Posts

Showing posts with the label Alex Diaz-Granados

Sunny in the Village of the Crickets

Image

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow... (Excerpt from 'The New Story')

Image
   3 Moonlight Serenade, or: "Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow..."   We go back to our table after our dance. The Swinging Millers are playing their encore, Moonlight Serenade . The dance floor is nearly empty now, and most of the patrons are either sitting at their tables or getting ready to go. Maddie and I sit in silence, listening to the music. She looks gorgeous in her sky-blue dress. It contrasts nicely with her hazel eyes, which sparkle in the dim light. There's a matching jacket in her bag from Book Culture, along with some books she bought earlier. I wonder what they are, but I don't ask. I don't want to spoil the mystery. The song ends, and the band thanks the audience for their applause. Maddie looks at her watch and sighs. "It's late," she says. "I should get going." "Me too," I say. Before we go, Maddie snatches a napkin and a pen from our table, flashing me a mischievous grin. We head to the coat check, w

On Writing & Storytelling: Waiting for My Copy of 'Reunion" (Second Revised Edition) to Come In

Image
Image by  Sabrina  from  Pixabay    After working on the revisions and edits in the second edition of my novella Reunion: A Story, I will get to see the results of my weekend's labor later today. Sometime this afternoon, an Amazon Prime delivery van will drop off my copy of Reunion at the front door of the house where I live in Lithia. And shortly afterward, I will see for myself if the edits I made between last Friday afternoon and Monday night are present in the paperback edition.  Currently, the only place where I can see my revisions as I intend them to be read is the Kindle Create app I used to make them.  The view from the Kindle Create app. I had just finished reformatting the "song lyrics" (copy marked in boldface ) when I took this screengrab.  Amazon says that it takes up to 72 hours for revisions and other changes to make their way into the system. I made the last adjustments to Reunion  late on Monday night and early Tuesday morning, so those won't be seen

A Word from the Screenwriter/Associate Producer: A Quick Update on the Popcorn Sky Project's GoFundMe

Image
 Hi, there, Dear Reader. It's me again, with a quick update on our fundraising efforts to finance Popcorn Sky Production's next film, the one to which I am attached as screenwriter and associate producer.  Well, as you may have read in my previous post, we had passed the $500-in-donations (we need $50,000) in our GoFundMe campaign last time I wrote. Well, that was enough to get the clock running on the project; that means that the screenwriter was officially paid to start the first draft of the script. Since we don't have the money to begin production any time soon, I'm not rushing through the process - I am still trying to work on the outline for Act One and I have already written the first shot. No action or dialogue; I am not that far into the script, but at least I know how the film should start.  Most of my focus, like it or not, has been on raising funds, which is why I am an AP as well as the designated screenwriter. And so far I have been somewhat successful; ou

A Note from the Associate Producer: Update on the GoFundMe Campaign for the New Movie

Image
A screenshot of our GoFundMe page.  Hello, everybody. I just want to update you on the status of our new film, which doesn't have a title yet, so we refer to it as Untitled Sequel to Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss.  As you know, this time the folks at Popcorn Sky in New York City want to make a true feature-length film, with multiple locations, a larger cast, and a story with a running time of around 90 minutes.  This, of course, is a far more ambitious project than our previous ones. So far, we've managed to do four films of varying lengths with minimal budgets and small casts; the ones I've written on my own - at least as far as first drafts go - have two, three characters at most.  The film to which I contributed the least -El Grande de Corona - has a cast of five:  Juan Carlos Hernandez Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez Steve Arons Matthew Martin Ward Natalie Hernandez Clearly, we're not quite ready to compete with Cecil B. DeMille in size of cast or scope of s

Hey, We're Making a Feature-Length Film, and YOU Can Help! (A Word from the Screenwriter and Associate Producer)

Image
  A screenshot from the script of Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss Hello there, Dear Reader. I’m writing this post because the folks at Popcorn Sky Productions – including this blogger – are starting work on a new film project that follows the characters from Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss into the realm of feature length films. The entire cast of that short film – Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez, Anthony Hernandez, and Juan Carlos Hernandez – who’s also our director – will be back in their roles of Ronnie, Jerry, and Guillermo Ronderos. I will return as well as one of the writers, plus I will be doing double duty as associate producer. While we do not as of yet have a title, much less a complete screenplay, we have a good idea about the story, its themes, and its characters. Here’s how Adria and Juan describe the project: The film is to consider the issues of political extremism (which we satirized in Ronnie) but this time around, let's look at the costs

Adventures in Screenwriting: Some Behind the Scenes Facts About 'Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss'

