A FILM BY THE BALA BROTHERS

contact:nb@balafilms.com

SYNOPSIS

PROJECT OVERVIEW

PROJECT STATUS

THE FILMMAKERS

FILMMAKING PHILOSOPHY

TECHNICAL SPECS

DIRECTOR’S NOTEBOOK

CONTACT

After her daughter’s death is ruled an accidental overdose, Julie journeys to New York City to seek

revenge. But when Richmond, the businessman she holds responsible escapes by seconds, the only

way to reach him is through Alex, an illegal immigrant hired to paint his apartment. As the even-

ing progresses, Julie becomes entangled in Alex’s life. Illegal deals, guns, jealous girlfriends and a

celebration of life all collide, testing Julie’s resolve. Yet when Alex uncovers Julie’s real intention, he

decides to do whatever it takes to stop her, even if it means risking his own life. As Richmond is on

his way back, will Julie go through with her plan?

SYNOPSIS

-suspense drama-shooting this Fall in NYC-budget: 1M-Oscar nominated cast

PROJECT OVERVIEW

-looking for funding-Michael Shannon (Oscar nominee for ‘Revolutionary Road’)has signed on as ‘Richmond’, and Zoran Radanovich as ‘Alex’.

PROJECT STATUS

Zoran Radanovich during a ‘script workshop’.Michael Shannon

THE FILMMAKERS Branislav ‘Brane’ Bala (writer/director)

came to the US from his native Serbia at the age of seventeen as a

high school exchange student. That is when he picked up a cam-

era and started making music videos for local bands in Rochester,

NY. His interest in film and photography led him to study filmmak-

ing at the University of Rochester, where he shot guerrilla style

action films and learned cinematography.

His true formative years were while studying directing at Columbia

University’s Film School. His short films screened on international

film festival circuit, most notably a comedy “Shades of Gray” which

was picked up for distribution by Hypnotic, and was a winner of

“James Bridges Award for excellence in acting”. His commercial

spot “Magic” was a Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker’s Award

selection. Brane has also directed commercials for cable and web,

and music videos that screened at MTV Latin America and Eastern

Europe. He has produced two New York independent feature films.

With his brother Nemanja Bala he co-wrote four feature length

screenplays. Brane also teaches filmmaking in New York.

Nemanja Bala (writer/director)

came to the US at the age of nineteen, when he received a tennis

scholarship to study at the University of Hartford. There he majored

in film studies and began making short narrative and documentary

films. “On The Bridge”, inspired by the 1999 NATO bombings of

Serbia, screened on Serbian National Television.

He continued to direct and produce short films while at Columbia

University’s Graduate School of Film, but his interest mostly shifted

to screenwriting. His thesis script “Broken String” was an award

winning screenplay and “Exile” reached finalist stages at Sundance

Writer’s Lab and Tribeca’s All-Access Program. Since receiving

his MFA in Screenwriting in 2006, Nemanja’s been working as a

freelance writer and filmmaker in New York City. Most recently he

founded Beam5, a creative studio of filmmakers, animators and

designers, which focuses on commercial work.

FILMMAKING PHILOSOPHY

Our inspiration usually comes from the world that surrounds us: the neighborhood

we live in and people and their problems.

In that sense we are committed to first using what is available to us, whether it is a

location, available light, props or music. It is a way to create authenticity and keep

the production and the budget small and manageable.

Although we feel that the visuals and camera work are critical in making a memora-

ble film, we decide on these beforehand. We believe that actors are the key element

as the source of audience’s identification. That is why our main focus during the

production is on acting and creating the emotional truth.

In essence, we hope to create films that follow a simple pattern: provocative stories,

small budgets, strong emotional impact.

Screenplay workshops have completed, location scouting and initial camera tests are in progress. (‘Secondary Intention’ will be shot on location in Manhattan, Long Island City and Astoria.)

Top: An illegal deal, from Long Island City to Midtown: a restaurant van that sometimes transports ‘refurbished’ computers.

Right: A Latin woman, with no status, taking a break from waiting tables. Long Island City.

Top: Using what is available: Gypsy musicians at ‘Euzkadi’ in East Village on 4th street, who generously offered to perform their original music in ‘the bar scene’.

Middle: NYU student high with a businessman.

Right: Random violence on 44th Road in Long Island City.

