The Justice Bundle
On Thursday Justice Is Mind arrived on BitTorrent Bundle! I largely learned about BitTorrent through the media around the film Hits and the journey that project took to reach that platform. Of sheer coincidence, Justice Is Mind and Hits share an actor by the name of Ken Holmes. Ken played Christopher Thomas in Justice Is Mind and is just amazing at promotion on social media. He does a masterful job of not only promoting himself but the films he’s involved in. Actors take note this is what a director looks for – a talented actor who also understands the world of social media.
On BitTorrent Bundle not only is the feature film available to both stream and download, but our bundle includes the trailer, short film, screenplay, press kit, interviews, Q&A and select stills. In essence, for $4.99 you have the whole Justice Is Mind experience from script to screen and beyond. I have to say working with BitTorrent has been great. Their customer service and attention to detail is first rate.
Ken Holmes (l) on the set of Justice Is Mind in 2012.
What I mentioned in my press release is that when I wrote the screenplay and business plan for Justice Is Mind these platforms didn’t even exist. Now, they command users in the millions. I revisited my business plan for First World and SOS United States this week as well. While First World did discuss VOD, it still incorporated DVD estimates. Let’s just say DVD has now been discarded as a revenue stream you can count on never mind estimate. As I just wrote SOS United States several months ago, largely and thankfully, not much had to be updated on that front. With some investor and production meetings coming up in April, I know I’m going to need updated versions of these plans. As I near the end of the business plan for In Mind We Trust, the one area of revenue that’s critical for distribution is theatrical as it develops media and creates the audience that drives initial VOD traffic.
This past week a good friend of mine mentioned that he wants to turn one of his books into a screenplay. Nothing is more exciting than seeing the words you have written come to life. I remember to this day being on the set of First World watching the actors breathe life into characters that only existed on paper. To see it accomplished in a feature film like Justice Is Mind is a whole other milestone. In addition to sending him the script to Justice Is Mind, I also sent him this wonderful article by Jeanne Veillette Bowerman the Editor of Script magazine. I had the great pleasure of meeting Jeanne at the premiere of Justice Is Mind’s trailer at an Upstate Independent event in 2013.
Watching First World come to life in 2006. At the Hotel Commonwealth in Boston.
Her article is a must read for anyone involved in the industry but specifically those that are involved in the world of screenwriting. There are so many wonderful takeaways and quotable lines. From “When a great script is sitting in front of an executive, they don’t give a shit how much or how little money you spent learning how to write it. They only care that they are going to make money on your words.” To “There are indeed charlatans in this business, as there are in any business. Do your research.”
My advice is pretty simple for anyone that wants to get involved in the world of screenwriting. Remember, your writing is different than my writing. Watch films that you enjoy that have done well in the market and then hunt down their screenplays. Watch the film again and then read the screenplay. You’ll see how things are done in print and how they translate to the silver screen.
But do ask yourself the following before opening your wallet, “By paying this fee am I helping my career or theirs?” Remember it’s your career first.
Plans.
The business plan for In Mind We Trust is nearly complete.
A New Platform
Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Man in Justice Is Mind.
This Thursday I announce that Justice Is Mind will go live on another VOD platform which has over 170 million users around the world. What’s so interesting to me is the constant ever changing world of film distribution. Most of the VOD platforms we are now on didn’t even exist when I wrote the business plan for Justice. Imagine where this business will be in the next five years.
Speaking of business plans, I’m about two-thirds completed with In Mind We Trust. While this plan certainly has many characteristics that are similar to SOS United States in terms of demographics and the Cold War overtures, there are of course numerous differences. It’s highlighting those differences in terms of marketing and public relations that will certainly aide the project as it moves forward.
Justice Is Mind arrives on a new VOD platform on Thursday.
One area that has sparked quite a bit of discussion has been the past-life reincarnation of Henri Miller in Justice Is Mind. In In Mind We Trust this area of the story is fully realized. How incredible was it that NBC News, and countless other media outlets, reported this past week about one ten year old boy who details a past life he had as a Hollywood actor. The report itself is fascinating and you can watch it at this link. Personally, I do believe in past lives. Like the research and science that’s part of “thought identification” mind-reading, this will be another area that I’ll be watching develop.
As for developments there is an upcoming movie called Women in Gold that stars Helen Mirren in which she plays a character who seeks to reclaim a piece of artwork that was stolen during The Third Reich, a claim that winds up at the Supreme Court. Based on a true story, there are the parallels between that film and Justice Is Mind and In Mind We Trust. In Justice, the painting in question is Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Man that engages a conflict between Henri Miller and his father Joseph Miller. In In Mind We Trust, we learn the backstory of the painting and how it came into the possession of Henri Miller.
Just like in SOS United States an aircraft carrier from the United States arrives in the United Kingdom. Pictured – USS Theodore Roosevelt will anchor off Stokes Bay, Gosport.
Of course some things have changed from a business point of view, locally, here in Massachusetts. Our state’s film tax credit may soon disappear. In my view, the credit obviously, is a good thing. But as I understand the way our state’s tax credit is written, it does need an overhaul. An overhaul is one thing, but a termination is something else. The large studio productions that shoot in the state will just take their business to other states and an entire industry will simply atrophy. Many businesses have made significant investments that will have to be written off in terms of infrastructure and jobs. Simply, there has to be another alternative.
While we didn’t qualify for the state tax credit on Justice Is Mind, we would on In Mind We Trust, SOS United States and First World. If, by example, In Mind We Trust is produced for say around $100K plus on the low budget end, it won’t matter really if there’s a credit or not. But bring in a multi-million dollar budget with named talent and suddenly, and rightly so, you are looking elsewhere as it comes down to the overall project. Think about it. A film, even with a budget of $500,000, can earn a credit of 25%+. That’s not money you leave on the table, you simply take the table to another state or country that maximizes your capital.
Thursday announcement.
The Ashton Times 