A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Hasbro's Black Series Emperor Palpatine 6-in. scale action figure depicts the Sith Lord known as Darth Sidious as he was seen in 1983's Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.   Photo Credit: Hasbro, Inc. via Amazon  © 2019 Hasbro, Inc. and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) In the fall of 2019, Hasbro's Star Wars: The Black Series collection released its Emperor Palpatine and Throne action figure set as an Amazon exclusive. The ultimate villain in the nine-part Star Wars  Skywalker Saga, Emperor Sheev Palpatine is depicted as he appeared at the conclusion of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in the throne room of the Empire's second (and more powerful) Death Star battle station. Ensconced in Hasbro's black-red-and-silver Black Series, the 6-in. scale Emperor Palpatine and Throne set comes with several accessories, including a replica of the Emperor's sinister-looking throne, Palpatine's gnarled black cane,  an extra set of hands that "unleash" bolts of deadly Force ...

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 ...

Image by  Angela Yuriko Smith  from  Pixabay   Students witness more than bookings Alex Diaz-Granados Copy Editor Miami Vice it isn't, but criminal justice majors can actually ride in a Metro-Dade patrol car and observe officers as they follow their daily routine. These students will fill out evaluation reports, evaluating what they've seen and turn them in to their professors. Then the reports will be discussed in class. Not only do these student evaluators gain a first-hand look at police work, but they also receive $7 an hour. "Most people get their ideas of what law enforcement officers' work is supposedly like from such television shows as Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice, " said criminal justice professor Ron Stearns. He said people see real police officers when the media get hold of something they did wrong or a heroic act. "An average police officer's day is filled with unexciting duties that the cops on Miami Vice wou...

The author during his days as a journalism student at Miami-Dade Community College, South Campus (now Miami-Dade College, Kendall Campus) Photo Credit: Prof. Peter C. Townsend (Author's collection)  This article was originally published in the March 9, 1989 issue of Catalyst , Miami-Dade Community College, South Campus' student newspaper. It was the author's only Page One - Lead article during his four academic years on staff.  'Satanic Verses' cause students to examine rights Alex Diaz Granados Staff Writer Although British author Salman Rushdie's controversial novel The Satanic Verses has been pulled from most major bookstores' shelves after Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini sentenced the Indian-born writer to death, most students and faculty here say that the book should be available to the public.  Rushdie's novel is the target of violent protests not only in Pakistan and other Islamic countries but also in the United States. As a ...

Jeronimo Diaz-Granados (1919-1965) in his Aerocondor pilot's uniform. (Author's collection) This column was originally published in the February 13, 1986 issue of Catalyst, Miami-Dade Community College - South Campus's student newspaper. I'm proud to have been his son Alex Diaz-Granados Opinions Editor Early in the morning of Feb. 13, 1965, a C-46 transport was cleared for takeoff from Miami International Airport. There were no passengers aboard, just cargo. Its destination: San Salvador. Unfortunately, two minutes after leaving the ground, the plane crashed in an auto junkyard on NW 47th Street not far from  NW 37th Avenue. The two-man crew was killed. That was 21 years ago today. When I was six years old, the thought of something unsettling about my family crossed my mind when I observed that other children often talked about something wonderful and unknown ﹘ fathers. I, being curious and innocent, asked my mother what a "father" w...

Still image from Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss. © 2020 Popcorn Sky Productions Hi, Constant Reader, and welcome to another edition of Bloggin' On: Adventures in Screenwriting. Today I'll be talking a little bit about the music of Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss, as well as a few other tidbits about the making of the short comedy that Juan Carlos Hernandez, Adria K. Woomer Hernandez, and their son Anthony just completed and uploaded to YouTube this weekend. Now, as the screenwriter of Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss, I was not directly involved with the sound design of the 22-minutes-long comedy. That was done in New York City, 1,149 miles away from my corner of Florida; the movie's sound was designed and edited by Adria, who is our female lead and producer. However, because Ronnie was my creative baby, as it were, I did have some suggestions about the film's score, some of which I integrated into the script. When Ronnie...

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...