The Cosmopolitan - a short film by Ivan Pavletic

20. What can you tell us about your other feature films such as "SANE in 1974"?

That uncomfortable element of PTSD is something that has been bothering me for some time now. Like an itch that you can't scratch, and that itch was to make a film about the similar instances and experiences among the Vietnam veterans coming back home in the 1970's. Which was an experience that came back home with them, and went way beyond just a War. Somewhat similar to what I went through in Croatia, and then coming to the US some 20 years ago.

Nevertheless, the question that comes to mind is, how? How do you make a story about Vietnam veterans in the 1970's? How do you really make a film about an unnecessary war in Vietnam, which was based almost solely on the cold profit of the Military Industrial Complex, which took over 4 million lives. How do you make a movie about such an experience of one generation? Then use this to unfold the story of old friends from the early 1960's Brooklyn, back in the completely changed USA of the 1970's? And put all these elements into one functioning story, with all the necessary bridges, connecting one act to another, binding all the emotional moments into one working story. How the hell does one do all this? Well, it was here where the producer and the co-writer Eddie Portoghese came in and saved the day, by putting these peaces of only a conceptual idea, into an actual working story.

I remember in May of 2012, sitting on the Paris Airport, after doing some location scouting for "Tesla: Beyond Imagination", waiting for a plane to Zagreb, Croatia, to continue scouting in Nikola Tesla's birth place of Smiljan. I remember feeling a bit down, as the buildings where Tesla worked were not there any more, or were all changed and completely rebuilt. On top of all that, I couldn't find Jim Morrison's grave that I so wanted to visit, thus I felt disappointed. So as I sat at the airport with my long hair, next to a band of similar Hippie looking guys, I happened to see a reflection of us in one window, and then it dawned on me...1974! We need to make a movie about this.

It wasn't until a couple of months later, working on the set of Mark Roeder's (Odoacer in 476 A.D.) award winning production of "The Low Road Baby", that I told about this 1970's Vietnam veterans concept idea to Eddie Portoghese, about domestic terrorist organizations of the mid 1970's, such as the Symbionese Liberation Army, and we started brainstorming further. It was also on that set of "The Low Road Baby", that the beautiful Audrey Walters came aboard, while Eddie came up with the idea of Society Against Nixon Everybody as a possible domestic terrorist organization, hence S.A.N.E. was born. With the cool ring to the name, it stuck as what is known today as "SANE in 1974".

However, the full story was still not there yet, as what I had was still only just a story and a conceptual idea, and still far from an actual full story. Also, most likely with the strain of working on the insane undertaking of "476 A.D." plus the stress with the everlasting pre-production of "Tesla: Beyond Imagination", I was caught in a writers block, motionless, without being able to move right or left. It was then that the stunt coordinator from 476 A.D. Eddie Portoghese took over, who probably saw the quicksand I was in, and who also helped me a year before in the impossible circumstances of the battle sequences shoot of "476 A.D.". So Eddie finally helped write the first version based on the ideas we kept on brainstorming about for months. This was the necessary fuel to get me moving again, and get the original concept to fill the story that now had a functioning flow.

"SANE in 1974 is something that gives a certain humility, and will humble even the most rock hearted person."

We finally had a story ready to shoot, and right away, Eddie and Audrey both jumped in as the producers, making this conceptual idea, into an actual working production. This communication and trust on "SANE in 1974" started to function better and better every day, and with the wonderful talents of Elgin Cahill as a cinematographer on board, everything started working smoothly. Then it came to the talented cast of also Laramie Williams, Benjamin Kroeger, Tom Jankowski, Spencer Kane (Libius Severus in 476 A.D.), Piotr Gzowski (Senator Magnus in 476 A.D.), and many others. Not to mention, the wonderful help of our military advisor Jeff Bosley, Bradley Burrows from 476 A.D. also worked as the electrical department supervisor, David Griesinger as sound, and the wonderful make up by Audra Vandyke. On top of all that, the wonderful musical band from Colorado, "Forests of Azure" wrote a great soundtrack, and some beautiful songs just for this movie, in which you could literally feel the love and passion that fits so perfectly to this story. Everything just started to unfold beautifully.

