The Story Behind Our Story

Marco Baratta had been writing screenplays since High School, when a book prompted him to illegally download Final Draft.  After he graduated college, he started working as a Locations Assistant on a big budget, high profile film called The Irishman. Being in Locations, he had a lot of time to sit in his car and write. Occasionally, he’d toy with the idea of someone reading one of his scripts and bringing the story to life but wasn’t really sure how to make that happen—or if it ever would.

The filmmakers that had always inspired him the most were those who saw their vision from start to finish; writer/director auteurs such as Martin McDonagh, Wes Anderson, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, and the Coen Brothers. So, one day, Marco decided that he didn’t need wait around for someone to bring his vision to life, he could do it himself.

He started small, writing a 5-page script (On the Ledge) and gave it to his colleague at work, Juliana. She thought it was very interesting and a well executed idea for a short, and agreed to produce it. The two pooled together their resources and connections, and within two weeks, Marco and Juliana pulled together a tiny cast and crew and shot the film in one night for basically no money. And, just like that, Marco had made his directorial debut.

On the Ledge (2018)

A couple hours before they were set to shoot their first mini-movie, Juliana joked to Marco that he should write another script that day set at her parents’ house in Long Island.

(Juliana's parents' house in Long Island)

Surprisingly, a few weeks later, Marco sent Juliana another script—the one she’d jokingly asked for. He had cunningly divised a wild and inspiring story, built around locations they knew they could use for free and resources they knew they could call in favors for. It was a true testament to Marco’s talent, as well as drive and passion for both storytelling and filmmaking. Completely blown away, she signed on immediately. Armed with the confidence and desire from their first mini movie experience, they set out to make the next one, enlisting help from another Irishman alum, Alex Martin, who had years of experience in location management, assistant directing, and producing other shorts.

(Juliana, Alex & Marco shooting Seed & Spark pitch video )

After planning the shoot out, our team further brought together other young filmmakers with combined decades of experience on film sets, who were trying to make the jump to their own projects. And Voilá! The crew was set.

What’s so special about this story, huh?

It’s no secret that today’s world is chockfull of chaos and, unfortunately, plagued by hatred and fear. As a result, we have increasingly started to embrace the escapist quality of art, rather than it’s transformative nature—to motivate, inspire, and bring out the best in people. We hope that our film can serve to remind people that art is not merely a form of escape but a powerful tool that allows us to discover meaning in the meaningless, logic in the illogical, and control in the uncontrollable; helping us to make sense of the world and our place within it.  

Our story takes three wildly different protagonists from vastly different backgrounds, each broken and struggling to overcome their respective personal tragedies. Despite their obvious differences of age, race, gender, and sexuality, it is the same piece of art that allows all of three of them to begin to mend the broken pieces of themselves. Ultimately, it is story is about the power of a piece of art, music in this instance, to profoundly affect people, stick with them, and, perhaps, even alter their perceptions of the world. 

What inspired this story?

Given that this is a story about the power of music, accordingly, much of the inspiration for the story came from music as well. Two of the three main characters are inspired by real life musical personalities. Our protagonist, Ray Higgins, is based on real life jazz musician Roy Hargrove and the character of Claire Garcia is derived from an actual Indie/Alternative artist who uses music to cope with her clinical depression. Even the film’s climax has musical roots, stemming from a song that Marco heard in his room at 3am one night. He was so moved by the song that it prompted him to write a scene about its magnetism.

(Roy Hargrove, the inspirationfor the main character, Ray Higgins)

Fear not, this short will not sacrifice entertainment value for our message. Inspired by fast-paced, ensemble cast films such as Snatch and Ocean's 11, the film is not lacking speed or suspense. Additionally, there is some 4th wall breaking sprinkled in from The Narrator, who we like to think of as a hybrid between Ferris Bueller and James Bond. Circumventing the main theme of music, the short dabbles in drug dealing, mafia intimidation, as well as characters' backstories and their intertwined paths.

Inclusion & Universality 

One of the other main points of this story is that both tragedy and the power of art are indiscriminate. Bad cards are dealt to everyone, regardless of their race, age, gender, religion, culture, and sexuality. In this film, our main characters are a black musician from Harlem (Ray Higgins), a widowed lesbian Queen-pin (Lana Garcia-Morgan), and a young Latin American guitar prodigy in her early 20s (Claire Garcia). Tragedy strikes them all. Music touches them all. Their race or sexuality may not be the center of any drama in the story, but it is important to us to have a diverse cast of characters, both in order to be inclusive and in order to prove this narrative point. 

The Cast

Jimonn Cole as Ray Higgins  

Meghan Rafferty as Lana Garcia-Morgan 

 Isabel Pakzad as Claire Garcia 

Micheal Richardson as The Narrator

Reginald L. Barnes as Gabe