Image
My writer's credit!  On February 9, 2020, Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss made its debut as a YouTube short film. Since then, it has been viewed 1,257 times, which by YouTube standards is not impressive but still is gratifying for everyone involved. Of the three "shorts" that actor-director Juan Carlos Hernandez and I have collaborated on, Ronnie has had the most success, not just in the pageviews department but also as far as critical success is concerned. On our film's Internet Movie Database (IMDb) page , we only have two critics' reviews, one by Meg Learner of PersonaPaper, the other by Denise Longrie, a poet, writer, and longtime reviewer who wrote for many years at the now-closed review site Epinions. In her review , Ms. Longrie says this about the premise of a NYC family divided by politics in Trump-era America: These people love each other. Despite their differences, they still care for one another. Jerry brings home treats for

Bloggin' On: Adventures in Screenwriting - From Page to Screen & Other Musings

Image
Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez in Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss. © 2020 Popcorn Sky Productions Well, Dear Reader, it's official.   Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss is finished and uploaded to YouTube. The long journey that began late last spring with a first-draft script titled Happy Days Are Here Again ended late yesterday afternoon when the film's director, Juan Carlos Hernandez, fixed a last-minute glitch (a digital artifact had messed up the next-to-last shot, and Juan wanted it gone) and posted it onto the video-sharing platform owned by Google. Ronnie is my third produced collaboration with Juan, an old friend from drama class back at South Miami Senior High in the 1980s. I haven't seen him in person since, oh, 1989, the year he left Florida to pursue a busy and successful career as a character actor in New York and other places. (You've probably seen Juan Carlos Hernandez on TV or at the movies; he has played many roles in movies,

Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss

Image
Well, here it is, at long last. After several rewrites and a few unavoidable delays, Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss has made the transition from page to screen. Directed by Juan Carlos Hernandez, produced by Adria Woomer-Hernandez, and written by Yours Truly, this is, as Juan likes to call it, "a film about today." Credits: Starring: Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez   as Veronica "Ronnie" Rondero Juan Carlos Hernandez   as Guillermo "Guille" Rondero: Anthony James Hernandez  as Jerry Rondero Directed and Edited by: Juan Carlos Hernandez Produced by: Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez Sound by: Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez Written by: Alex Diaz-Granados, based on his original screen concept, Happy Days Are Here Again

Bloggin' On: Adventures in Screenwriting - Reflections on a Finished Script

Image
Photo Illustration by Lukas Bieri via Pixabay “The script is what you’ve dreamed up– this is what it should be. The film is what you end up with.” – George Lucas Well, as I reported yesterday, Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss has entered the last stages of post-production. Up in New York City, my friend and creative partner, Juan Carlos Hernandez and his wife Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez are putting what we hope are the finishing touches on the comedy-drama that I conceived and wrote for their Popcorn Sky Productions, in different iterations, between late spring and early fall of 2019. We had hoped to make it during the summer, but Juan, Adria, and their son Anthony were only able to start principal photography a few weeks ago. As a result, the film that I wrote with the title  Happy Days Are Here Again as a 21st Century tip of the hat to Norman Lear's topical comedies of the 1970s (especially All in the Family and Maude ) morphed into a M*A*S*H- like dark comedy

Further Adventures in Screenwriting: He Likes It, He Really Likes It!

Image
Image by  Lukas Bieri  from  Pixabay   I was going to take the rest of Sunday off, but I received a series of encouraging texts from my New York City-based collaborator and friend, Juan Carlos Hernandez, about my recently-completed screenplay for Happy Days Are Here Again.  Juan and I have been working on our most ambitious collaboration to date since he and his wife Adria completed the post-production phase of A Simple Ad in May. As I've said in previous posts, Juan had originally asked me for a comedy rather than what he got in A Simple Ad, which was a brief but poignant rumination about loss and grief. And although Juan and Adria liked the script well enough to devote time and effort into making it into a short film, they still wanted a comedy script from me. This time, though, Juan wanted a longer, more elaborate screen story that included a part for his son Anthony, who is studying drama in college up in New York State. I eventually settled on a situation comedy-

Adventures in Screenwriting, Continued: And Now...We Wait

Image
Photo Credit: Pixabay I could be just a writer very easily. I am not a writer. I am a screenwriter, which is half a filmmaker. … But it is not an art form, because screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art. – Paul Schrader After a couple of days of anxious waiting, I finally heard from my friend and writing partner, actor-director Juan Carlos Hernandez, about the revised screenplay for Happy Days Are Here Again.  Juan sent me a couple of texts yesterday; they were not very long or detailed. but overall they were rather encouraging. Basically, he said that he had spent several days breaking the script down to determine how to best interpret it. At first, he had a bit of difficulty trying to understand the third act, but he added that after a second read-through, "I finally got it." I don’t think screenplay writing is the same as writing — I mean, I think it’s blueprinting. – Robert Altman Juan is a guy of few

Adventures in Screenwriting: Rewrites, Rewrites, Rewrites...