After already seeing such union in the labor of love, on the set of "476 A.D.", it was again unfolding on the set of "SANE in 1974". This is something that gives it a certain humility, and will humble even the most rock hearted person. The fact that I had the opportunity to be a director again, and had the trust of so many talented people, just melted my heart. Most of all, the fact that the father and mother of this production, Eddie Portoghese and Audrey Walters, who really gave the necessary circulation and muscle to this original skeleton of an idea, actually trusted me enough to be the director and give it life. It just gave me the necessary fulfillment I needed. Like a ship that is handed over to a captain to sail, and look over the fate of its crew, becomes more then just work, it becomes a moral obligation towards those who follow you, in order to make something work out of that labor of love invested. This is what makes me proud to have so many talented and capable people around me. Therefore, at the end of 2013, also as for the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, a man who based his achievement to that love for the people, I wanted to pay my respect, and have the Official Premiere of "SANE in 1974" as a commemoration.

SANE in 1974 - a feature film by Ivan Pavletic

"If you have a dream, and that dream has enough of fire to achieve something you really want, it can be done."

21. In film industry, compared to some other professions, which strength would you say is the most important?

In film industry, compared to some other professions, it requires a little bit more sacrifice to reach a certain point, you must give a peace of your own self, your own individuality and self security, as well as your own self importance AKA ego, and possibly even the safety of your own financial future, for the purpose of creating something you truly believe in. At the end of the day, there is a lot of humility involved, because you must overcome the natural human element of self-preservation, in order to coup with the fears of uncertainty. I tend to relate my story of "476 A.D.", as well as film making, with my experiences from the war period of my life, because of all those similar elements of uncertainty are involved.

When you are putting the strain of entire film production on your shoulder, it requires a lot of energy to overcome such pressure, and such energy can only come if you truly believe in what you are creating, otherwise, you are faced with incertitude, doubt, insecurity, hence instability. There is something very military and battle combat like in true film making, as you just have to be ready for "Murphy's Law", if things can go wrong, things will go wrong, and that's just the way it is, the trick is to be a bit of a mule, horse, ox, a camel, to endure the unendurable, and not break under pressure, So you have to be one on one with this reality, and when you have an entire production on your shoulder, you just can't afford to break from within.

Another thing that I'm trying achieve with this production of "476 A.D." is that I'm trying to revolutionize the process of film production, as I believe that since 1980's Hollywood has created a monopoly on film production with making it completely un-affordable for non-Hollywood Indi filmmakers to shoot feature films, independent of Hollywood Studios. By shooting "476 A.D." with DSLR Canon EOS 7D, and the Canon Rebel T2i, as well as the SONY EX1, HDR-FX7, and etc. and might I add that movies like "Black Swan", "127 Hours", "Public Enemies" were all shot on these cameras. I'm trying to show an example and open doors to thousands of dreamer filmmakers who have great original ideas and stories for wonderful feature films to be shot, but are simply shut down by the Hollywood Studio standards that hold the bar for the cost of the big budget productions.

I'm trying to achieve something with a very modest and affordable budget, to show fellow filmmakers that it can be done, that you don't need millions of dollars budgets, in fact that you don't even need hundreds of thousands of dollars budgets either. You can get a professional SONY EX1 for under $5,000, a Canon 7D with quality lenses for less then $2,000, or even the basic Canoc Rebel T2i, for less then $800, has the crop factor of a 35mm Motion Picture Camera, thus even just the basic Canon T2i snap and shot camera can shoot you an entire Cinematic non-video looking Feature film. Something that just 5 years ago was still impossible, but obviously times are changing, and there is light on the horizon for passionate INDI filmmakers.

If you have a dream, and that dream has enough of fire to achieve something you really want, it can be done.

Your abilities are as only limited as your vision is.

"I'm trying to achieve something with a very modest and affordable budget, to show fellow filmmakers that it can be done."

22) You are also working on the pre-production of the biography film about one of the greatest scientists that ever lived, Nikola Tesla, by the name of "Tesla: Beyond Imagination", also known as "Tesla: Iznad mašte". What can you tell us about this project?

