Bloggin' On: Updates and Musings for January 17, 2020

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 was filming some more exterior scenes at a nearby park. He lives in the Riverside section of New York City, so I'm assuming that he was referring to either a neighborhood park or even Central Park itself. Based on the texts we exchanged, I figure that he revised the script a lot because he said he needed a quick scene written for the last shot he needed. The rationale for the last-minute revision (which, sadly, I could not come up with) was that Juan was "trying to reconcile a few subtextual things."

And here, sports fans, is an illustration of the tug-of-war between a screenwriter and a director-producer. In this case, I had a clear and definite vision for the film: Happy Days Are Here Again is an homage to the classic TV sitcom All in the Family, with Juan's Guillermo as a Cuban-American version of Archie Bunker, Adria's Ronnie is my stand-in for Edith, and Anthony Hernandez's Jerry is a composite of Mike Stivic and Gloria Bunker. (What I mean here, folks, is that in a story with three characters, it couldn't be a full-on reworking of the All in the Family format, but the spirit of that show is what I wanted in my script, especially since we don't have any supporting characters.)

Juan, for his part, has his vision for the film, too. He liked my script well enough to accept it, and he wanted me to go to NYC for the shoot so I could be part of the process of revising and giving my input about changes. So I gotta give him props for that, even though I ultimately had to tell him that I couldn't afford to get a plane ticket and stay in a hotel during principal photography.

Faced with the reality that the screenwriter can't be on hand to make changes, Juan has advised me that he's had to revise the script quite a bit because, as an actor and director, he saw possibilities for drama and comedy that were not in my screenplay. So, the final film will have the DNA from my draft and hopefully a lot of the lines, but it's still going to be different from my various drafts.

And honestly, I'm fine with it. I mean, I like my version of the screenplay, but I'm sure that Juan and Adria know what they're doing. Plus, it's not like Juan doesn't tell me about the revisions. He's upfront about what he does and tries hard to include me in the loop.

I was hoping to write a review of either Carmen or They Shall Not Grow Old, but I had a late start to the day (despite waking up early) and I have no idea which of those films I want to write about. If it was nine in the morning I'd do a coin toss (heads, Carmen, tails They Shall Not Grow Old) and go by the result, but it's almost 2 PM my time now, and I have no desire to be at my desk till five or six in the afternoon. So, maybe I'll do a review of some sort this weekend.

Well, that's all I have to share for now. I think I'll go to the kitchen and fix myself a quick and easy lunch, after which I'll probably chill on the Florida room couch and read a book or listen to some tunes. So, until next time, Dear Reader, catch you on the sunny side of things!