A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

 Hi, everyone!  Well, as the header for this post points out, I was fortunate this week because Reunion: A Story now has a book trailer on YouTube!  This two-minute-long video was created by my friend Juan Carlos Hernandez and Popcorn Sky Productions, with some input from me (I provided the excerpt in the narration, and I got to pick the musical cue), and an awesome voice performance by Juan's son, Anthony James Hernandez. Everyone who's watched it and given me feedback on it has said they like the video because the mix of images, music, and narration pulls them into the story.  Whether the video will help boost sales of Reunion, I haven't a clue. I hope it does...cos it's really a brilliantly done promo! Ah, but wait! There's more! This morning, my friend and fellow former Epinions reviewer, Patti Aliventi, posted a review of Reunion on her WordPress blog Thoughts from the Mountaintop. It wasn't her first go-round at reviewing my novella; when I published the s...

(C) 2023 Popcorn Sky Productions/ADG Books  Hi, everyone.  I am pleased to announce that my friends at Popcorn Sky Productions (Juan Carlos Hernandez, Adria K. Hernandez, and Anthony Hernandez) are wrapping up work on a trailer for my novella Reunion: A Story.  Featuring a mix of motion and still pictures, music, and a short voiceover based on a short section from the novella, this trailer is, as you might expect, a quick but visually powerful promo for the first book in the Reunion Duology.  I watched the "rough draft" a few times after Juan sent it to me via WeTransfer. I liked it, although there was one still photo that didn't look "right." It's an easy fix, Juan says, and he said that the finished video should be up tomorrow.  I'm so excited! I'll share the finished trailer here as soon as it's up on YouTube. 

  SONG (for Veterans) The Nursing Home Song (The Longest Day” Paul Anka)   By Alex Diaz-Granados   Juan Carlos Hernandez       Many folks came to retire Many folks came for the tea. Many folks have indigestion From the dinner they serve at three.     Many folks are bored already   Many folks are getting rude. Many folks want this to end now Or they’ll start to Bingo in the nude. The longest days, the longest days   In Nursing Homes, the longest days Full of woes and full of masks Full of coughs and now with hacks.     Many folks they blame the Donald Many folks blame the Chinese Many folks praise Dr. Fauci In the longest days in history.     The longest days, the longest days In Nursing Homes, the longest days. Applesauce and Cottage cheese And all the Gelatin you’ll ever see.     Many folks want to see family Many folks need to be...

 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...

 Happy Easter, Dear Reader.  This is just a quick update to let you know that the GoFundMe campaign for Popcorn Sky Productions' next film passed its first milestone - the $500-mark - this weekend.  As of this morning, the campaign has received 11 donations for a total of $525. This is a good start since it means that the screenwriter can now start writing the first draft of the script. I estimate that it will be around 90 pages long (or enough material for a 90-minute feature). I'm not sure how long it's going to take to write, but I will be working on the screenplay five days a week until the first draft is finished.  While this is a positive turn of events, this is only the tip of a huge iceberg. The budget we've drawn up calls for a minimum of $50,000; thus, we still have $49,500 to go before we can say "Mission Accomplished."  If you would like to make a contribution to our GoFundMe, you can do so here .

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 ...

Hi there, Dear Reader. It’s been a while since I last posted, but since I have been focusing on A Certain Point of View, Too – you know, the blog on WordPress that I had to create in late March of last year because this one is blocked on Facebook – it can’t be helped. It’s hard coming up with good posts for one blog – at least, it is for me; so coming up with good material for two is doubly so. I tried coming up with a workable scheme – at one point, I thought about writing on one blog on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and writing on the other on the other four days, but I’m just not that organized.   Anyway, yesterday I started working on a new screenplay for my friend Juan Carlos Hernandez’s small indie film company, Popcorn Sky Productions. I have not come up with a title yet, so I’m calling it Project X until (a) I break the story and (b) somebody at either end of the pipeline (Tampa or New York City) comes up with one. I have no idea how long its gonna be, but I do know t...

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 ...