 "Tesla: Beyond Imagination", and yes, also known as “Tesla: Iznad mašte" in Croatian, is a biography that I've originally written in Croatian and English, about Nikola Tesla's colorful life, which is now mostly all in English. And yes, he truly was one of, if not the absolutely the greatest scientists that ever lived. The story starts from his childhood in Smiljan, then Gospić, and Karlovac, Croatia, through Prague, Paris, to New York, and Colorado Springs. It shows Tesla's true gigantic contribution to humanity, and how his visions shaped and practically created almost everything that we use in 20th and 21st century. From computers, microwaves, TVs, remote controls, internet, cell phones, as well as text messaging, and many other visions that came out of the brain of this genius.

I wanted to use the name Tesla: Beyond Imagination, because I wanted to depict the magnitude of the absolute incredibility that surrounded, and was connected to Nikola Tesla's findings and his life all together. The fact that anything we can imagine, Tesla actually made it possible, showing his extraordinary visions of creating the unimaginable into possible, beyond our furthest imagination. From Tesla's Free Universal Energy for everybody, to such unimaginable far out extremes in Tesla's Space-Time Continuum experiments, such as the unified field based theory, moving instantaneously through space and time, by literally manipulating and folding the space-time continuum AKA teleportation and yes, time travel. Something that in "Tesla. Beyond Imagination" is shown, by also going into great detail of the taboo WW II US Navy Top Secret "Philadelphia Experiment", based perhaps on one of the most controversial of Teslas's studies in the last years of his life. The 1938 Theory of Dynamic Gravity, "conveniently" all abducted by the US Government, immediately after Tesla's death on January 7, 1943. Nine months later, on October 28, 1943. the US Navy Destroyer USS Eldridge literally disappeared from space-time continuum in a flash of blue light, surrounded with electric sparks. Literally vanishing from physical space it occupied in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, only to appear simultaneously through space and time, in Norfolk, Virginia, some 200 miles away, and some 10 minutes in the future. Then appearing back in Philadelphia with the crew in a total disarray and severe nausea, with some sailors literally embedded in the metal structures of the ship.

For 72 years now, ever since October 1943, this "Taboo" experiment/Incident has been proclaimed Top Secret by the US Government in general, and of course, "as usual" denied by the US Navy, as if such experiment never occurred, claiming it to be "impossible, as such claims could not conform to any known physical laws. Up to this day, the infamous Philadelphia Experiment, as well as hundreds of other such Tesla's controversial visions and patents have been hidden from the public.

It is with this story of "Tesla: Beyond Imagination" about the real Nikola Tesla, that I wish to bring some of these truths out in the open, after over 70 years of secrecy.

With the entire budget plan finalized, and with having Rade Serbedzija confirmed to play Nikola's father, Milutin Tesla, and working on getting Eric Bana to play Nikola him self, the obstacle is only to get the necessary budget to actually start the principal photography some time in the early part of next year.

"It is with this story of "Tesla: Beyond Imagination" about the real Nikola Tesla, that I wish to bring some of these truths out in the open, after over 70 years of secrecy."

Promotional poster for Tesla: Beyond Imagination

23) What can you tell us about the next "476 A.D. Chapter Two: The Dawning of the Age of Pisces", the sequel to the first "476 A.D. Chapter One: The Last Light of Aries", as well as the mystique symbolism that 476 A.D. is obviously full of?

Well, as the Chapter One: The Last Light of Aries has been out now for over a year, and available for viewing on Amazon.com, as well as Vimeo-On Demand, and other streaming platforms, the work on the much darker sequel "476 A.D. Chapter Two: The Dawning of the Age of Pisces" has been going on since the US premiere of the first chapter in February 2014. With a planned release in 2016.

Majority of the Dawning of the Age of Pisces had already been shot by 2014, before the actual premiere of The Last Light of Aries, with many scenes, such as the battle sequences, and the love scenes being shot simultaneously with the first chapter, between 2010-2011, with most of the B-roll and re-shots done later between 2012-2014, and the post-production of hundreds of green screen shots and special effects started from 2014 on.

However, because the entire story of 476 A.D. is so very complex, it really has two different dynamics, hence it could really only be delivered in two parts. Like gradually climbing a mountain, Chapter One: The Last Light of Aries, depicts the light more refreshing side of Rome, with a slow gradual incline towards the real peak of the mountain, and culmination of the story. As Chapter One depicts the last fire, or spark of the old Greco-Roman Antiquity AKA the end of Age of Aries, as the last spark of the free state of mind, before its final demise, Chapter Two depicts the more colder side of the story, surrounded with brutal reminders of cruel cold reality of life.

