Pictures from the Set (Part 3)!

Tremaine Romeo, Genavieve White, and Youri Cho
 

© by Elisabeth Morales, 2011.

Shelley Virginia and Ivan Bukta 

© by Elisabeth Morales, 2011.

Youri Cho, Saro Varjabedian, Christopher Chan, and Ivan Bukta

© by Demond Robertson, 2011.

Youri Cho, Saro Varjabedian, and Ivan Bukta

© by Demond Robertson, 2011.

Youri Cho, Saro Varjabedian, and Ivan Bukta

© by Demond Robertson, 2011.

Genavieve White and Christopher Chan
© by Demond Robertson, 2011.

Youri Cho, Christopher Chan, and Ivan Bukta

© by Demond Robertson, 2011.

Youri Cho, Christopher Chan, and Genavieve White

© by Demond Robertson, 2011.

Saro Varjabedian, Genavieve White, and Youri Cho
© by Demond Robertson, 2011.

Saro Varjabedian, Youri Cho, Christopher Chan, and Eduard Ordonez
© by Demond Robertson, 2011.

Saro Varjabedian, Youri Cho, and Christopher Chan
© by Demond Robertson, 2011.

Wayne Brusseau, Saro Varjabedian, Youri Cho, and Christopher Chan
© by Demond Robertson, 2011.

Youri Cho
© by Demond Robertson, 2011.

Pictures from the Set and Rehearsal (Part 2)!

Yen-Chiao Huang, Youri Cho, Christopher Chan, and Saro Varjabedian
© by Ivan Bukta, 2011.

Youri Cho, Saro Varjabedian, Christopher Chan, and Yen-Chiao Huang
© by Ivan Bukta, 2011.

Wayne Brusseau, Youri Cho, Christopher Chan, and Saro Varjabedian
© by Ivan Bukta, 2011.

Saro Varjabedian, Youri Cho, and Ivan Bukta
© by Ivan Bukta, 2011.

Saro Varjabedian, Alex Guffey, Youri Cho, and Ivan Bukta
© by Ivan Bukta, 2011.

Ivan Bukta, Youri Cho, Christopher Chan, and Wayne Brusseau
© by Anna Balk, 2011.

Youri Cho and Christopher Chan
© by Anna Balk, 2011.

Ivan Bukta, Wayne Brusseau, Youri Cho, and Christopher Chan
© by Anna Balk, 2011.

Ivan Bukta
© by Anna Balk, 2011.

 

Ivan Bukta and Youri Cho
© by Anna Balk, 2011.

Pictures from the Set (Part 1)!

Tremaine Romeo and Youri Cho

© by Ivan Bukta, 2011.

Ivan Bukta and Youri Cho

© by Ivan Bukta, 2011.

Youri Cho and Tremaine Romeo

© by Ivan Bukta, 2011.

Youri Cho

© by Ivan Bukta, 2011.

Saro Varjabedian, Youri Cho and Tremaine Romeo

© by Ivan Bukta, 2011.

Youri Cho

© by Ivan Bukta, 2011.

Ivan Bukta

© by Ivan Bukta, 2011.

Youri Cho

© by Ivan Bukta, 2011.

Youri Cho and Christopher Chan

© by Ivan Bukta, 2011.

A Note From The Director...

Dear donors and supporters of Breakaway,

I am writing to share updates with you regarding Breakaway production. Last weekend (November 11-13), we successfully completed the film's principal photography in New York City. The shoot, as you can imagine, was incredibly stressful but exuberating at the same time. I was lucky to be surrounded by an incredible group of people who put their 100% into getting this story on screen. I learned so much and, for the first time, I feel I earned the right to call myself a director.

Now, we are onto the process of post-production, which will include editing, color correcting, sound mixing, and music scoring. It is my goal to have the final cut done by March. In the meantime, we will keep you posted with more blog entries, production stills, and an upcoming exclusive "Making-of."

Once again, I wanted to express my sincere thanks for all your support in making this film and I can't wait to share it with you.

Thank you,
Ivan Bukta

The Last Stages of Pre-production

With only a few weeks left before the shoot, the Breakaway team is getting very excited!

We have our cast in place, crew on board, and locations secured. We are still in the process of hiring a Gaffer, Grip and PAs, but we have some great applicants to interview for the positions.

The next hurdle to jump is craft services. Being that this is a low budget film, all of the money goes into equipment rentals, insurance, locations, paying staff, etc. We are hoping that this expense will be covered through the kindness of local restaurants. Time to make some phone calls!

Inspirations for Breakaway

The following is a statement from Writer/Director Ivan Bukta about what inspired the story of "Breakaway" as well as the visual approach of the film. There are also some inspiration pictures below.

