The Color of Justice

Jeremy Blaiklock, Justice Is Mind‘s director of photography, color correcting the film.

It seems a bit unreal that post production on Justice Is Mind is now just a couple of days away from completion. With the film edited, scored, sound mixed and special effects built that last moment of post production work—color correction – is nearly complete.

Yesterday, I went to visit Justice Is Mind’s director of photography Jeremy Blaiklock. Having already seen excerpts of his color correction work on the film, my visit was more of a catch up and a bit of reminiscing.  Jeremy’s association with the Justice Is Mind project started with our short film Evidence back in 2011.  Let me just say it was a trip down memory lane. Lots of “Remember when…”.

Justice Is Mind – a color corrected still. Margaret and Henri ad the opening of the third restaurant.

The one thing I don’t believe general moviegoers know or understand (or even want to understand) is the unbelievable amount of people it takes behind the scenes to make a motion picture come together. If you click our IMDB link you’ll see what I mean. For me, being the director of a film is like being the conductor of an orchestra. All the instruments have to play according to the music in front of them.

We are in the last movement of the symphony that is Justice Is Mind and soon we will be at The Palace Theatre to unveil the work. The work of over two hundred people in various capacities – actors, crew, producers, location and marketing partners. But after this step, comes the great push to market. From the audiences to the reviews (the great and not so great).

Justice Is Mind – a color corrected still – Henri and his father Joseph.

One thing Jeremy and I talked about is the version of the film that is being released on August 18. This is the “director’s cut”—the version that I want audiences to see.  For those that have read the script, you will see this film on August 18 not some edited down version to suit a particular timeframe. We all know that will happen at some point.  Your film is edited for time and content for particular distributors, markets and platforms. That’s just the way things go in this business.

For me, this is the relative quiet before the storm that will sweep Justice starting tomorrow.  The coordinating of the color corrected film back to the editor, the transfer of files to the production company making our exhibition DVDs, screener copies to studios (yes, I pitched a major studio last week and they agreed to review a screener), digital aggregators, distributors, online platforms, agents, media…the list goes on. But this is what we have been building to—the release of Justice Is Mind.

Justice Is Mind – Spencer New Leader article – Page 1

For Justice I could not be more proud with the team that is making this project a reality. Producing a feature film is a herculean task on so many levels.  First, the magnitude of scripts looking to be produced (Amazon Studios alone has received over 10,000); second, locating and securing funding. Third, finding meaningful distribution for a return on investment. But one should not despair.

A reporter in Albany asked me an interesting question relative to Justice Is Mind being part of Inspiration Week. The question, if I recall correctly was something along the lines of “What part of inspiration does Justice Is Mind bring?” My answer, “That producing a feature film is possible.”

As I understand Walt Disney once said, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”

T-minus 14 days.

Justice Is Mind- Spencer New Leader article – page 2.