A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Hi there, Dear Reader. It’s been a while since I last posted, but since I have been focusing on A Certain Point of View, Too – you know, the blog on WordPress that I had to create in late March of last year because this one is blocked on Facebook – it can’t be helped. It’s hard coming up with good posts for one blog – at least, it is for me; so coming up with good material for two is doubly so. I tried coming up with a workable scheme – at one point, I thought about writing on one blog on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and writing on the other on the other four days, but I’m just not that organized.   Anyway, yesterday I started working on a new screenplay for my friend Juan Carlos Hernandez’s small indie film company, Popcorn Sky Productions. I have not come up with a title yet, so I’m calling it Project X until (a) I break the story and (b) somebody at either end of the pipeline (Tampa or New York City) comes up with one. I have no idea how long its gonna be, but I do know that

Portrait of the Screenwriter As a Young Man, circa 1986. (Photo Credit: Peter C. Townsend) Hello, there, Constant Reader, and welcome once again to Bloggin' On, the blog-within-a-blog section of A Certain Point of View where I don't "do" reviews or the occasional bit of political commentary. It's Wednesday, January 22, 2020, although because it was a three-day weekend due to the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, it feels oddly like it's Tuesday...and a spectacularly cold Tuesday at that. Right now (it's mid-morning as I write this) the temperature outside is 36℉ (3℃) under sunny skies, although the wind chill lowers the feels-like temperature to the freezing point. The temperature will rise a bit as the hours pass; the forecast calls for a high of 60℉ (16℃) and some cloudiness, but overall, by Florida standards, it's going to be  c-c-c-cold out there. Yesterday I got (via text) an update on our comedy film project from actor-director Juan Car

Screenshot from Movie Magic Screenwriter 6 showing dialogue from Happy Days Are Here Again. © 2019 Alex Diaz-Granados Hey, there, Constant Reader! Welcome to another edition of Bloggin' On, the no-reviews, no-politics zone of A Certain Point of View where I talk about (or, if you're literal about such things, write about ) topics that do not fit neatly into those categories. Today is Friday, January 17, 2020, which by coincidence is the 29th anniversary of the start of Operation Desert Storm (the U.S.-led military campaign to liberate Kuwait from its Iraqi occupation) back in 1991. It's already early afternoon here in my corner of Florida, and it's a nice day outside. Presently the temperature is a mild 77℉ (25℃) under mostly sunny skies; the forecast for the area says that's as warm as it will get today, and the low is expected to reach 62℉ (17℃). For those of you who are following the progress of Happy Days Are Here Again, Juan told me yesterday that he

My current author's photo as it appears on the back cover of Reunion: A Story.  Hi, there, Dear Reader! Welcome to another edition of Bloggin' On, the blog-within-a-blog feature where I don't review anything or inject any politics and just write about life, the Universe, and (almost) everything else. Today is Wednesday, January 15, 2020, and as I start writing this post, it's not quite noon in my small corner of Florida. Presently the temperature outside is 80℉ (26℃) under partly sunny skies. The forecast for the area calls for a high of 82℉ (28℃) and no change in the cloud/sun mix, while the low tonight is expected to reach 63℉ (17℃) under mostly clear conditions. Well, yesterday Juan Carlos Hernandez, the New York-based actor-director who sometimes asks me to write screenplays for his Popcorn Skies Productions company and long-time friend (from our days as drama students at South Miami High), texted me a short update on our new film, Happy Days Are Here Aga

Hello, everyone! It's Friday, January 3, 2020, and the first weekend of the new year (and new decade) is nearly upon us. In my corner of Florida, it's almost noon, and it's another cool early winter day. Right now the temperature outside is 78℉ (26℃) under mostly cloudy skies, so the light that strains to stream through the window is dim and gray. The high for today is expected to reach 83℉ (28℃) when the clouds recede later, and the forecast says the afternoon weather is going to be almost summer-like. Well, for those of you who are wondering whatever happened to Happy Days Are Here Again, a screenplay I wrote last year for Popcorn Sky Productions, I have an update. My friend Juan Carlos Hernandez, who I met when I signed up for Drama I at South Miami High School in my senior year there, texted me earlier this week and said that he and his team (actress-producer Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez and their son Anthony "A.J." Hernandez) started filming Happy Days Are

How do you come up with writing ideas? It depends on the circumstances, really, as well as my current state of mind. As it stands, other than my blog and my answers on Quora, I can point to three things that I have written for public consumption: Save Me the Aisle Seat: The Good, the Bad and the Really Bad Movies: Selected Reviews by an Online Film Reviewer: Alex Diaz-Granados: 9781475075045: Amazon.com: Books Reunion: A Story: Mr. Alex J Diaz-Granados: 9781722120474: Amazon.com: Books Each of these projects had a unique “point of origin.” The oldest of these is  Reunion: A Story.  Although I self-published it last summer, it began life as a creative writing assignment in my sophomore year in college, circa 1987. I don’t remember what the assignment was now, but I do remember that I wrote a dream sequence set during the protagonist’s last day as a high school senior. It only earned a B, but I kept it in my college work files with the intention of  maybe  rewor

(C) 1998 Del Rey/Ballantine Books and Lucasfilm, Ltd. (LFL) Pros:  Contains the entire screenplay by Kasdan and Lucas; storyboards are included Cons:  None. Luke Skywalker has returned to his home planet of Tatooine in an attempt to rescue his friend Han Solo from the clutches of the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt. Little does Luke know that the GALACTIC EMPIRE has begun construction on a new armored space station even more powerful than the first dreaded Death Star. When completed, this ultimate weapon will spell certain doom for the small band of Rebels struggling to restore freedom to the galaxy.... -- Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas, Return of the Jedi When George Lucas set out to create a youth-oriented "modern myth" set "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" in the mid-1970s, his first script was so large that he had to break it down into three smaller 120-page screenplays. No, they weren't fully fleshed