A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

 I recently asked Microsoft/Open AI Copilot to read several excerpts from the manuscript of Reunion: Coda and delve into one of the novel's main characters, Maddie. This is what Copilot has to say:  Copilot Let's delve into Maddie's character from the excerpts you've shared. Character Traits: Maddie is portrayed as a refined and elegant individual, with a touch of sophistication that comes from her profession as a pianist for the NY Philharmonic. Her interactions suggest she is well-read, given the bag of books from a quaint bookstore, and her accent hints at a well-traveled or well-educated background. She's confident, as seen when she insists on placing her bag down, and has a sense of humor, demonstrated by her quick wit in the elevator scene. Femininity: Her femininity is subtly woven into her character through descriptions of her appearance and the soft, warm colors that she reflects. Her attire and the way she carries herself, combined with her gentle grace,...

Uncover the Past, Discover the Present   Dialogue and Humor in “Reunion: Coda” - An Analysis of the “En Route to Manhattan” Scene The scene “En Route to Manhattan” from “Reunion: Coda” is a delightful blend of dialogue and humor that enriches the narrative and reveals character depth. The use of dialogue here is particularly effective in showcasing the rapport between Jim and Maddie, while the humor adds a layer of levity to their interactions. Selected Passages and Analysis: Maddie’s Observation and Jim’s Fedora: Maddie’s comment about the car suiting Jim is a subtle nod to the idea that our possessions often reflect our personalities. Jim’s response, coupled with the physical action of adjusting his fedora, not only provides a visual cue but also injects humor through self-deprecation. It’s a light-hearted moment that underscores Jim’s modesty and comfort with Maddie. The Metropolis Arms and Clark Kent: Jim’s quip about possibly havi...

Clockwise, from bottom left: Jim Garraty (2000 timeline); Maddie (2000 timeline), and Jim Garraty (early 1980s timeline).      📚 **Dear Friends and Readers,** I wanted to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude to each and every one of you who has purchased a copy of my novella, *Reunion: A Story*. Your support means the world to me, and I am truly humbled by the way you've embraced this little book of mine. Writing *Reunion* was a labor of love—a journey of late nights, countless revisions, and moments of self-doubt. But seeing it in your hands, knowing that my words have found a place in your hearts, fills me with immense joy. To those who left reviews, shared the book with friends, or simply reached out to say how much they enjoyed it—thank you. Your encouragement fuels my passion for storytelling, and I'm inspired to keep writing more tales that resonate with you. Cover designed by Juan Carlos Hernandez And now, for those who wanted more of Jim, Mark, and Marty...

   3 Moonlight Serenade, or: "Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow..."   We go back to our table after our dance. The Swinging Millers are playing their encore, Moonlight Serenade . The dance floor is nearly empty now, and most of the patrons are either sitting at their tables or getting ready to go. Maddie and I sit in silence, listening to the music. She looks gorgeous in her sky-blue dress. It contrasts nicely with her hazel eyes, which sparkle in the dim light. There's a matching jacket in her bag from Book Culture, along with some books she bought earlier. I wonder what they are, but I don't ask. I don't want to spoil the mystery. The song ends, and the band thanks the audience for their applause. Maddie looks at her watch and sighs. "It's late," she says. "I should get going." "Me too," I say. Before we go, Maddie snatches a napkin and a pen from our table, flashing me a mischievous grin. We head to the coat check, w...

Image by  Sabrina  from  Pixabay    After working on the revisions and edits in the second edition of my novella Reunion: A Story, I will get to see the results of my weekend's labor later today. Sometime this afternoon, an Amazon Prime delivery van will drop off my copy of Reunion at the front door of the house where I live in Lithia. And shortly afterward, I will see for myself if the edits I made between last Friday afternoon and Monday night are present in the paperback edition.  Currently, the only place where I can see my revisions as I intend them to be read is the Kindle Create app I used to make them.  The view from the Kindle Create app. I had just finished reformatting the "song lyrics" (copy marked in boldface ) when I took this screengrab.  Amazon says that it takes up to 72 hours for revisions and other changes to make their way into the system. I made the last adjustments to Reunion  late on Monday night and early Tuesday morni...

