Written by: Greg Cayea
Carpe Noctis is a late-night theatre festival, taking place in Hollywood, from 10PM-3AM in October. They were suddenly in a seeming movie all of their own, when police helicopters thought they were conducting some dangerous operation in Hollywood! As follows…
We were in all black. Tara, Jerried and myself. I wanted to wear my mustard pants but Tara wouldn’t let me. So we were in all black. We rented a 14ft Uhaul. Then my buddy Mark showed up in his 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS and the documentation shoot had officially begun.
We wanted the biggest building in Hollywood and I had staked out our spot. Perfect. Nobody would catch us.
We carefully backed into a small alleyway by the side of a Mobil gas station on Santa Monica and Highland and turned the engine off. Tara asked the gas station attendant if we could leave the Uhaul where it was while we grabbed some dinner at Subway. No problem. Great. We walked across the street to the Subway, ordered four sandwiches and waited for the sun to completely set.
Darkness arrived. We crossed back over and snuck into the back of the truck, put our flashlight app from our iPhone on and began the setup. A C-Stan, one Leko light with a stenciled gobo, three lenses and a gasoline-filled generator. Jerried turned his police radar on.. another handy iPhone app for occasions such as this. Tara got in the drivers seat to keep lookout.
Let¹s do this shit. Jerried tugged the generator and I aimed the projector and…
BOOM!
Carpe Noctis illuminated the side of the biggest building in Hollywood. We got all the footage we needed and Jerried turned the police radar off. We were done. Mission accomplished. Mark took off. Tara and Jerried and I started breaking everything down. Wait. A helicopter showed up. Shit. It was the LAPD. They circled the textile building from high up. Is that us?
Uhh. Not sure. The helicopter got lower and started circling over the building in an even tighter circle. Pretty sure that’s us! Then came the spotlight as the helicopter stopped and hovered over the exact spot we were projecting onto. Yo that is DEFINITELY for us. QUICK! MOVE!
Jerried grabbed the generator and threw it back into the truck and screamed. Yo! Hold the shit and make sure nothin falls! He leapt out of sight and dove into the drivers seat, leaving Tara and I in the back of the truck with thousands of dollars of lighting equipment (not to mention a generator filled with gasoline).
The helicopter started circling our uhaul. Tara and I and the equipment all JUTTED forwarded as the Uhaul peeled away. The door was still wide open. SHUT THE DOOR! Tara screamed!
The projector swung back and forth, the lenses were scraping the floor of the Uhaul and the generator was clinkity clanging in all directions. If one thing broke we were fucked. If the generator fell we¹d be soaked in gasoline. CLOSE THE DOOR! Tara screamed again.
But the Uhaul was moving so fast I couldn’t grab onto it. We both reached for the handle and lowered the door as low as we could get it. A bright beam snuck under the small opening of the back of the Uhaul. Jerried sped up.
I had no idea where he was going. I could hear the helicopter. It was following us. Suddenly we came to a halt.
We were f*cked. Wait.. no. We weren’t We were parked out in the back of a 7-11 completely safe. Jerried had done it.
We made it.
To purchase Carpe Noctis Festival Passes, go to: here
