Milford filmmaker Mike Field is a great role model for how to stay relevant in the ever-changing landscape of independent storytelling. If Marshall McLuhan was right, and “the medium is the message,” then Field sure has a lot to say.

The 2003 feature-length comedy “Save the Forest” was written and directed by Field, and filmed at the now-abandoned Forest Theatre in West Haven. Field produced the movie alongside writer Keith Lynn, Field’s long-time cinematographer Adrian Correia, and the late, great Kevin Boggiano, who sadly passed away in 2005. ‘Forest’ is a manic comedy with a heartfelt romance at its center, inspired by the John Hughes comedies of the 1980s. It’s currently available on Netflix Instant.

In the years since ‘Forest,’ Field has been prolific, writing and directing the short films “The Hero,” “One Up,” and “Running In Place,” which have appeared at various film festivals throughout the country. Field is currently shepherding other filmmaking endeavors, with eight projects in development, and his company Up on the Roof LLC producing the horror web series, “The Barn,” from the minds of Keith Lynn and John Deptulski.

Field’s most recent focus has been a pair of web series, the mystery thriller “The Puzzle Maker’s Son” and the comedic “Scenes from the Movies.” I recently spoke with Field about both series, shooting on a budget, and the current landscape for original Internet content.

Field came up with the idea for ‘Puzzle Maker’s Son,’ which was an official selection of the New Media Film Festival in Los Angeles, because he needed “something the audience will keep coming back to.” The mysterious series certainly has that effect, drawing viewers in and leading them to next part of the story. ‘Puzzle’ started out as a nine-page short, which became the first three episodes.

One curious aspect of the Internet distribution age is that no one’s sure exactly how to release their work, and with what frequency. Field wisely chose to post those first three episodes of ‘Puzzle’ at once, getting the viewer hooked, before spreading out the rest of the first season over the next four weeks, debuting new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

One of the consistent aspects in Field’s work is the presence of Adrian Correia, who has shot nearly everything Field has directed. “We didn’t have a huge budget [for Puzzle Maker’s Son],” Field explains, “but we needed it to look like we did.” Correia does a fantastic job with what money they did have, using the RED camera to create a small screen project with big screen lighting and camera work.

The writing and directing is similarly top-notch, with Field never settling for the Internet entertainment standard of cute kitten videos and fraudulent mothers planting flour accident clips, but rather making an intricate narrative that enthralls just as a trip to the cinema would.

“I can make a short film,” Field explains, “and it’ll get lost,” but people can find his web series online. His expectations for the beginning of these endeavors is similarly realistic, “It would be ridiculous to think I’m gonna make money with my first web series.”

Profitability aside, ‘Puzzle Maker’s Son’ has done a lot to increase awareness for Mike Field, and open door for future projects. “I increased my circle for networking when [I] put it out there,” Field explains, pointing out that the series has shown him what “the possibilities of doing online content can be.”

After ‘The Puzzle Maker’s Son’ was getting viewed on YouTube and Facebook, Field was contacted by Kold Cast TV and Kold Cast put the series up on their site, where’s it doing “quite well.”

Switching gears into the comedic realm, Field has also been working on ‘Scenes from the Movies,’ a very funny workplace comedy that is painfully humorous for people who’ve worked at a movie theatre, and just as familiar for anyone who’s worked in a customer-related industry (so, everyone).

Field found that the episodes of ‘Scenes from the Movies’ “just kept writing themselves.” Shot using a green screen (a good one too—I thought they really shot it in a movie theatre), Field has created what he describes as a “live action comic strip.”

Season one of the series is online over at Tango Dango, an online content company based out of Stratford. Field is currently in negotiations for a second season of ‘Scenes from the Movies’ to launch around February or March. There is also a Christmas special, which has been shot, as have all of the season two episodes.

As for ‘The Puzzle Maker’s Son,’ Field says, “The second series is written. It’s considerably bigger. There’s a lot more stuff going on. I haven’t been able to fund it on my own. [There are] some explosions in there.” Field was thinking about breaking up the story, but Correia said, “No, you need to keep it together.” It sounds quite ambitious, and we can’t wait for it to come together.

In a recent blog post on Field’s Up on the Roof website, he quoted David Mamet, who said, “Those with something to fall back on invariably fall back on it. They intended to all along. That is why they provided themselves with it. But those with no alternative see the world differently.”

Field revealed his conflicted feelings about the responsibilities that come with being a husband and father while trying to be a filmmaker, saying, “I wonder if Mamet had children when he said this.”

Well, Mike Field does have children, and he’s still juggling it all, telling great visual stories in the process.