 Hi, there, Dear Reader. It's me again, with a quick update on our fundraising efforts to finance Popcorn Sky Production's next film, the one to which I am attached as screenwriter and associate producer.  Well, as you may have read in my previous post, we had passed the $500-in-donations (we need $50,000) in our GoFundMe campaign last time I wrote. Well, that was enough to get the clock running on the project; that means that the screenwriter was officially paid to start the first draft of the script. Since we don't have the money to begin production any time soon, I'm not rushing through the process - I am still trying to work on the outline for Act One and I have already written the first shot. No action or dialogue; I am not that far into the script, but at least I know how the film should start.  Most of my focus, like it or not, has been on raising funds, which is why I am an AP as well as the designated screenwriter. And so far I have been somewhat successful; ou...

A screenshot of our GoFundMe page.  Hello, everybody. I just want to update you on the status of our new film, which doesn't have a title yet, so we refer to it as Untitled Sequel to Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss.  As you know, this time the folks at Popcorn Sky in New York City want to make a true feature-length film, with multiple locations, a larger cast, and a story with a running time of around 90 minutes.  This, of course, is a far more ambitious project than our previous ones. So far, we've managed to do four films of varying lengths with minimal budgets and small casts; the ones I've written on my own - at least as far as first drafts go - have two, three characters at most.  The film to which I contributed the least -El Grande de Corona - has a cast of five:  Juan Carlos Hernandez Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez Steve Arons Matthew Martin Ward Natalie Hernandez Clearly, we're not quite ready to compete with Cecil B. DeMille in size of cast or sc...

  A screenshot from the script of Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss Hello there, Dear Reader. I’m writing this post because the folks at Popcorn Sky Productions – including this blogger – are starting work on a new film project that follows the characters from Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss into the realm of feature length films. The entire cast of that short film – Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez, Anthony Hernandez, and Juan Carlos Hernandez – who’s also our director – will be back in their roles of Ronnie, Jerry, and Guillermo Ronderos. I will return as well as one of the writers, plus I will be doing double duty as associate producer. While we do not as of yet have a title, much less a complete screenplay, we have a good idea about the story, its themes, and its characters. Here’s how Adria and Juan describe the project: The film is to consider the issues of political extremism (which we satirized in Ronnie) but this time around, let's look at the costs ...

My writer's credit!  On February 9, 2020, Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss made its debut as a YouTube short film. Since then, it has been viewed 1,257 times, which by YouTube standards is not impressive but still is gratifying for everyone involved. Of the three "shorts" that actor-director Juan Carlos Hernandez and I have collaborated on, Ronnie has had the most success, not just in the pageviews department but also as far as critical success is concerned. On our film's Internet Movie Database (IMDb) page , we only have two critics' reviews, one by Meg Learner of PersonaPaper, the other by Denise Longrie, a poet, writer, and longtime reviewer who wrote for many years at the now-closed review site Epinions. In her review , Ms. Longrie says this about the premise of a NYC family divided by politics in Trump-era America: These people love each other. Despite their differences, they still care for one another. Jerry brings home treats for ...

Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez in Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss. © 2020 Popcorn Sky Productions Well, Dear Reader, it's official.   Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss is finished and uploaded to YouTube. The long journey that began late last spring with a first-draft script titled Happy Days Are Here Again ended late yesterday afternoon when the film's director, Juan Carlos Hernandez, fixed a last-minute glitch (a digital artifact had messed up the next-to-last shot, and Juan wanted it gone) and posted it onto the video-sharing platform owned by Google. Ronnie is my third produced collaboration with Juan, an old friend from drama class back at South Miami Senior High in the 1980s. I haven't seen him in person since, oh, 1989, the year he left Florida to pursue a busy and successful career as a character actor in New York and other places. (You've probably seen Juan Carlos Hernandez on TV or at the movies; he has played many roles in movies, ...

