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!