TECHNICAL SPECS

‘Secondary Intention’ will be shot on ‘Epic’ camera with film

lenses (on location in New York City).

Its new sensor will make shooting of night exteriors fast and

manageable on a low budget.

DIRECTOR’S NOTEBOOK

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

In Secondary Intention, our protagonist Julie is in a haunting pre-

dicament: by her late 30s, she has already given birth and buried

her daughter. Having focused everything in her adult life on her

child, she is now left with nothing. Aside from dealing with grief,

the big question confronting her is what is she supposed to do

next? Go on living? Why? How? Who should she be now? Can

she still care about life?

Like many people dealing with grief, pain and anger, she channels

all her energy into blame –fuelling hatred towards the man she

holds responsible. She is determined to avenge her daughter at all

costs, subconsciously hoping that a single act of violence will fill the

void inside her.

On her quest, Julie encounters Alex, an illegal immigrant chased

by his own demons from the past. So when he figures out Julie’s

real intention, he makes it his mission to save her from destroying

herself - perhaps giving him a chance at his own redemption.

As they journey together, Alex leads Julie into frightening, embar-

rassing, dramatic and funny situations, inadvertently giving her one

more chance to experience the tapestry of human connections she

abandoned a long time ago, and to rediscover the excitement and

mystery of life. Whether or not these experiences have impacted

her is revealed in the climax as the three characters collide and

struggle with their own sense of guilt and responsibility.

This story has elements of suspense, drama and comedy, but we

hope it transcends the genres and digs deep into the psyche of its

characters offering some insight into human nature. We aim to

explore how people survive traumatic events, how they help each

other heal, find the strength to forgive, and rediscover a purpose

and meaning to their existence. Hopefully it makes you cry, laugh

and cheer, but above all, it should fill you with hope.

Nemanja Bala & Brane Bala

CAMERAWe need to establish a visual language that will do two critical things:1. create a subjective POV of our protagonist Julie so we can experience her emotional state throughout her journey.2. Let the actors perform, since the film is dependent on the perfor-mances.

These two seem contradictory since the latter implies the camera is going to be unobtrusive, often in long takes and on a wider lens, covering the action in loose medium shots, giving actors enough room to interact; the camera is hand held, so it is mobile enough to quickly adjust to all the blocking, but should be as steady as possible, not calling attention to itself.However, just covering the action will not give the audience the neces-sary emotional insight into Julie. For this we need to be able to visually interpret her various emotional states, from despair, to anger, fear. A good actress will create this in her performance but, for the larger context, we need specific visuals to give us certain clues. We need to carefully weave images that will trigger associations; certain familiar images, but in differ-

APPROACH TO VISUAL STYLE

Julie puts on a disguise: a wig, an outfit that’s like an ‘armor’, and gets a gun. Sarah’s necklace will remain unconsciously in our minds as something she is searching for.

ent contexts, should create different reactions in Julie. That’s why these visuals need to be seen from her subjective POVs. For example, a photograph of Julie and Sarah in the very beginning of the film should resemble the photograph of Alex and his mother and that prompts Julie to ask him if he tells his mother how things really are. She is thinking about Sarah and her not telling Julie what her life was really like in NYC. Julie seeing Vicky in a dress that reminds us of the one Sarah had in the prom video, and then seeing Boris fooling around with Vicky also creates a strong reaction in Julie.

Many critical moments in the film come from Julie seeing things and then reacting to them. We need to establish a pattern that the audience is able to understand that certain POVs will be followed by certain emotional reactions.A lot of her emotional state should be established through the environ-ment, both literal and cinematic. The quickest way to do this is through set design, lighting and score.

SETSFor example, when Julie sees all the bright lights of NYC, is she excited or disgusted? Do all the images of barely dressed young women remind her of her past and what happened to Sarah? While these images might ini-

As Julie approaches Richmond’s apartment, suspense builds through the use of POV and hand-held tracking shots.

tially seem like mere cut-aways to establish the location, they need to be carefully selected to give the audience the insight of what Julie’s selective vision notices and how it makes her feel.