Well, here it is, at long last. After several rewrites and a few unavoidable delays, Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss has made the transition from page to screen. Directed by Juan Carlos Hernandez, produced by Adria Woomer-Hernandez, and written by Yours Truly, this is, as Juan likes to call it, "a film about today." Credits: Starring: Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez   as Veronica "Ronnie" Rondero Juan Carlos Hernandez   as Guillermo "Guille" Rondero: Anthony James Hernandez  as Jerry Rondero Directed and Edited by: Juan Carlos Hernandez Produced by: Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez Sound by: Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez Written by: Alex Diaz-Granados, based on his original screen concept, Happy Days Are Here Again

Photo Illustration by Lukas Bieri via Pixabay “The script is what you’ve dreamed up– this is what it should be. The film is what you end up with.” – George Lucas Well, as I reported yesterday, Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss has entered the last stages of post-production. Up in New York City, my friend and creative partner, Juan Carlos Hernandez and his wife Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez are putting what we hope are the finishing touches on the comedy-drama that I conceived and wrote for their Popcorn Sky Productions, in different iterations, between late spring and early fall of 2019. We had hoped to make it during the summer, but Juan, Adria, and their son Anthony were only able to start principal photography a few weeks ago. As a result, the film that I wrote with the title  Happy Days Are Here Again as a 21st Century tip of the hat to Norman Lear's topical comedies of the 1970s (especially All in the Family and Maude ) morphed into a M*A*S*H- like dark comedy...

Image by  Lukas Bieri  from  Pixabay   I was going to take the rest of Sunday off, but I received a series of encouraging texts from my New York City-based collaborator and friend, Juan Carlos Hernandez, about my recently-completed screenplay for Happy Days Are Here Again.  Juan and I have been working on our most ambitious collaboration to date since he and his wife Adria completed the post-production phase of A Simple Ad in May. As I've said in previous posts, Juan had originally asked me for a comedy rather than what he got in A Simple Ad, which was a brief but poignant rumination about loss and grief. And although Juan and Adria liked the script well enough to devote time and effort into making it into a short film, they still wanted a comedy script from me. This time, though, Juan wanted a longer, more elaborate screen story that included a part for his son Anthony, who is studying drama in college up in New York State. I eventually settled on...

Photo Credit: Pixabay I could be just a writer very easily. I am not a writer. I am a screenwriter, which is half a filmmaker. … But it is not an art form, because screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art. – Paul Schrader After a couple of days of anxious waiting, I finally heard from my friend and writing partner, actor-director Juan Carlos Hernandez, about the revised screenplay for Happy Days Are Here Again.  Juan sent me a couple of texts yesterday; they were not very long or detailed. but overall they were rather encouraging. Basically, he said that he had spent several days breaking the script down to determine how to best interpret it. At first, he had a bit of difficulty trying to understand the third act, but he added that after a second read-through, "I finally got it." I don’t think screenplay writing is the same as writing — I mean, I think it’s blueprinting. – Robert Altman Juan is a guy of few...

Map of Cuba. (Credit: Wikipedia) “Film’s thought of as a director’s medium because the director creates the end product that appears on the screen. It’s that stupid auteur theory again, that the director is the author of the film. But what does the director shoot—the telephone book? Writers became much more important when sound came in, but they’ve had to put up a valiant fight to get the credit they deserve.” – Billy Wilder This week has been a busy one for me; since Monday, my focus has been on making revisions to my second original screenplay of 2019, a comedy-drama titled Happy Days Are Here Again. Happy Days Are Here Again is a project that I started working on almost as soon as my filmmaking partners Juan Carlos Hernandez and Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez finished post-production on my first produced short, A Simple Ad. As with that project, Happy Days Are Here Again (no relation to the 1970s-era sitcom) began as a request for a comedy script; however, A Simple Ad ended up be...

Hello, there, Constant Reader.  As you know, I have been collaborating with my high school friend and (now) actor-director Juan Carlos Hernandez on some of his new short-film projects. We have, in fact, been trying to join forces creatively for a decade now, but after I co-wrote a screenplay ("After the Ball") with Juan in 2009, my mom's last illness caused me to shift priorities and I had to stop working on another project ("Gym Rats") because I had way too much on my plat e at the time. "After the Ball" never got made; Juan and his wife Adria couldn't get financing for it, so that, folks, was that. Same happened to "Gym Rats." So Juan decided to focus on his acting career (which is not as glam or fun as it seems to outsiders), as well as being there for his wife and son, Anthony. Long story short, this year Juan decided to get back to making films, this time with a digital camera. This year, we have collaborated on...