Bloggin' On: Adventures in Screenwriting - "Habemus Titulum!"

Habemus Titulum! Photo Credit: Juan Carlos Hernandez. © 2020 Popcorn Sky Productions

Hi, there, Dear Reader, and welcome to another edition of Bloggin' On, the no-reviews, no-politics section of A Certain Point of View where I talk about writing, random stuff that crosses my mind, and other things that don't fall into the reviews or politics categories. It's Tuesday, February 3, 2020, and as I write this it's pretty late in the afternoon. If I were working at an office on a 9-5 schedule, I'd be less than an hour away from my daily "going home from work" time.

Presently, the temperature in my nook of Florida is 74℉ (23℃) under mostly sunny skies, and that was the forecast "high" for the day. The low tonight is expected to dip to 49℉ (9℃), and as the week progresses, we'll be experiencing a warming trend as the temperatures begin to rise up to more Florida-like levels.

Well, it looks as though the second complete screenplay that I wrote for Juan Carlos Hernandez last year (I'm not counting the middle act of Clown 345 because much of the script was already finished when I was asked to contribute some material) is nearing the final stages of production.

Today, for instance, Juan and I finally settled on a final, definitive title for our cinematic project. a comedy-drama set in Trump-era New York City.  When I wrote the first draft, it was titled Happy Days Are Here Again; I wanted to use the eponymous 1930s song as an ironic counterpoint to the divisiveness our country and many American families are experiencing as a result of Donald Trump's election in 2016 and the actions he has taken as the 45th President of the United States.

But films often take many twists and turns during the "making-of'" process, so what started out as Happy Days Are Here Again morphed into Ronnie and Her Two Nincompoops, but Juan always figured the latter was a placeholder until someone came up with a better title.

As you know, Juan and I keep in touch either by emails or texts and when we are busy on a project we try to communicate as often as possible because he lives in New York City and I live in Florida. And because the film is in the final stages of production, I have been concerned about the selection of a title.

So, today we went over a list of possible titles, including:

• Once Upon a Time in Riverside 
• The Bliss Chaser
• Chasing Bliss
• Ronnie and the Search for Elusive Bliss

None of these seemed to work all that well, but we eventually compromised with a Spielbergian-like marquee-ready title: 

Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss, which has a nice Indiana Jones-like sensibility, as well as a sense of irony that jives with the themes of the film. 

So, habemus titulum. 

My writer's credit, as designed by director Juan Carlos Hernandez. © 2020 Popcorn Sky Productions

Anyway, although Juan still needs to work on the sound (ADR and music), color correction, and "snipping frames," he said this: 

"The end is near." 

I can't say for certain when Juan and his wife Adria (our Ronnie and, more importantly, our producer) will say "It's a wrap!" and upload Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss to YouTube. You can be sure, though, that I will let you know as soon as I get the word from New York. 

That's it for today, dear friends and Constant Readers. So until next time, I'll catch you all on the sunny side of things!