Bloggin' On: Adventures in Screenwriting - The End of the Wait is Drawing Nigh!

My screenwriter's credit as designed by director Juan Carlos Hernandez. Photo Credit: Juan Carlos Hernandez © 2020 Popcorn Sky Productions

"Coming Soon to a YouTube Channel Near You...."

The saga of the making of Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss is almost over.

Eight months after I opened a new file in my copy of Write Brothers' Movie Magic 6 Screenwriter and typed "FADE IN: EXT. NEW YORK CITY- SKYLINE - DAY,"  actor-director Juan Carlos Hernandez (who has been my friend since we met as drama students at South Miami Senior High in the 1982-1983 school year) is putting the finishing touches on our new short (less than 30 minutes) film.

Here's what I know:

• Principal photography is complete
• Reshoots and pickups, which are done when a director redoes shots that didn't come out as intended or does new ones if and when adjustments to the story are necessary, are done
• Automatic Dialogue Replacement (ADR), which involves getting the cast to re-record the lines for the soundtrack (especially in scenes shot "on location" and where ambient noise mucks up the sound), is done
• The music score has been added to the soundtrack
• The editing is almost done; Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez, our producer and female lead, thinks that Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss is ready to be uploaded, but Juan wants to make sure the edits are smooth and clean
• The end titles are done

The "Special Thanks To" cards from the end titles sequence. © 2020 Popcorn Sky Productions

I jokingly said to Juan that if he keeps on tinkering with Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss I will start calling him "George Lucas," the filmmaker who is notorious for making adjustments to his Star Wars films.

But Juan, of course, has a good reason for not releasing the film before he is certain that the light levels in all the shots are consistent and that there are no noticeable mistakes in the finished movie.

Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez (left) and Juan Carlos Hernandez (center) in a still from Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss.  © 2020 Popcorn Sky Productions

Right now, I'm hoping to get a text from New York informing me that our movie - which I started writing in the late spring of 2019 as Happy Days Are Here Again -  is now uploaded to YouTube and ready to be shared with the world. But it's still morning here in the Eastern Time zone of the U.S., and it's a Saturday, so I doubt I'll get any news till later today.

Still, the end of the wait is, indeed, drawing nigh.