[polartx]

Nah. OP _almost_ finessed his mistake, almost.

What the subtext says to me is that the assistant director, or whoever OP talked to, was well aware that OP was just some rando passing through, (probably through experience working in cities), and not a unionized member of SAG. The “nice work” comment was an opportunity for OP to say, ‘uh huh’ and float the director enough plausible deniability to salvage the shot. As soon as he said, “no”, it’s cut and reshoot. Probably not a big deal, but worth a shot (pun intended) from the director.

[mtalantikite]

Yeah, this is how I read it as well. The fact that I was trying to buy something from the bodega owner is I think what tipped them off that I wasn't supposed to be there. The place was clearly closed for regular business.

They definitely didn't want to have to call 'cut' in that moment -- you've already set up the shot and have J Lo (and I think Ray Liotta) doing their thing. Starting over isn't ideal (but probably not a huge deal).