Bloggin' On: Updates and Musings for January 4, 2020

Screenshot from Movie Magic Screenwriter 6 with a page from A Simple Ad. (Photo Credit: Alex Diaz-Granados. ©2019 Alex Diaz-Granados)

Hello and welcome once again to another edition of Bloggin' On, the blog-within-a-blog where I post stuff that doesn't fall under the reviews-or-political commentary content categories of A Certain Point of View. I'm glad to see that you're reading and I hope that you are enjoying my blog.

Right now it's early evening in my corner of Florida; right now it's 66℉ (19℃) under cloudy skies. A line of thunderstorms and strong rain showers passed through the area earlier, so our outing to rewatch Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was canceled and we stayed home instead. My Significant Other has been busy doing household chores while I - at her suggestion - took most of today off to, as she says, "sloth." Rainy days almost always sap the energy out of me, so I didn't argue and sat on the couch in the common room and listened to my Amazon Music channel on the Roku app on our TV.

I texted my friend Juan Carlos Hernandez, the New York City-based actor-director with whom I collaborate on film projects, to see how Happy Days Are Here Again is faring. He reports that he and the other cast members have been busy filming. He shot three short scenes today, and apparently things are going well. He wishes that I could go to the Big Apple and be on hand to help with on-set rewrites to the script, but unfortunately I can't afford the costs of flying there and getting a hotel room for the time I'd need to be in New York.

That means, of course, that Happy Days Are Here Again will be different in the final film version from the script. It's not an unusual occurrence in the industry; very few films are made as they are written in the first draft, and I've already turned in several rewrites before Juan could find the time to actually start shooting. None of the scripts I've turned in (and I've done two and one-third scripts over the past year) have avoided rewrites or on-set interpretation changes, so I'm not going to gnash my teeth or lose sleep over Happy Days Are Here Again. 

A case in point: In A Simple Ad, when I wrote the section I dubbed "the Pet Sematary" reference, I wanted Sara (Adria K. Woomer) to deliver the line with anger and sadness. Juan says that she played it that way in one take, but in another take, she decided to lighten the tone of the scene by turning a sarcastic and bitter comment into a bit of dark humor. Juan told me that they both liked that version of the line better, so that's what you'll see in the finished film.

I am not sure how different Juan's version of Happy Days Are Here Again will be from my original screenplay. I suspect that the answer is "Significantly different," but as long as Juan, Adria, and A.J. stick to the theme of the script, I'm happy.

© 2001 Sony Legacy

Yesterday I received my order with An Evening with John Denver and John Denver - Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits, which are 2-CD sets featuring the songs written (or in some cases, co-written) and sung by the late singer-songwriter who would have been 76 years old on December 31. One is a remastered version of a 1975 "live in concert" album, while the other is a 2004 compilation of, you guessed it, John Denver's greatest hits, presented in chronological order.

So far, the only one I've listened to is An Evening with John Denver, and that's only because Amazon and Sony Legacy included an "Autorip" digital copy with my purchase of the physical disc. It's pretty awesome, or as Denver liked to say, "Far out!"  I'll be reviewing that album soon, as well as other items I've purchased or received as gifts for Christmas.

Well. Constant Reader, this is where we part ways; it's getting close to dinner time, and in any case, I don't have much to add to this update. It's going to be cold tonight by Florida standards; the mercury is expected to drop to 47℉ (8℃) in the wee hours of the morning. So the chili con carne that my sweetheart is making for us (along with white rice per my mom's recipe and maybe even fried plantains on the side) will hit the spot.

So, goodbye for now, and I'll catch you on the sunny side of things.