In the piece (which you can view by clicking on the screen above),  you not only get to see Wayne perform but you get to be a fly on the wall and get to see him behind-the-scenes.  His enthusiasm and passion to perform as well as his dedication to his craft are highlighted – ultimately we think it is an entertaining piece for viewers while also building Wayne’s brand as a highly appealing corporate speaker.  Getting to know him is good for building his brand.

Another important benefit from these sorts of videos is that they have the potential to be wildly popular.  One of the day in the life videos that we produced of CrossFit athlete Lucas Parker has over 1.5 million hits and plenty of interesting commentary in the comments section.  Candid videos that document interesting subject matter has the ability to educate, enlighten,  entertain and generate lively debate.  It also captures people’s imagination.  We all love stories – it is why we go to the movies, watch TV, view web-series, and read books.

These sorts of productions are also relatively cost effective to produce.  While we take pride in the quality of our high definition visual images and want to make sure the sound is broadcast quality, we also want to make sure productions are streamlined so that these videos work within client’s marketing budgets.  This efficiency enables us to keep costs down for our clients and allow the client to go through their day in a fairly normal fashion while being chronicled.  There is no need for extensive lights, wardrobe and make-up units, or giant crews – usually a 1 or 2 man crew can suffice and current camera packages allow producers to capture amazing images while remaining inconspicuous.  There is also no need for time consuming scripting, minute story-boarding, and memorization of tedious text.   Simple outlines of the key story points and visuals enable an experienced production team to come up with an engaging visual piece that rings true.  Furthermore, these sorts of videos can be edited with a quick turnaround time so clients can integrate this current content on their websites and social media platforms in a timely fashion.

Finally, the client has the flexibility to have the videos cut into sections of their preferred length so they can have consistent content.   The pared down costs of these sorts of documentary videos enable them to employ video on an on-going basis so that their visual media is not static.   These new video story updates enables them to connect with their audience with regular fresh content.  A client can tell their story in small chunks at a time as it naturally unfolds – it can be anything from one minute updates to a more comprehensive legnthy chronicles.

I know from our perspective we want to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with clients – the more we chronicle what they do, the more they grow and succeed.

Jeremy Podlog – RabbitView Video