My love for psychological thrillers andhorrors stems from seeing David Lynch’s groundbreaking TV series "Twin Peaks" when I was 11. What I loved about the series and the film prequel, "Fire Walk with Me", was the beauty of a mystery, the juxtaposition of horror and beauty, as well as the structure of a puzzle in which a viewer has to put the pieces together as he/she goes along with the story. I attempted a similar thing with "Breakaway". Anothe rtouchstone for my film is Maya Deren’s experimental short "Meshes of the Afternoon", with its use of symbolic elements such as windows, halls, mirrors, and staircases, as well as its interplay of light and shadows.

Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan

Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan

 Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan

 Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan

 David Lynch's Fire Walk with Me

  David Lynch's Fire Walk with Me

  David Lynch's Fire Walk with Me

 Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon

 Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon

Repulsion

Fundraising

We reached our budget goal on kickstarter! A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who donated!!! This film would not be possible without your kindness and generosity.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/123377637/breakaway

We will be posting updates to the kickstarter page regarding rewards after production mid-November, so if you donated, stay tuned!

Sneak Peak!

Here are some clips of actors reading lines from Breakaway. Director Ivan Bukta is using these to practice his direction before production begins.

http://vimeo.com/11720915


http://vimeo.com/4739063

Pre-production Meeting #1

Yesterday afternoon, producers Jacki Zolezzi and Demond Robertson met with director Ivan Bukta for the first "Breakaway" pre-production meeting. Being in the very early stages of production, much of the meeting was spent discussing the budget, figuring out how much the film would cost to produce, how the costs would break down, and the best ways to go about fundraising. Most importantly, as the film deals with the reprecussions of domestic violence, the goal was set to use "Breakaway" to create awarness.

With some of the cast already in place, the main focus until the next meeting is researching possible locations. The film is set in the main character Annie Lee's home and the coffee house she frequents. We are looking in and around Manhattan for places to shoot within our budget.

We also started our fundraising campaign at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/123377637/breakaway?ref=search

Locations

Since the key theme of Breakaway lies in the idea of terror at home, Annie's house is the key location - a place of supposed safety and comfort that is anything but for our protagonist. Annie comes from a working class family, so her home is a modest but warm one-story house somewhere in NYC's outer boroughs. She is a girl tied to her neighborhood and working class roots, and this is the world she knows best. Also, it plays to the idea of this terror at home going on in the middle of a busy neighborhood filled with other people who do not or are not able to notice what is really going on underneath the surface of peaceful suburbia.
The coffee shop, on the other hand, represents an escape from home. It is a place of promise for Annie - a promise of another life, of hope, of future that releases her of the chains of her past. It is the place where she gets to know Lamar in a more personal way, but also the place where she, unknowingly perhaps, makes the first tiny step toward her breakaway from home and her father.

Characters

Annie, early 20s, is a girl on the cusp on womanhood, haunted by the domestic abuse in her family. After the death of her mother during her middle-teens, Annie has become the woman of the family, relying on the support and love of her father which did not come without its price. Becoming the woman of the family meant sacrificing herself for the sake of it:  foregoing college and instead focusing on making ends meet. But now at a new point in her life, when she has finally been released from the shackles of abuse, will she be able to move past it and become her own woman?
Lamar, mid 20s, is a police officer who met Annie during his daily visits to a local diner where she works as a waitress. What tickled his curiosity was her unassuming nature, charm and beauty that she does not even seem aware of. Lamar is sensitive, caring, and understanding man - he's in it because he has actual feelings for this girl. But will he able to get her out of her personal hell? Can anyone ever do that for someone they love?

Annie's Father, mid 40s, is a man broken down by the death of his wife. After her passing, he has focused all of his love and attention on his daughter, unconsciously molding her into a substitute for his wife. To say that he is a monster would be over-simplification; he is a man lost and alone, without the anchor that has kept him afloat. His actions, though reprehensible, come out of genuine love and affection for his child. But just as powerful and grand as love can be, it can also turn into a toxic and destructive force. 

About our Film

Breakaway is a story about Annie Lee's path toward recovery from effects of domestic violence. However, in order to take the first step in that direction, she must survive the horror created by her own mind.

The film's visual approach follows the trajectory of Annie's path: at first awash in saturated colors and light to grow opaque and shadow-filled as the story turns in a darker direction. In addition, the steady camera work grows more unstable as Annie’s mental state and sense of reality begin to crumble. In the end, we return to the light and stability - but this time with the subtle presence of the underlying darkness that never quite goes away.

Thematically, Breakaway deals with the idea of terror at home: we always think of terror as an outside force, but what happens when that force comes from within? When you cannot hide, run, or break away from it? Can Annie overcome the terror at home and move past it?

Producer: Jacki Zolezzi
Producer: Demond Robertson
Writer/Director: Ivan Bukta