“Back in my day” is always a common phrase in any business. “Back in my day it was better.”

But in my experience, in the film world, “Back in my day” sucked.

My first film project was shot on film. I had grown up on camcorders so it was a shock to my system to not to be able to see the image you were setting up, not to know indeed if you actually got it “in the can” until the “dailies” came back. And these cameras were sensitive. You needed a mass amount of lights needed to run a small country to actually get an image going.

And it took forever. Actors had more pressure than normal, because each take cost money. Everything was on the line.

And that was only the beginning of it. You had to develop the film. Yup, more money. You had to edit it, on these ridiculous machines that can only be described as close to a sewing machine, but much harder to use. If you wanted to find a shot you were working on that morning…yeah, good luck finding it in some “bin.”

And finally, when the film was done - you had to create a final print. Lug it around to theaters. Project it. Or put it on DVD and hope to god that the DVD wouldn’t freeze in the player of the festival judging staff or agent who might be watching it.

But today’s it’s different.

Today, even on my worse day on set, when I’m looking out to this amazing small camera that records HD images, that doesn’t need a crap load of lights, that can show me the image as I’m recording, that is super-user friendly, doesn’t cost money for takes - I am relaxed. Relaxed knowing I can spend the time to do the things that really matter. Get the performances right, get the story right, and actually enjoy myself.

And then when I edit, it’s  like I’m playing a video game. And when you send it out to people? Yup, you just send them a link. And it will play.

Some purists might want the technology to be back to “the good old days.”

Me? I think the “Good Old Days” are happening right now.

Time Travel and World Domination.

These are the subjects of the two new web shows we shot this last weekend. We had a great two day shoot, mostly in an office complex with a heavy use of greenscreen. It was a blast to try out a style totally different than “Mayfarers.” The shows are both comedies, one about time travel, one about Super-villains. One will be in a somewhat traditional sitcom format, one will be interactive. However, both have a pretty bizarre tone of humor.

My intention was to try smaller story arcs, not the year long arc of the current show. However, shooting these sparked many new story ideas, which we may shoot in the coming months…so that plan may go by the wayside. As for a release schedule, I’m hoping to release one of the new shows later this year, but we’ll see how that goes, as editing always does take forever, especially with green screen.

In any case, thanks for making our launch so successful last week. Please subscribe here for new episodes of “Meet the Mayfarers!”

And we have liftoff.

Today I uploaded the first two episodes of “Meet the Mayfarers.” I wanted to do two to get everyone introduced to all the members of the family on the first day, and to get the story in gear.

After that, we will have one episode a week for a year. I can promise that it will be fun, it will be bizarre, and will go in some very unexpected directions.

And they’ll be a host of new supporting characters - from Talent agents, to FBI, from ghosts to wild Indiana Jones like adventurers, there will be a lot of new characters on the horizon. We’ll have holiday episodes and cliffhanger episodes, low-key dry episodes and totally off the wall ones. I can’t wait to keep releasing some of the stuff we have in store.

Thank you to everyone for all your patience throughout this process.

Hope you enjoy watching it as much as we had making it.

And here we are. After more than a year and a half of shooting and editing, we’re launching the show tomorrow.

I’m excited. We’ve got a year of uploading new episodes, and I’m scripting the final conclusion to the show, which I’m super psyched about.

It feels really good to finally be able to launch it.

I hope you guys enjoy it.

And that’s the story of “Jack Milton: Fairy Tale Detective.”  I sometimes get asked if there are any continuing adventures of Detective Milton and Tom Thumb. And the immediate answer is “yes.” I wrote a feature script about them. It follows our two intrepid heroes as they join forces with his estranged girlfriend, Snow White, and a new character, Freddy the Frog, (really the Frog Prince) as they uncover a worldwide conspiracy affecting all of Fairy Tale land.

The script uses select scenes from the short and spins it off into new directions. It’s very much a mystery/road trip flick, and introduces a lot of other famous characters in strange situations.

I had a blast writing that script. I have no idea what will become with it, but it’s a fun world to write about. Maybe someday I’ll post it online or do something with it.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the short. Now that it’s online, I can move forward with my current projects…

As a filmmaker and running in packs with other filmmakers, you sometimes forget how strange you might look to the outside world.

The prime example of that for me was during pre-production of “Jack Milton: Fairy Tale Detective.” The two producers and I (all males) were scouring clothing stores looking for character costumes. All well and good - except our characters were fairy tale animals - in reality people dressed up in very large animal mascot outfits.

So we didn’t think twice as we were going through a bunch of plus sized bathing attire for one of the characters who was to be played at the time by a Pig. (The Pig was going to have a lot of Pig “Groupies.”) The store clerk lady came up at the disturbing sight of three grown men in the women’s aisle and asked, “May I help you with something?”

“Yes.” I replied.

“Do you have any plus size swimwear?” we asked.

