I’m in Hollywood

Chapter 137 - Producer Part 1

        In a high-rise building in Downtown Los Angeles, near Santa Monica Expressway, a 500 meters long street was blocked not allowing any external vehicles to enter. Starting from eight o'clock in the morning, only the vehicles that transported the shooting equipment's, and the and the men responsible for unloading the equipment's were allowed to enter.

The nearby residents quickly got accustomed to the presence of the crew, because in Los Angeles there was countless movie crew on the roads. And because this wasn't a busy road, every few months a new movie crew will come to their street, most of the times they didn't even feel their presence because by the time they come back from work they find them gone.

But this time because the film contained two famous superstars Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks, And because of Eric, the young director, who made great achievements before he has even reached the age of nineteen, many people come, in hopes of getting to meet their favorite superstars.

The onlookers crowded around the streets with cameras just like the paparazzi, expecting to shoot some valuable photos, although the crew was doing everything in their power to prevent them from taking the pictures, but some of them still slipped by them and were able to take some shots.

"Three actors are in place, right?" standing next to three identical taxis, Eric asked his assistant as he watched the photographers install the cameras on the vehicles.

"Fifty people are in place, and Royce asked me to ask you, when will you like to start?"

"Let's do it according to plan, have them familiarize themselves with the path they need to walk, as we take a few street scenes."

"Ok," Alan replied and said: "By the way, the community agency stated that we will have to open the road for an hour at noon. And the reason they give was that at that time, the traffic will be relatively large, and some people will need to pass from this street."

Noon wasn't the time people commute from work to home, so he was sure the traffic wouldn't increase too much, and the crew also need to eat at noon.

"Tell them, there is no problem, from twelve 'clock to one o'clock, we will stop filming, and we evacuate the street."

After Alan left, Eric turned his attention to the three identical taxis, they also had exactly the same license plate number. This was done so that after filming no loopholes will appear in the details of this scene. Once the shoot is complete, the crew will change the taxis license plates to the original ones.

The inside of the taxis was also identical, one car didn't require any processing, because the photographer will shoot from the copilot seat, and the other two cars were fitted with cameras, one was installed on the hood of the car, and one had the camera installed in the backseat.

Today they will shoot the scene where Sean will drive Andy to the police station, this scene should last less than two minutes. But if things go smoothly, Eric was expecting this scene to take them the entire day, and he will probably end up with close to one hour of lens material to work with.

After all the cameras were installed on the taxi, Eric picked up his walkie-talkie and began giving orders to all the crew.

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As Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks got off the trailers they were staying in, the paparazzi who were nearby waiting for them started frantically pressing the camera shutter. The two weren't dressed in anything special, Cruise wore black casual clothes, while Hanks was dressed like delivery courier, a cap on his head, and a plain white work suit.

After Eric briefed them on what to do, the two men got into the taxi that had no modifications.

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After the short briefing, Eric went to look at the wireless monitor, to determine if the lighting and angle of the lens are correct, after determining that everything is alright he asked his assistance using the walkie-talkie: "Alan, is the shooting area clear of outsiders?"

"Clear, the only ones left are our actors." Alan's voice sounded from the walkie-talkie, mixed with the sound of static.

Eric had to confirm again because if after the production is finished, someone who isn't one of the actors he hired appeared on the screen, he will have a huge problem in his hands.

Most of the crowds you see in movies these days are actors, and they are very expensive to hire. It was a known thing in the industry that you can't have any scenes in your movie with real people in the background, even if you tell the crowds about it, and they agreed to cooperate, you shouldn't do it. Because once they find themselves appearing in a movie, the first thing they will do is contact their lawyers, to sue you for reasons such as infringement on their rights.

Usually, those kinds of lawsuits result in film companies paying at least eighty thousand dollars as reimbursement, and in worst cases, your movie may be removed from the cinemas, until you edit the film, which can result in millions of dollars in losses.

So even though he confirmed that no one is in the background, he was going to do a detailed screening of all the people who appeared in the shoot, to make sure that there are no "outsiders" mixing with the actors.

So, when you see a scene in a Hollywood movie where the protagonist is walking or driving in a crowded street, know that every one of them is a paid actor.
 

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