LOCATIONS AND PRODUCTION DESIGNThere is a lot of obvious contrast in the locations: the story starts in up-state NY in a small working class town. It is deserted, empty, depressing. Shopping malls, empty streets. This is the world that surrounds Julie. Her house is neat; everything seems to be in place. But it is cold, almost sterile – it is missing a spirit, a soul - something that Julie needs to find.Richmond’s building should be new – a building where a businessman came to temporarily live with his family; glass, metal, silver colors give it a very cold, emotionless feeling.Streets of Midtown Manhattan are of course noise, messy. It is all too much for Julie to handle, and she’s not able to navigate through it.As she goes with Alex they cross the Queensboro Bridge and make a stop along 21st street in Astoria – area filled with mechanic shops, taxi stations, graffiti. We have an obvious sense of outskirts of the city, and the working class. There is a sense of danger but also we start to sense certain simplicity and spirituality.Alex’s place is in contrast to Julie’s and Richmond’s. He lives in an ‘old world’ typical Queens building made for the working class in the 1920s. Its architecture gives it a sense of history (and therefore spirituality), and his apartment is filled with paintings, photos of his family. Alex, although

Julie is surprised to find Alex, a friendly immigrant painter. We begin to suspect that ‘revenge story’ will become secondary as Julie’s plan quickly fails.

Richmond, the businessman she wants to kill, gets away; she misses him by seconds. He appears to be a kind and generous guy, which raises a question about Julie’s inten-tion. Balancing suspense is crucial in this sequence.

perhaps lost in his life, is in touch with his spirituality and his family (although only his mother is alive). Paintings will obviously give a big op-portunity to show us Alex’s inner life. Most of his furniture, appliances are made out of wood – again in contrast to Richmond (but similar to Julie’s) connecting them on that very primal level.His place should be in contrast to Julie’s in that it is packed with objects, each representing a memory, an event, and different periods of his life - something that Julie repressed and we don’t see it in her place.Lighting, along with production design, will definitely set the mood for the first (very long) scene in Alex’s apartment. Colombian restaurant, Maria’s workplace, is another location where we continue to feel certain spirituality. Either the actual locations, which can be colorful, or colors that production design can reinforce. But in all this, there should be something antagonistic – Maria is imprisoned by this place (perhaps that means making colors colder).Next we are in Midtown Manhattan. Neon lights, ads with young women on them. We need to capture this artificial, fake glamour, in which mid-town can overwhelm human spirit.In contrast to it, we go to an ethnic bar. It is colorful, soulful, music plays, people celebrate life. It should have a warm, candle-lit like feeling; ideally the bar’s interior will have all this already, with its character, colors. Its warmth is essential, since this is where Julie and Alex share a moment – and Julie has the last chance to feel human connection, and perhaps abort her plan.

Julie decides to go with Alex; from now on they are stuck together. Camera often frames them in a two shot, ap-propriate for the ’real time’ unfolding of the story.

Since Sarah overdosed in a bathroom, there can be an effective way to isolate the space of the bathroom with color, lighting – perhaps with green (light/color), giving it a sense of something poisonous; it will be pre-sent in frames from time to time, subconsciously luring us to go there…and Julie does.Exterior of the bar, takes us to the streets of East Village - it’s a mix of history, projects, college students, young hipsters. Lighting here should reinforce yellow, perhaps with some green (which we just experienced) as things come very close to death.Julie wakes up in Alex’s bedroom, which we haven’t seen up to this point. The bedroom should be cold in colors (perhaps blue like Sarah’s necklace). It should be simple, almost surprising compared to his living room. But the essence is that Alex is alone, there is ‘death present in his bedroom’ (which hints at his backstory and his demons). And most importantly, at this point Julie and Alex bond over death and loss. The design, colors and lighting should reinforce this.The bedroom will also get very dark as Boris keeps an eye on Julie, when she is tied up. Through these visuals, we are putting Julie literally in the ‘darkest moments’ on her journey.In the climax, as Julie attempts to kill Richmond and Alex tries to stop her, we are back in the modern, ‘antagonistic’ midtown building. The apart-ment should be high up – there is a haunting feeling of possible death (or

Alex calls Richmond to find out when he’s coming back. As they wait for the answer, the atmosphere through lighting and production design becomes crucial in an eight minute scene.

forgiveness) happening further from the ground and closer to the sky.The apartment is mostly empty. Alex painted it white. As the backstory becomes clear (Sarah’s overdose, and Richmond’s involvement), its white setting and empty interior give it an ‘existential’ feeling – either someone will die, or forgiveness will take place, and like the empty apartment, there will be a clean slate for Julie. The biggest challenge here will be to use lighting to create a sense of space and perspective.Camera will be mostly hand-held, tight, dramatizing the immediacy and nervousness of the situation.Then Julie and Alex come down from the high-rise, back to the ground…and… Finally there is a release as Julie and Alex are by the river. They sit on a wooden bench. It is the first time we see water. Julie, standing next to water and away from the city, has regained certain spirituality, found her soul again. The wind blows. Nature, life, pushing/helping a change in Julie.