476 A.D. Chapter Two: The Dawning of the Age of Pisces, with the final disastrous Roman defeat by the Germanic Foederati in September 476 A.D. it depicts the more sad reality of the colder night like Medieval times, also known as the Dark Ages, that followed the sunny light and more depth free days of the Roman Antiquity, that ended in 476 A.D. When, the original Savior of Rome, General Flavius Aetius freed the already weakened Roman Empire, from the clutches of Attila the Hun in 451 A.D. it gave Rome the last spark of its once mighty fire and power.

General Flavius Aetius and son (Ivan and Niko Pavletic)

Ivan and Niko Pavletic at BlissFest Film Festival.

For instance, what is seen in the 2000 movie "Gladiator", with the fictitious character of General Maximus, was really based on General Flavius Aetius, some 250 years later. The real "Savior of Rome" who brought Rome its true self back was Flavius Aetius, and a jealous inferiority Napoleon complex based Caesar who had him killed as a political threat, was Valentinian III, in the 450's A.D. not Commodus in 180's A.D. Caesar Commodus was a feared and ruthless tyrant, who ruled Rome with an iron fist for some 15 years, and did not kill his father for the throne, as depicted in the movie "Gladiator". Commodus barely even knew his father Marcus Aurelius, who did not spend much time in Rome at all, and had died from natural causes in the Roman frontier city of Vindobona, ancient Vienna in 180 A.D. while Commodus had already co-ruled in Rome, as a emperor for 3 years before. Also Commodus did not theatrically die in a Roman Colosseum fight with a Roman General, but in fact was strangled in a bath by some wrestler, 12 years after the death of his father.

As one of my film school professors once told me, historical accuracy in film does not sell, it is the Hollywood style thatricals that sell. This actually might be true, as films are really an announcement that a story is going on, and not the actual story it self. If you want a real story, read the New York Times, but if you want to be moved and immersed in a story, then read a novel. Just as you will not listen to a favorite song you heard a 100 times, because you are interested in the words it sends, it is because of the warm emotional feeling it brings. Same is with the favorite films, books, or anything you just love.

With the second chapter of 476 A.D. I'm trying to fill the cap on the story, that is left with the first chapter at the moment before the final doom that met the last of the Roman Garrison. With the second chapter I also try to fulfill the feel, rather then the story of the Fall of Rome it self. As for years I have carefully researched this period of the late Roman Empire to the best historical accuracy, it is not enough to only depict the actual happenings in the historical chronological order, but depict the entire ambience and atmosphere of how I imagined the late antiquity might have felt like.

As nobody can really know for sure how people of the 400's A.D. behaved, or felt like inside, we can really only guess. This is where filmmakers, writers, painters, and other artists, can use their expressionist freedom to depict that very feeling. At the end of the day, it can really be only subjective, so I for one, use a lot of my dreams when I paint, write, film, or edit, hence when I was editing the Chapter One: The Last Light of Aries, through variety of different collages intermixed with various sounds and music, I tried to depict the type of images and feel as a dream, based on, and coming directly from what I dreamt about such times. Like that moment right before you wake up in the morning, when your body is already waking up, but your brain hasn't full waken yet, your subconscience is still semi-submerged in a dream, even though your eyes might have already opened. I believe that such moments are when we are spiritually the strongest, when the bridge between our conscience and subconscience is at the strongest connection.

Also when it comes to symbolism and mystique, the very names The Last Light of Aries, and the Dawning of the Age of Pisces, are really based on this element/moment between the conscious and subconscious. The very reason I use astrological constellations of ages, and so many symbolic images of the sun representing musculinity, and moon representing femininity. The fire, the smoke and clouds of the air, the earth, the water. The lion, the wolf, the eagle representing the different elements of the spiritual world. The dusk and dawn, also in film industry known for the best lighting for filming, what we call the "Magic hour". When the leftover light and moments, or memory of the day of one side of the sky are simultaneously being overpowered by the magic of the night from the other.