The stunned clerk’s face fell at that statement. I realized I needed to quickly clarify the situation.

“It’s not for us.” I implored. “It’s for a pig.”

And with that, the sales clerk turned away, putting distance between her and us. Only later did we realize it probably might have been a better idea to tell her we were making a movie.

I can’t begin to count the many times this failure to explain we’re making a movie has gotten me strange looks, including a time  when I was cleaning out my car of various vats of fake blood, and severed arms and limbs only to get very strange stares from my new neighbours…but that’s a story for another day.

Any filmmakers out there have any similar experiences?

I’m uploading my short film, “Jack Milton: Fairy Tale Detective” today. I directed it years ago in a collaboration with 7 Fluid Oz. Productions. It was a fun film to shoot and it was a blast to travel the festival circuit with it. The cast is great in this and I met many long time collaborators who I’ve worked with many times later, including Bonnie Stockdale (in “The Wayfarers”) and the one and only Dennis Lemoine (in quite a few projects)

The original short runs 18 minutes. I felt that this would probably be too long for the web, so we looked into ways we could adjust the final project by sectioning the film into Chapters. It was fun to open the project up again and adjust it. I can see the appeal in filmmakers who go back and re-edit their own work. But breaking it into chapters is all I’m going to do. I promise! No Star Wars like Digital Banthas in the background here!

Well…now that I think of it, maybe a big digital Sheep in the background might do the trick…

Enjoy!

I finally had a chance to attend the NH Media Makers monthly event. I’ve been trying to go for the past half a year or so, and I’m glad I went. It was an inspirational group of people all doing unique, creative things in NH. Everyone had three minute or so to talk about what they were doing.

Having attended more than a number of networking “film” events over the years, I figured it would be similar.

Not so.

There was a stark difference between those events, where people always seem to be “networking” in a negative sense - trying to talk to whomever will further their career - and the event yesterday. Everyone actively listened to what others were saying.

I wonder if its the nature of New Media and the Internet itself that creates this community like atmosphere. In the traditional film world, the competition is fierce, and at the end of the day, there are only so many films that can get distribution deals. In many ways, one film naturally competes with the other. On the Internet however, there can be a vast, infinite array of projects, and none of them competes with the other. I enjoyed talking to filmmakers, actors, writers, graphic artists, and musicians, all who were interested in doing unique projects online.

I spoke to John Herman who talked about the speed by which they created “Odd Noggin Land” from idea, to shoot, to finished product. As someone who’s been working on a project for well over a year, something like that is very appealing.

I’m definitely going to go back for more meetings, and hopefully collaborate on some projects in the future.

This is an exciting time to be making media.

I uploaded the official trailer for “Meet the Mayfarers” today.

I think that cutting trailers is one of the most difficult things a filmmaker can do. (well, other that actually selling a film that is)

How does one convey everything needed and necessary for the story, without giving too much away? How to show off some of the jokes without killing them when they watch it? How to keep it concise and interesting. And most of all, since trailers have been done to death, how do you make it unique and not a self-parody?

If you look at film trailers most of them are pretty bad. They either give too much away (the cardinal sin in my book) or are so disjointed you can’t understand it. I think the correct one should be “less is more.”

I remember I was interning at a production company once, and I had the opportunity of watching a film trailer being cut for a big budget film. I was amazed that every single moment and frame was fawned over, analysed, and debated.  - it was an incredible learning experience. They went through new cut by new cut. However, no matter how many times the trailer changed and the scenes were rearranged, the producer always wanted the trailer to end with one image. One golden comic image:  a screaming half-naked fat man in a shower.

True story.

And when I finally saw the trailer in a darkened theater it was completely different than in the editing room. Every shot was different. But that screaming half-naked fat man? Yeah, he was still there.

In any case, I hope you enjoy the new trailer. I hope it gave you a taste of everything, without giving too much away. And I hope you appreciate that I resisted resorting to slipping in any scenes of screaming overweight nudity.

In thinking about this past 4th of July holiday my mind turns to giving thanks to what we have in our country. We certainly don’t appreciate it as much as we could.

Along those lines, there are many people in the film biz who don’t appreciate where they are. For instance, I’ve never quite understood divas on sets. One always reads, and sometimes as a filmmaker experiences, people behaving ridiculously. And you wonder, what fuels that? What fuels childlike behavior on set - yelling, demanding, and not seeing the whole picture?

I’ve always wanted to be a filmmaker. And when I’m hired to write, direct, or act, I’m beyond grateful to actually be fulfilling my childhood goals. And of course it’s never perfect. On a big professional set there are always compromises. But still…you get to be following your dreams.

So I would ask filmmakers and actors, when the going gets tough on the set - don’t throw a tantrum, don’t yell - and just remember that we’re getting paid to make magic. And if your younger self (the one who was struggling) ever saw you act like that, they’d slap you across the face.