COSTUMESThe costumes we choose are very important since the story takes place over just two days, and for most of the time the main characters are in one costume.

Julie finds herself in an embarassing situation as jealous Maria confronts Alex. The design of the restaurant, its cold atmosphere, should reinforce Maria’s entrampment. We sympathize with her, and so does Julie. Although dramatically it is Alex’s scene, the focus needs to be on Julie’s reaction to the situation.

Alex sings a song, gets something off his chest, and celebrates life. For the first time Julie smiles, feels alive. It is a chance to connect with another human being, and perhaps abort her mission. It is a big step for Julie, so lighting and production design have to set the right atmosphere.

Vicky, a college student who resembles Sarah, offers Julie coke in the bathroom of a bar. Julie feels like being next to her daughter and unable to stop her or help her. It is a rare instance where the camera should push in on a dolly from a two shot into a single on Julie, dramatizing Julie’s emotional response.

We come very close to death as Alex is attacked by Victor and his gang. Julie’s maternal instinct kicks in and she saves him. A complex night exterior scene which should be hand-held yet carefully choreographed and storyboarded.

We meet Julie at work in her work clothes. Then at home, where she wears a t-shirt and sweatpants - tattoos on her body perhaps surprise us and pose a question about her character, her past. As she goes to Randy, we get a glimpse at what she usually wears – jeans, sneakers, (leather) jacket? Or a fleece? Perhaps she’s lost a need to have style and look good; she almost makes herself unattractive.Then she puts on a disguise that she will have for the rest of the film: a wig, a business like pants and shirt, a coat that will give her style, but won’t attract attention, stylish shoes? And a leather purse.It should be a look that is like an armor to her – protecting her, hiding her, but should give us also a sense of underlying sensuality, spirituality, need for life. Perhaps underneath she wears a very sensual shirt (color wise), with an ‘open neck’ where Sarah’s necklace will eventually rest.Richmond is in a business suit: he may have a tie, but loose…as a man who is trying to get rid off/free himself of guilt, he is trying to get out of ‘who he is’, his suit. It gives us a sense he doesn’t feel comfortable in his surroundings, and perhaps there may be much more to him – then just a typical business like appearance. Julie meets Alex in his painter’s overalls, and he looks very immigrant, harmless…we have seen this struggling guy before. The hat he wears will give him a lot of character, so it is very important. But beneath the overalls there is perhaps an old rock’n’roll t-shirt of bands he likes (Ra-

Alex ties Julie up in his apartment to stop her from killng Richmond. Their costumes come off in this scene; Julie’s shirt underneath can tell us a lot about her desire, and the choice of its color will be crucial as Alex tries to take charge of her.

mones, etc).But then he changes as he gets ready to go out: he wears jeans, t-shirt, shoes, leather jacket. It’s a casual but stylish look that surprises Julie (and us). It is probably how Julie would dress, if she weren’t pretending. In this way they should look like a couple, complementing each other.We realize there is much more to Alex.They stay in this wardrobe until they are back at his place after she passes out and wakes up in Alex’s bedroom. Julie’s coat, ‘armor’, is off, and we see her in a ‘sensual shirt’. Alex has taken off his jacket and is only in his shirt. This is an important moment, since their (lack of) clothes should allude to possibility of romance and connection in otherwise pain-ful, heavy scene.After that, Julie will put her ‘armor’ back on, and Alex will get into his work clothes (perhaps a different shirt underneath – maybe closer in color to Julie’s shirt).They will confront Richmond, in his business attire…his shirt will soon be bloody… As the film ends, Julie’s ‘armor’ will come off: her wig, her coat will be unbuttoned…and the missing piece, Sarah’s necklace will hang around her neck. PROPSThere is Alex’s beat up SUV. It is an SUV because it is large enough to store paint buckets, brushes, and yet it is mobile enough, gets Alex quickly around the city...and can still have that bachelor feeling. Its exte-

Julie is tied up in the bedroom while Alex and Boris discuss how to get rid off the gun and the coke; a sense of danger, potential rape, abuse. Tension builds, she needs to free herself to get to Richmond (on time). A wide screen composition achieves all of these things in a single frame.

