We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Raymond Montoya. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Raymond below.

Raymond , appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

This may be the same for many. For me I felt a need to expressive myself creativley since I was a child. Music was the first memory of this feeling. One of my buddies from highschool and I started a Record Lable for a rap group we put together. We taught ourselves everthing from building a recordoing booth in his parents home to ascap royalties and artist contracts. We were like 15 at the time thinking of becoming business mogals. Kind of crazy thinking of it today. Our group had a few gigs in the adult market. Mostly hip hop clubs in the party district. Eventually we set up two recording studios in a industrial warehouse. Grammy Award Winners Play N Skills had a studio near our old spot for a few years before they relocated to Miami. Artists are everywhere you just have to take a chance on somebody. All these experiences led me to Filmmaking a passion which I was introduced by feeling the need to create music videos. Music Videos are kind of short films. You can get super creative. Instantly I fell in love with casting, costumes, directing, editing and producing. The biggest obstacles for me was moslty financial. Eventually I joined the Marines because of my love for this country. I took my earned benefits and went to Film School. I learned dreams are only goals with no actions. Put acitons towards your dreams

Raymond , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am the youngest of 5 children, my child hood was pretty terrible. I suppose this gave me plenty of time to dream so I could escape for a while. Inide I knew this world is for exploring and learning. Everything has a story of origin. Putting it to film is a skill for sure. For me it is more of a passion. When I did not have film equipment I watched old black and white movies to figure out camera blocking and learn story telling. Today not many people study film or the past. There are so many nuggets of knowledge which filmmakers pass up. Once I started using my own equipment I started reverese engineering movie scenes. One of the best ways to improve your skill set is by trying to re create a great movie scene yourself with lighting, props etc. One of my joys is taking an actress or artist and expanding on their creative on set. How can I help the actor, client or artist expand their character or creativity behind the camera ? I also enjoy writiing scripts, detailed character treatments and developiong the environment of a character. One of my goals is to write a film based on my childhood and the way I grew up. Maybe I will write in the music label part of it.
I would like for the audience to see my work from a different perspective than most films today. They need to be films which not only entertain but make you think or self reflect. Films for me is another form of communication. We can see this in the history of film. Every film era is a record of the current time or generation. We really can learn from the past and art.

Have you ever had to pivot?

My father sang at home all the the time. Like Vincente Fernandez, litterally. My mother wrote poetry and a great sense of humour. Naturally I started singing to my parents oldies music which is a genre I am very fond of. Through out time my singing hopes were kind of forgotten. One time as a teenager at a roller rink a girl heardme singing a song by N Sync. She asked if I was a singer so I told her I sang back up with the group. She immeditley belived me and told her girfriends. Before I knew it I was surrounded by most of the girls at the roller ring. They asked me to sing them a few songs which I did. lol. I learned if I added my confidence with my creative then nothing was impossible. So today I am not shy to be myself on social media. I do not sing like I use to these days. Eventually I became comfortable behind the camera rather than the star so to speake. Sometimes you start somewhere but end up some where close to your origninal goal. Only if you stay consistent with your passion. A lesson you cold learn is rememeber to take all your experiences and use them in you future endeavors. Today I undertand an artist, actor, engineer, writer etc. My switch behind the scenes was mostly due to me dedicating myself more to becoming a filmmaker. Your are what you consistently do. I love what I do.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a filmmaker is creating something. Giving it life. To be able to take an idea from your mind, then put it to paper and transition to real life on a film set. It excites me. The stories are endless. Some good. Some bad. Always creating. Filmmaking drives me, makes me happy, gives me a purpose. I have always been a tech lover so being a creative is like being a scientist. Always experimenting, learning, saying what if. What if I use this light, no light, room, micropone, color range, etc Then you have social media where you literally can have your own cult audience. Your film today does not have to be in the big movie company; although, this is the ultimate goal for a filmmaker. With todays technology almost anyone can go out and make their own film. Documentary films can take you to different cities, countries, open your world view on different cultures and experiences. The more unique the topic the more interesting it is to the audience. Sometimes as people we dont know what we want to see. As a filmmaker I get to create what the audience didnt know they would be interested in watching.

Contact Info:

• Website: imdb.me/ramonjmontoya
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/montoya_media/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ramon.j.montoya1/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rjmontoya/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RamonJMontoya
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MontoyaMedia/about

Image Credits
Montoya Media