21. Location - Recording Studio

Ramon had told me that he would compose the main theme music for the film. I gave him the ideas and purposes for my doing this project, and a couple of possible examples, and off he went. I fancy myself a bit of a composer, so I tried my hand at the task before he finished. While my music survives in an early version of the title sequence, I quickly noticed that his music was much better suited to what I wanted.

So I was excited when he told me that I could go and shoot him record the music. He took me to Roca Firme Estudios in East Harlem. The space we had was very compact, but I felt my job was to merely stay out of the way, while they worked. I did that as best I could.

The only thing that I set up was the light box on its stand. Instead of setting up both cameras, I merely held the camera in my hand, and moved around the studio to get different shots at different times. There wasn't much interviewing going on, but I did get a lot of good footage that would serve very nicely as incidental shots. It was also a fun experience to see him working. I hope that came across in the final film.

Website:  Contacts:   , and the film: 

20. Interview - Cafe p3

Besides the limited space, the other hassle about filming in a cafe is that many of the nearby voices came through the audio, even though he had the mic. I could only imagine how much worse it would have been without the mic. In the future, this is something that I am really going to have to think about when filming in public spaces, like a cafe or restaurant.

One thing that I learned about these three interviews is that the setting also plays a role in how the interview passes. I've already said that doing the same (more or less) interview three times was helpful because new ideas would emerge. But I also think that the setting helps different ideas emerge easier than others. Looking back, all the spots seemed to have their themes, even if we talked about other stuff. Besides the location, perhaps the time of day, or how we woke up that morning also had an influence on how the interviews progressed. That all seems obviously true to me, so all the better that I conducted the interview on three different occasions. 

Website:  Contacts:   , and the film: 

19. Interview - Cafe p2

I tried to set up all my gear within a space that would be as little in the way as possible. I wanted to respect that they still had customers coming in. I set up one camera on the table where we sat, and had another camera on a tripod just to the left of the table. Unfortunately, it was in the walking way, but at least it wasn't completely blocking the path.

In order to save space, I didn't mount the light box, but instead held it in my hand, pointing it at Ramon. This wasn't such a hassle, except that when I finally got around to editing the footage, there were times when the light box was in the shot. I really regret that, but I hope that the viewer doesn't notice too much. I know that in very professional productions, sometimes a boom mic, or something like that finds its way into the shot, so I don't feel too bad about it. Perhaps I also don't think it's so bad because it is a documentary film. 

Website:  Contacts:   , and the film: 

18. Interview - Cafe p1

I knew all along that family life was very important to Ramon. For this reason, I really wanted to get a lot of shots at his home, in order to really illustrate what his everyday life was like. However, he felt that this was a bit too intrusive, and he didn't want cameras in his home. But as much as he would allow, I still wanted to get shots of other aspects of his life, especially his family, and to show a more complete picture of the real life of a New York City musician.

The closest I got to his home was a cafe around the corner from where he lives in Astoria, Queens. Besides having this as a substitute for his home life, I also saw the value of this setting for an interview location because I wanted some setting that was more casual, and more laid back than his working environment. This cafe kind of gave an idea of how he might try to relax, if he had a minute. We were lucky that the good people at Leli's Bakery were ok with this. 

Website:  Contacts:   , and the film: 

17. Interview - Park

After the studio, I knew that I wanted to get some footage of Ramon walking, and even conducting part of an interview while walking down the street. I like the idea of the dynamism that would lend to the footage.

Unfortunately, in the final film much of this footage is not used. The main reason for this is because I think the mic was not plugged into the recorder properly. The jack was a bit loose, so the audio was difficult to use. This was even true of the interview after the walk, when we were sitting in the park. I liked the shot, and I wish we could have used it, but... things happen.

Even still, most of the interview content from these interviews would have still been left on the edit room floor because it just didn't serve the central themes of the film; the content was far too tangential to where I finally decided to go. But I did utilize some of these shots as incidental shots for the film.

Perhaps some of this raw footage can be compiled for a more in-depth project of Ramon, or something like that. 

Website:  Contacts:   , and the film: