Now, for the editing of You Can’t Invent These Things, Hollywood Style. The scene took place earlier this week near the beach in Venice, California. Picture this:
It is around noon on Monday and a group of actors repeat lines for a black comedy on the bridge of a personal side street of Abbot Kinney, the glamorous buyable shopping band that houses retail stores such as James Perse and Shinola and the Gjelina restaurant.
The script is for a short film titled The Bag Sonata. It’s a botched robbery in which one of the characters kills someone. Writer/director Justin Yoffe urges actors to “push things” when it comes to dialogue.
“The actors shout lines such as:” Have you killed this type? “” Yes, I killed the type “”, explains Yoffe, director of local theater corporations for a long time and who is now a cultural manager of the city of Santa Monica. “At one time, one of the characters says: ‘There is blood, Tommy, a lot of blood!’ “
About 30 minutes later, a helicopter begins to go around.
“The noise is a little uncomfortable,” Yoffe says, “but I think, ‘No, it’s Venice. ‘ What are you for? We can process. “”
He asked the actors to redirect the scene, and that this time they “went absolutely to excess. ” I told them: “Give everything and we can come back later. ” “
The helicopter is already officially discomfort. It is above us, we incline more and more and the organization wonders aloud what is happening.
“We said, whatever’s going down, it must be really close,” Yoffe says. He gazes up and notices someone inside the helicopter staring back at him. That’s when things get surreal.
The Pont Du Pont opens and 4 Swat Gear police officers are filled with rifles and tasters, Yoffe said.
The actors look at the police. Police look at the actors.
One of the cries: “Oh, they have a script!”
Everyone relaxes.
“I had fun and scared at the same time, and then I was impressed,” says Yoffe. “If we had acted on the scene with false weapons, things may have become very dark. “
After receiving a 9-1-1 call about a possible murder at that address, the police blocked off part of Abbot Kinney and sent a tactical squad into the building, says LAPD Pacific Division Sergeant John Marquez, who took the report at dispatch command. “Someone called to report a homicide suspect and said they heard there was blood everywhere,” Marquez says.
I asked if this is a thing that happens often in Los Angeles, city of movie dreams.
“Not in my 30 years of work,” says Márquez.
Yoffe says the police couldn’t have been more friendly or professional.
“They were prepared for an active shooter, not a script reading,” he says. “This episode told me a few things. First, shooting incidents have become all too common in America. Second, I got the right cast. Third, the dialogue definitely works.”
That’s for sure.
Forbes print article on traveling the world by private jet. But concerts and culinary popups at iconic L.A. venues are also his jam. His bylines surface in The New York Times, GQ, Food + Wine, Town + Country and other venues. Hochman graduated from Columbia Journalism School with a Pulitzer traveling fellowship, and from Vassar College as an English major. Follow Hochman for continued coverage on what’s delicious, refreshing, inspiring, indulgent and entertaining in California and way beyond.