The unsung hero of Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss. Photo: Alex Diaz-Granados  Hello again, Constant Reader. Welcome to another edition of Bloggin' On, the no-reviews/no politics section of A Certain Point of View where I basically write about whatever topics cross my mind or just vent about everyday stuff that saddens or irritates me. Well, it's Monday afternoon in my corner of Florida; right now it's mostly sunny outside; the temperature is 79℉ (26℃) and the humidity is low at 48%. It's so nice out that I'm almost tempted to go and sit out on the front porch and read for a while. That's something that I always say I want to do; when I lived in East Wind Lake Village, I used to go with a book to the nearby pool, lie on one of the deck chairs, and read for an hour, maybe two, out in the sun and fresh air. Here, I'd be content if I went out on the porch with a book and my Amazon Fire tablet and read for a while...but for one reason or ...

Before actor-director Juan Carlos Hernandez and I ever collaborated on Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss   and the other two films we've made as a team, he and his wife Adria had already made several short movies for their Popcorn Sky Productions company. JJ in Dobbs was one of them.

I'm still over the moon about Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss. © 2020 Popcorn Sky Productions Wow, gang! Man, it's been an amazing 10 months for me as a screenwriter. That's about how much time since my high school buddy Juan Carlos Hernandez first challenged me to write a two-minutes-long short film for him and his wife Adria to act, direct, and produce. I didn't quite manage to write a movie that brief; the short that is now A Simple Ad has a running time of 3:41, which is nearly twice as long as the requested length. Still, I wrote the script in early April of 2019, and it was uploaded to Juan 's YouTube channel a few weeks later. A relatively short time after A Simple Ad was shared with the world, Juan asked me to write a sequence for a film he was doing in the Big Apple with Adria and their son Anthony (a talented young man who I predict will have a great career on stage and screen). My contribution was modest, but it complemented what ...

Illustration by Gerd Altmann via Pixabay Well, I posted Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss on several social media outlets, and so far the reactions to the film that I wrote for actor-director Juan Carlos Hernandez have been positive. As of today, no one has written a long, detailed review, but judging by some of the comments I have read on Facebook, Ronnie works as it was intended; it is funny and at the same time it reflects the divisions in the United States during Donald Trump's Presidency. Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez stars as Ronnie, the film's voice of reason in a chaotic environment. © 2020 Popcorn Sky Productions Dayna P. writes: OMG, I was dying! The mom was the best. I didn’t think she was actually going to say “fuck,” I laughed out loud when she did. ...drinking wine out of a regular glass... it is so funny. I see you got your John Denver in too. Norma D. writes: Wonderful! Terrific character portrayals, dialogue, and score ~ the concept...

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

Illustration by Mohamed Hasan via Pixabay "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." - Murphy's Law Well, Dear Reader, I had high hopes this morning about the release - on YouTube - of Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss. My partner-in-crime, actor-director Juan Carlos Hernandez, texted me late yesterday afternoon to let me know that he thought he would be uploading our short movie this morning. He even sent me two screen captures of the "Special Thanks" cards at the end of the credits sequence; "I have done all I can with this project," he said. Image Credit: Radio Maria Ireland As it turned out, during the process of creating the DVD, Juan noticed a digital artifact on one of the last shots. A digital artifact, per Wikipedia, " is any undesired or unintended alteration in data introduced in a digital process by an involved technique and/or technology." A good example of a digital artifact, in this context, is an ...

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...

Illustration by Gerd Altmann via Pixabay. Well, hello, Dear Reader, and welcome to the Thursday, February 6 edition of Bloggin' On, the blog-within-a-blog section of A Certain Point of View where I don't write reviews or political commentary. Right now it's late morning in my nook of Florida, and it looks like the cool weather we've been having here is about to get a bit wet and less dry season-ish. Right now, the temperature outside is 79℉ (26℃) under partly sunny skies; the forecast for today calls for a high of 82℉ (28℃) this afternoon. Tonight, rain showers are expected to affect our area starting around 10 PM Eastern; the low is expected to reach 60℉  (15℃). I haven't received any updates from Juan Carlos Hernandez about our comedy-drama Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss. If you recall, the last bit of news was that Juan and his wife Adria were doing post-production stuff such as automatic dialogue replacement (ADR or "looping"), color...