On Saturday April 20th, 2019 I had to pleasure of interviewing Joselito Romantiko, who picked me up after work wearing the most comfortable attire. For as long as I have known him, he always walks around with a book bag. I asked where he thought it would be best to sit and talk, and he decided the best relaxing calm environment was a park located near 90th street on the upper East side of Harlem.
I asked to interview him so I could better understand his process of film creating in the videography subculture. The first thing I wanted to know was what exactly fascinates Joselito about creating skits and videos. Joselito told me the fascination that makes it compelling for him is he likes to creatively put together skits to make the world laugh.
“The main agenda of everything is putting something out that the world could appreciate, would uplift someone’s mood, and uh basically go around and create that positive energy for those who are going through it.”
Joselito goes on telling me about how there are many people in the world that are going through something negative that we are unaware of and if he could make their time go by better for those individuals, then he will continue to create. Joselito and I got into conversation about videography and he explained to me that there is a big difference between videography and cinematography. Videography are regular videos that can be recorded from a phone with no attention to detailed visuals, as opposed to cinematography which are videos that are better thought out, edited in detail, and has a movie like higher definition look to the content. Cinematography has a more professional look. Joselito does both kinds of work, ideally his important finalized bigger projects are done using cinematography and his videography is used mostly to promote is professional visuals. My next question for Joselito was, what would he say is the big difference between working in the physical field and the green screen? Joselito told me that he absolutely hates working with the green screen because it lacks creativity. Working with the green screen lacks the ability to manipulate your surroundings and props.
“I’m going to be 100% completely honest with you, I hate working with the green screen because it lacks that natural look to it. You’re in a fake environment which you can’t interact with it. If you’re in a real environment you can interact with everything in your environment, with green screen you’re kind of lost, but I’m not against it. You’re just too limited.”
Moreover, Joselito explained to me that green screens are better for animation movies or special effects like the Avenger movies. The size of the green screen also makes a big difference on how your visuals come out. If you see the behind the scenes for the Avenger movies you can see the entire room is green, but in most cases, the screens that Joselito gets are much smaller and really don’t allow him to be creative. I asked him about what his creation process is like and what steps he takes until he is fully finished with his videos.
“Well either I come up with an idea, or my friends will generate an idea and put it on a table. It would be something relatable to the common world or an experience that we all have had. I utilize that to build a template because I don’t have scripts. It’s an idea and we sort of run off the idea through improvisation sessions.”
Joselito feels that improvisation work has a more natural look to it and it is better to do what you want as opposed to following a script. He went on to tell me that at the beginning when he began his 8JTV skits, they were all unscripted and because of that it made it that much more fun to record. With comedy, Joselito says, it is important that it looks natural and not as if one is trying to hard. 8JTV also gets inspired by memes, trending topics on social media, or even something they will see in a movie. Joselito has a review team, he puts something together and with the help of his friends they edit the visuals until it is complete. Right before he releases his work, he sends it to his closest friends to get their opinions because he doesn’t want to release work that is kind of cringing to watch, timing of release is also key to a successful amount of views for a video. I asked Joselito to expand on his decision making when it comes topics that he feels will get the most views through his social media platforms.
- VIEWS?
“Sometimes the things that we put out, we wouldn’t expect it to go viral and it does. But then some of the things we do expect to go viral doesn’t go viral and it’s kind of a back and forth. When it comes to what one would think is best, the stuff that has always works for us is the skits that are relatable.”
Joselito explains that as long as people can relate to the skit, it is more inclined to go viral. People need to have an attachment to everything they put there attention to because if it isn’t relatable then it isn’t interesting, and if it isn’t interesting then it isn’t going to work. Joselito also tells me that he understands that people aren’t always going to connect with his content because his work is more for the urban community since that is what he can relate most to. Culture is very important to Joselito and the 8JTV team.
We went on to talk about what Joselito’s editing processing is like.
“I’ve been doing this for a while so it’s pretty fast for me. I’ve been coming up with templates of what I have shot in 20-25 minutes. What my attention goes most into is the color correction and the sound effects. Depending on the nature of the skit it can take 20-30 minutes. Or it could be a day or two depending on the content. I had a project that took me a months one time.”
Joselito explained that everything is like a puzzle, we get the pieces and glue them the right way, and they will synchronize the right way. He explains to me that when you are on the field , you already know what you are shooting so when you go to the editing process you already know which clips will work or not. Being behind the camera shooting, helps a lot when it comes time to edit the visuals.
“We mainly go on social media to get the entertainment and inside scoops. But if we see that through our news feed, we are more inclined to pick the videos that look interesting before we could even hear the sound, especially on Instagram.”
The last thing I asked Joselito was what did he feel was the most difficult thing about creating his content.
“ Uh, people’s lack of timing and scheduling and not showing up and basically environmental stuff such as weather. The weather affects things especially because I like to create my content outside.”
Joselito explains to me that timing is most important, especially when you give yourself and your team a certain amount of time to shoot and things aren’t going as planned then you find yourself rushing through it. Sometimes important characters for a skit can not make it due to work schedules. Joselito also tells me that last minute things often don’t work out in his favor especially when he is trying to find someone for a skit and he just can’t. Joselito extends in telling me that although it does seem like a lot and a headache, him and his team do have a lot of fun when they are creating their content. Everyone around them has chill vibes, everyone does their best to have a good time, and even after filming they continue to have a good time. After filming, Joselito and his team go grab some food or beverages and try to keep their family vibes so that everyone feels comfortable and actually want to come back to work with together.
All together, I had an amazing time interviewing Joselito, he had me cracking up in between stories. My greatest take away from diving into this subculture is that like everything else in life, creativity takes time. It is important to plan ahead and add some extra time for projects because not everything does go as planned. Learning the difference between cinematography and videography was also an important take away for me because that tells me that the tools one has access to can also play a big role in creating great enjoyable visuals. Although the green screen lacks creativity in Joselito’s content, it is still a great look for special effects and animation. Going forward, I would like to explore the role that cinematic production has in the entertainment business. What content is important relating to music, dancing, and other entertainments in the industry? Who needs videography the most in the entertainment business?
