Glossary
The terms BALA uses, defined.
3 min read
A quick reference for the vocabulary you'll see across the docs and the app.
- Production
- A single shoot or campaign the firm has been retained for. The unit everything else hangs off.
- Roster
- Everyone attached to a production — cast, crew, and locations — and their document status.
- Deal / deal memo
- An individual agreement with one person on the roster (release, deal memo, location agreement).
- Kickoff
- The note to the producer that opens intake, with the intake address and portal link.
- Intake
- Inbound cast & crew details, read and structured by BALA's email agent.
- Category
- What kind of thing a deal is — talent, crew, location, or a firm-defined vendor category. Decides the template, the required supporting documents, and the escalation lane.
- Escalation
- A deal that leaves the automated path — to the producer for business sign-off (above-the-line, high rates) or to counsel for a legal exception (redlines, comments, minors).
- Needs You
- The chips on each production card rolling up what needs a human — counsel, redlines, approvals, a waiting producer — deep-linked to the exact action.
- Template
- A firm form kept verbatim plus variables and conditions BALA understands. Paper only ever generates from the published version.
- Coverage matrix
- The Templates view of the contracts a production needs × jurisdictions — which paper exists, what's draft, and the gaps waiting for the firm's own form.
- Playbook resolver
- The AI that tests an escalated issue against the firm's playbook and drafts a within-bounds resolution for counsel's one-click apply. Nothing executes without the click.
- Amparo
- The portal's rights assistant — answers renewal, coverage, and 'can I use X?' questions from the production's (or the slate's) own data.
- Concierge
- The messaging assistant — WhatsApp first — that collects producer approvals, answers status questions from live production state, and records every exchange in a tamper-evident log.
- Handoff
- A producer conversation paused for a human — after a rejection, a legal ask, or ambiguity. Messages are still recorded but unanswered until someone hands the thread back to BALA.
- Clear to shoot
- The readiness state where every required agreement is executed before the shoot date.
- Chain-of-title
- The connected set of rights that proves a production can use what it shot.
- Prodco portal
- The read-only link the production company uses to see rights and executed documents.