Julie will try anything to free herself: negotiation, seduction, whatever it takes to fulfill her plan. The razor is set up earlier when Alex shaves before they go out.

Julie is ready to kill Richmond and Alex tries to per-suade her not to do it. Camera becomes hand-held, putting us in the middle of the situation.

Julie wants Richmond to die the same way Sarah did, so she forces him to snort coke. With the climax tak-ing place in an empty apartment, there is a challenge of creating the perspective through composition and lighting.

Richmond jumps at Julie, and Alex jumps at Richmond. They all struggle for the gun. It is a typical ‘climac-tic’ moment involving a gun; the question is how to stage it or shoot it so it feels fresh. Shooting a lengthy emotional scene like this may require two cameras to capture actors’ performances.

rior should be beat up, rusty. Perhaps bright colors, like white, would be best. Its interior is equally beat up, with some of Alex’s objects hanging around: stickers of Croatian soccer teams, etc.Julie’s purse (mentioned in costume section).Julie’s gun should be small enough to fit into the coat. It’s important to decide on the ’feel’ of it in the in the climactic scene and work backwards from there.Sarah’s necklace. We write is as ’blue necklace’. For sure its color needs to have some unconscious impact. Maybe Alex’s color of eyes should match the color of the necklace? Or Julie’s?

Perhaps it is a necklace that Julie got from her mother and gave it to Sarah, so it is older in design...

SOUND AND MUSICOur starting point should be the diagetic music, and we should see how to make the most of it.First time we hear it could be when Alex paints Richmond’s apartment; he has a stereo he carries with him. The music should be rock’n’roll.Perhaps there is some background music in Colombian restaurant. It should not attract attention, and really feel just like ambient sound.Next we hear rock’n’roll again as Alex and Julie get in the car after the Columbian restaurant. This piece of music is important since it spills over some traveling shots and montage of Midtown images. Since Alex is pissed off here, the music should be more aggressive as well; however, we can then cut into a different piece that tells us more about Julie’s state - something more reflexive, as she watches the Midtown images and thinks about Sarah; perhaps diagetic music fades out, and score music fades in to emphasize Julie’s state.We are next at a bar where gypsy music plays. This should be guitars, strings. We should find songs that are in public domain.Alex sings a song from his country. We should figure out what we can get rights to.

Julie is shocked that Richmond saved Sarah’s necklace. The use of a prop sends us back to the beginning in which it was unconsciously set up as something that Julie needs to find. The color and design of the necklace are crucial.

Julie’s moment alone as she takes in the whole experi-ence. She’s found some closure. The necklace will hang around her neck, connecting her forever with her daughter. Alex is in the background as a possible companion in the days to come.Location and weather are key in this scene: we are next to water for the first time, which gives us a sense of peace. The wind blows, helping the change in Julie.

Throughout the rest of the scene there can be a more generic bar music, upbeat. This will give a sense of youthfulnes, as Vicky reminds Julie of Sarah; some kind of upbeat, club/techno (but as ambience) perhaps will add to Julie’s nervousness about the whole situation.After this, we’ll probably want some silence, and maybe score music if necesseary, as now we get deeper into the story and characters.The next time there can be diagetic music/sound, is when Boris watches after Julie. He probably has the tv on (a show, music, whatever can be coming from it). So, the priority is to decide on the music gypsies play and what Alex sings - as these are performed in the film. The rest can be decided on in post-production, allong with the score music.

FILMS TO WATCHSome films that we’ve looked at as points of discussions are: Mean Streets (for its camera and authenticity created through production de-sign), Beat That My Heart Skipped (for its realistic approach, camera work and creation of impressionistic moments, and use of diagetic and score music), Collateral (for its use of locations and textures of a city created through high definition), Two Lovers (for its performances and contrast of modern and old New York through locations and production design), 21 Grams (for its raw energy and capturing of the performances).

Nemanja Bala & Brane Bala

nb@balafilms.com | 646 269 3072

A FILM BY THE BALA BROTHERS