hen we were approached by Melissa, Ron's daughter, about her idea to do a documentary of her father, we couldn't have been more thrilled. We often get to document a small fragment of a person's life, whether it's their wedding or their first baby or other milestones. But getting to chronicle and preserve an entire history was just a thrilling prospect.

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Ron is one of the most honorable, humble and thoughtful humans we've had the pleasure of meeting. His life has been rich with culture and variety, and he had an incredible ability to recant historical details with precision. Those memories provide a beautiful oral history not just for his family, but also for anyone that grew up in the Palmetto Beach / Ybor City area. 

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      he opening sunrise scenes were filmed on the bay in the neighborhood where Ron grew up in Palmetto Beach. We scouted the location the day before, and on filming day we arrived when it was still completely dark out. As the sun began to peak out, we tried to document as many scenes of the area and wildlife that he may have recalled as a child growing up in that area.

After a bit, we moved down the road to Ybor City to film the morning coming alive there as well. Ron was raised in Palmetto Beach, but Ybor was his "stomping grounds." 

Ron's opening narrative is actually the last thing we recorded him saying on the day of his sit-down interview. After he recanted his entire life's story, we asked him one question that wasn't on the list: "if you could leave one piece of advice with people, what would it be?" 

His answer was so beautiful and profound that we decided to open the entire story with it.

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         he locations shown in this scene were all filmed in one day: our Field Trip day! It was such a pleasure to go on location with Ron and his daughter and watch him give her a tour of the neighborhood where he grew up, including his school and park. We were filming on a Saturday, so the school was actually closed off with a gate, but we happened to run into an employee of the school who loved Ron's story and agreed to open up the grounds for us to film. The planter filled with pink flowers on the school grounds was actually the water fountain when Ron attended school.

         he b-roll scenes of the dominos players from our Ybor City day were especially exciting for us, because we filmed them as  surprise for Ron, who remembered people playing dominos on the street in Ybor when he was young. But, serendipitously, one of the dominos players from Centro Asturiano actually knows Ron and did work with him, so it was a double surprise!

Ron and his family went out to eat in Ybor that evening, and watching him light up as he told stories from his time in Ybor made his whole family smile. There was so much rich history from the area that Ron remembered, and it was a pleasure to find photographs of the people and places he remembered to fill out the story visually.

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