Room SS1070, Sidney Smith Hall
100 St. George Street
Toronto, ON, M5S 3G3
Friday 11.30AM SS1070, Sidney Smith Hall 100 St. George Street- Feature Screenplay Live Read- Tickets $ 12 each :
SENIOR, STUDENT, F+F Friday 11.30AM SS1070, Sidney Smith Hall 100 St. George Street – Feature Screenplay Live Read – SENIOR, STUDENT, F+F Tickets $ 6 each :
Live Feature Read
11:30AM-1:30PM
Speak Easy (116 Pages) – Screenwriter, Joey Perotti –
Synopsis: Prohibition detectives Westlake and Sheffield are on the hunt for the supplier of a new and deadly hooch making the rounds in San Francisco, but will a scheming journalist and a nightclub singer with less-than-noble intentions derail the case and possibly… their friendship?
Key Words: #SpeakEasy #WetDetectives #FilmNoir Comedy #Crime #Action #Mystery #History #Adventure #Prohibition #Bromance
Instagram: @joeyperotti
BIO: Joey Perotti was born on April 10, 1989. He studied film at California State University, Monterey Bay and attained his Bachelor’s degree in Teledramatic Arts & Technology with a concentration in screenwriting and directing. His capstone film, Back Home, a short documentary about two veterans from different eras dealing with post-war life, earned him an award of merit from the Best Shorts Competition in La Jolla. Shortly after graduating, Joey worked as a production assistant and assistant editor for Loteria Films in Berkeley, California. He then moved on to teach film and video at his alma mater, Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco and currently teaches Video Production & Storytelling at Notre Dame High School in Salinas. Joey continues to write, and his screenplays have been finalists in the Carmel Art & Film Festival, Cinequest Film Festival, and, most recently, the Nashville Film Festival. He currently lives with his wife and dog in Monterey, California.
Inspiration for My Screenplay
Speak Easy comes out of my love for film noir. I had written short pieces within the genre before, but I had always wanted to tackle a feature with all of the tropes that come with it. The challenge, of course, is figuring out how to do something new with the material, something I hadn’t seen before. So, instead of using the classic “lone detective operating in the shadows” trope, I gave him a partner, and the story instantly became about their friendship. I based their dynamic on me and my best friend, and in doing so, slowly found bits of comedy seeping its way into the story.
I set the story in San Francisco during Prohibition, a city I feel always gets overlooked in favor of New York and Chicago when talking about the period. The 1920s setting gave way to all sorts of jazz-era fun and allowed me to play with the “alcoholic detective” trope, adding a nice layer of irony I wouldn’t have had otherwise. In the end, the story became an odd mix of film noir and buddy-cop comedy, and the friendship at the center of the story wound up making it the most personal script I’ve ever written.