Image
Map of Cuba. (Credit: Wikipedia) “Film’s thought of as a director’s medium because the director creates the end product that appears on the screen. It’s that stupid auteur theory again, that the director is the author of the film. But what does the director shoot—the telephone book? Writers became much more important when sound came in, but they’ve had to put up a valiant fight to get the credit they deserve.” – Billy Wilder This week has been a busy one for me; since Monday, my focus has been on making revisions to my second original screenplay of 2019, a comedy-drama titled Happy Days Are Here Again. Happy Days Are Here Again is a project that I started working on almost as soon as my filmmaking partners Juan Carlos Hernandez and Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez finished post-production on my first produced short, A Simple Ad. As with that project, Happy Days Are Here Again (no relation to the 1970s-era sitcom) began as a request for a comedy script; however, A Simple Ad ended up be

A Busy Screenwriter is a Happy Screenwriter

Image
Hello, there, Constant Reader.  As you know, I have been collaborating with my high school friend and (now) actor-director Juan Carlos Hernandez on some of his new short-film projects. We have, in fact, been trying to join forces creatively for a decade now, but after I co-wrote a screenplay ("After the Ball") with Juan in 2009, my mom's last illness caused me to shift priorities and I had to stop working on another project ("Gym Rats") because I had way too much on my plat e at the time. "After the Ball" never got made; Juan and his wife Adria couldn't get financing for it, so that, folks, was that. Same happened to "Gym Rats." So Juan decided to focus on his acting career (which is not as glam or fun as it seems to outsiders), as well as being there for his wife and son, Anthony. Long story short, this year Juan decided to get back to making films, this time with a digital camera. This year, we have collaborated on

Adventures in Screenwriting: Two and a Third Scripts

Image
Well, so now I have two writing credits on my Internet Movie Database page. (Here it is...my modest IMDb.com reference page: Alex Diaz-Granados: Writer ) Last week, my actor-director friend Juan Carlos Hernandez finished post-production on Clown 345, a short comedy film about a young clown (Anthony Fernandez) and his attempt to tell a joke to his parents (Adria K. Hernandez and Juan Carlos Hernandez). It was written mostly by Juan; I was asked to write the "bridge" between Acts One and Three, which had mostly been filmed by the time I came on board the project. Clown 345 is now complete and "live" on YouTube, so Popcorn Skies Productions, my friend Juan's New York City-based production company, has listed it on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), complete with a cast and crew list. For my modest contribution, I earned my second credit as a screenwriter for a produced work in my career. My first one, of course, was for A Simple Ad, an original screenp

Clown 345 (Which I Co-Wrote)

Image

Reflections: 1,000 Posts In....

Image
Hello, there, Gentle Reader, and welcome to the 1,000th post of A Certain Point of View.  A lot of water has passed under the bridge since we began this journey on July 4, 2011, which is when I wrote the first post on this blog. On that occasion, I wanted to introduce myself to...well... you, explain why I named the blog A Certain Point of View, and to share the story of how and why I became a Star Wars fan.  The famous Star Wars logo designed in 1976 by Dan Perri. ™ Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  In First Things First... , I wrote: Welcome to A Certain Point of View, my new blog here at Blogger.com. My name is Alex Diaz-Granados and I'm a (a) writer, (b) budding screenwriter, (c) single guy, (d) online reviewer and (e) die-hard  Star Wars  fan of the "1977 Generation" who still remembers when the first movie was simply titled  Star Wars  and not, as it has been known since 1981,  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope.   (I also seem to be a rarity among  Star Wars  f

A Simple Ad (Short Film)

Image
A Simple Ad  is a short film directed by Juan Carlos Hernandez from a screenplay that I wrote in late March of 2019.  Juan had asked me for a script for a two-minute short, but the best that I could manage was a screenplay that, when filmed, ended up becoming a film with a running time of 3:42...not quite four minutes in total. I based the script on an apocryphal story - a legend, really - about Ernest Hemingway. (Supposedly, in his days as a young writer in Paris, Hemingway was having drinks at a bar with some of his friends when someone made a challenge - perhaps in jest, perhaps not - to see who could come up with a complete story using the fewest words. According to the myth (for that's all it is, really), the group of writers, now reasonably sober, reunited at the bar with their short stories, some of which were two pages long, others just one, but all of them were at least two or three paragraphs long. Hemingway reputedly read them all, after which he said, "I