A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

My current "author's photo" as it appears on my Amazon author's page and the back cover of Reunion: A Story. I need a more "writer-like" picture, though. Photo Credit: L.C.H.  Well, hello there, Constant Reader, and welcome to another edition of Bloggin' On, the blog-within-a-blog section of A Certain Point of View where I write no reviews nor political commentary and just chat about life, the Universe, and almost anything that interests me (besides writing reviews or talking about today's toxic political environment, that is). Today is Sunday, January 19, and it is a gray, gloomy morning here in my corner of Florida. Presently, the temperature outside is 72℉ (22℃) under partly sunny skies (although over our house, it's cloudier than it is sunny). Per the forecast on my Weather app, we can expect rain and maybe a few thunderstorms in the evening, and the temperature is expected to drop to 45℉ (7℃) in the evening hours. (Hmm. Sounds like a ...

Illustration Credit: Pixabaay Greetings, Constant Reader, and welcome once again to Bloggin' On,  the section of A Certain Point of View that's not devoted exclusively to either reviews or political commentary. It's Saturday morning here in my corner of Florida, and right now it's a nice and cool one at that. The present temperature is 75℉ (24℃) under mostly cloudy skies, although the forecast for the area calls for a high of 85℉ (30℃) and lots of humidity and clouds in the afternoon. Well, I received my Blu-ray of Kenneth Shapiro's 2013 award-winning documentary  Great Voices Sing John Denver on Thursday; of course, I watched it as soon as I retrieved it from our mailbox and was pleased to see that the film includes entire performances by the 15 opera singers who participated in the creation of the eponymous tribute album produced by the late Milton Okun and Elisa Justice. © 2013 Great Voices Film Company and CDK Productions     All in all, I'd h...

© 2013 Great Voices Film Company and CDK Films/CDK Productions Hi, there, Constant Reader, and welcome to another edition of Bloggin' On, the reviews-and-politics free zone of A Certain Point of View where I talk about this, that, and the other things in life. Today is Thursday, January 9, 2020, and as I write this in my corner of Florida it's a cloudy early winter morning. Right now, the temperature outside is 64℉ (18℃) under mostly cloudy skies. We're beginning a warming trend: the high for today is expected to reach 76℉ (24℃), while the rest of the day might be a bit less gray and somewhat sunnier. According to the latest information from the U.S. Postal Service, my Blu-ray of Great Voices Sing John Denver will be arriving sometime between 1 and 3 PM today. It was shipped from Los Angeles late last week, and it reached this section of the Sunshine State late Tuesday night. Because the main distribution center is nearly 25 miles away, and because it handles man...

Photo Credit: Pixabay Hello and welcome once again to Bloggin' On, the blog-within-a-blog section of A Certain Point of View where I don't do either reviews or political commentary. It's Wednesday, January 8, 2020, and it's morning here in my corner of Florida. It's a cool morning; the temperature outside is 52℉ (11℃) under partly sunny skies. The forecast for today calls for a high of 66℉ (19℃) and partly sunny skies; the temperature will probably drop tonight to 51℉ (10℃) with no precipitation. According to one of our local TV stations, this will be our last cold day this week because a warming trend starts tomorrow. Well, Happy Days Are Here Again just finished principal photography; most of the acting-heavy scenes have been shot, especially those involving Anthony Hernandez and his father, actor-director Juan Carlos Hernandez. Anthony is available only for a short time because he has to go back to college soon, so (per what Juan tells me) all of his scene...

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...

Hello, everyone! It's Friday, January 3, 2020, and the first weekend of the new year (and new decade) is nearly upon us. In my corner of Florida, it's almost noon, and it's another cool early winter day. Right now the temperature outside is 78℉ (26℃) under mostly cloudy skies, so the light that strains to stream through the window is dim and gray. The high for today is expected to reach 83℉ (28℃) when the clouds recede later, and the forecast says the afternoon weather is going to be almost summer-like. Well, for those of you who are wondering whatever happened to Happy Days Are Here Again, a screenplay I wrote last year for Popcorn Sky Productions, I have an update. My friend Juan Carlos Hernandez, who I met when I signed up for Drama I at South Miami High School in my senior year there, texted me earlier this week and said that he and his team (actress-producer Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez and their son Anthony "A.J." Hernandez) started filming Happy Days Are ...

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...