With the story's culmination in Chapter One, reaching the emotional peak of truth between the father and the son, love is a strong symbol, and perhaps the most important subtext in the story of 476 A.D. as the "Fire in the Heart", is a crucial element that follows both chapters in some way or the other. The Fire in Our Hearts emphasizes the eternal life's fire that burns in us forever, without which our souls lack being alive AKA humanity from love and compassion. This sense of the truth through fire is constantly emphasized through both chapters with the imagery of the fire of the Mediterranean warmth, beauty, love and eroticism, intermingled with the sounds of the Mediterranean cicadas singing, harmonized through constant music and soundtrack, that follows every single moment of both movies.

As the Chapter One: The Last Light of Aries constantly tries to warm up the audience with the warmth of the Mediterranean atmosphere, this ambience is ruthlessly destroyed in the colder Chapter Two: The Dawning of the Age of Pisces. This is necessary, as in order to feel remorse for a loss of something such as an age or the atmosphere, one must first gain the attachment to such atmosphere, which is attempted in Chapter One, by literally trying to bring that life fire of the true Mediterranean atmosphere of the life and magic of Ancient Rome. A big element of both chapters is also religion, but instead of being a "Christian" movie per se, the emphasize is rather on the political aspect of the Christian church, and it's domination/take over after the Fall of Rome in 476 A.D. This transition of the Antiquity Age of the fire Aries into the water Age of Pisces is accentuated through a rather unexplained and mysterious symbol of meditation/prayer via brushing the finger into an oyster shell.

"Your abilities are are only limited as your vision." is.

This mysterious oyster shell talisman, which reoccurs throughout both chapters, represents a symbol of constant cosmic biorhythm, through regeneration, life, death, and birth. The meditational-religious usage of oyster shells is based on the actual real form of ancient Vedic meditation, through rubbing the interior of sea shells as talismans, especially oysters and muscles. A custom that dates thousands of years ago to ancient India, and even further east towards the Pacific, where it might have even originated many thousands of years ago. Although, due to the great historical information loss from the infamous burning of the Library of Alexandria in 48 B.C. little is really known of the ancient religious or spiritual rituals of pagan Antiquity, however, as well as with the Indo-European languages, vast customs and rituals had many connecting points from ancient Europe, all the way to India, hence I used the artistic freedom to depict this ancient Vedic form of meditation, amongst the ancient Romans.

As for the dawn and dusk, it is estimated that the natural cycle of life is based on these very moments. It is a fact that the biggest amounts of natural deaths and births on the earth occur right around dawn, when the still left over moments of the night, are about to give way to the dawning or birth of a new day on the horizon. The question to a painter, writer, or a filmmaker really comes to how to actually depict a moment like this? Of course, a photograph can show us how it looks like, just like so many of those posters in our offices with wise sayings below, show such beautiful images. A beautiful wide shot in a film can give us such an image, but how exactly do we depict such psycho-emotional spiritual feeling, where we get the audience or the readers to fully be submurged, or even teleported into such a feeling or an ambience? That I think is the real trick which I have been trying to find hundreds of ways to immerse people into the actual story. It is not enough to simply show, but the audience must be completely immersed, engrossed, and absorbed into the momentum of the film. To me, that is so important, that if I can achieve this with only 20% of the audiences, in my eyes that is a victory.

When we get to the bottom of it, it is really difficult to make one movie about the Fall of the Roman Empire, or even two, or three for that matter. It is just such a complex chain of events, that filmically is practically impossible to be told, other then through some abstract alternative form. When we take in consideration that at the height of its power in the 1st and 2nd century A.D. Roman Empire consisted of some 2.2 million square miles, or 5.7 million square kilometers, with a population of some 60 million people.The entire Empire had approximately 50,000 miles, or 80,000 kilometers of roads that spread the Roman civilization in the known world.

It took over 800 years for the Ancient Roman civilization to reach its height, and 300 years for it to decline. Some nations did not last as long as it took the Roman Empire to fall.

As up to now, the entire 476 A.D. story has been written only in a script format, I feel that it is simply not enough to describe this whole rich period, and it is my wish and plan after I'm done with the conclusion feature of Chapter Two:The Dawning of the Age of Pisces, to transfer it from a script, and rewrite the entire full story of 476 A.D. and the last 25 years of the Fall of the Roman Empire, in a form of a novel of two parts.

Ivan Pavletic: "Colorado Sunset" oil on canvas.