So “Meet the Mayfarers” moves in a new direction today. The story so far has been one continuous ensemble of the family struggling to live together to get the inheritance.

Every few months or so however, we focus on one of the characters in their own story outside of the main plot.  This first one, “The Penguin Chronicles” showcases Nick’s struggles in the entertainment business, made even more difficult now that he’s living at home.

Since the show has been shooting on a fairly regular basis now for over a year and a half, I wanted to make sure we’d be able to film even if we couldn’t get the entire family cast together. That was the genesis of these “Solo” episodes. Even though they are stand alone pieces,  a lot of the plots and characters introduced here are woven into the main ensemble episodes down the road.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little narrative detour in the show.

My definition of a great movie is solely based on one thing:  Is it rewatchable?

Forget if the “Subtext was important” or it was about some historical event, or an “important’ social issue. All that matters for me at least is - after I finish watching it, could I pop it right back into the DVD player and watch it again?

That’s why the movies that usually win all the awards never do it for me as much as the ones that are just additively re-watchable.

What’s your definition of a great movie?

One question I get asked constantly is why I created a show with a name so similar to a feature film I directed a few years ago. Many people assume that one must be a sequel to the other, or they take place in the same word, or that I simply just ran out of family name ideas.

The truth of the matter is a little more subtle than that. But to answer the questions: a) No, they don’t take place in the same world b) No, one is not a sequel to the other.

“The Wayfarers” was a comedy/drama feature film I shot a few years ago. It was the story of a family who are reunited when the dying matriarch of the family wants to stage a “remembrance ceremony” for herself before she passes away. The story veers from comedy to seriousness throughout the film. Tonally it is completely different from my current show. While there is absurd stuff going on, for the most part I tried to ground the film in reality.  It is a “slice of life” character study which is as much a study of the seaside villages of New England and the fishing life as it is the character dynamics.

Making “The Wayfarers” was a special time. I had been writing commercial spec screenplays for a number of years and came to a point where I wanted to do something that was straight from the heart, that was totally “me.” The story is not autobiographical, though there are many true to life and autobiographical elements in certain situations, and character colorings.

Even years later I look back at the eleven days we shot that film as one of the highlights of my life. I was doing what I loved to do, and the cast and crew truly bonded as a family in a magical seaside town.

Cut to a few years later and I was coming off of directing a film that was not close to my heart. I had been dealing with the hassles of distribution and bureaucracy of the film business. Most of all, I wasn’t having fun. When I decided to make a web show, I wanted to do a project for me, once again. But this time, being on the web, I knew that instead of embracing a “heartfelt” type of screenwriting, I decided to embrace my inner absurdity. I wanted to take the experience I had on “The Wayfarers” and put it in a fun, funny and comically bizarre context. Whereas “Wayfarers” was grounded in the real world, “Meet the Mayfarers” would be totally absurd, with a deliberate lack of logic. Unlike the film before it, the characters would not be people you would care for - they’d be utterly irredeemable. If I felt like the story zigging one off the wall way - well sure, why not? The point was to do something and have a blast shooting it.

And the reason I wanted to do a story about a family, even in a bizarre setting, was because I had so much fun on “The Wayfarers.” I wanted to return to the fun and sense of satisfaction I had on that shoot. I wanted to do something right off the bat that would be a “good luck charm.” That would ensure that the web show experience would be as good as the film.

So what did I do?

I flipped the W.

And there we go. Two totally different projects. While some of the foundation of them are the same, they are miles apart, both because they are each made for different mediums, and because their goals are different.

And, while I am a huge fan of crossovers - there won’t be any for these projects.

At least…not yet.