Artists interview Artists Showcase 8 Ray Soto by Anthony Andujar Jr 2/21/16

Artists interview Artists Showcase 8 Ray Soto by Anthony Andujar Jr 2/21/16

Interviewee: Ray Soto

Interviewer: Anthony Andujar Jr

2/21/16

 Q1. What was the first set of drawings that you made as a child?

RS: first set? I drew Dragon Ball Z characters, Looney Toons, The Simpsons. Graffiti things, like making letters and stuff.  

Q2. Who are your artistic influences? What inspired you to pursue your career path? Who nurtured that?  

RS: anime styles from Dragon Ball Z, cutscenes from Zone of Enders 2, umm, yeah, mostly those were the main ones. As a first person I didn't have any specific persons to push me to draw other than graphic design.  

Q3. Are you influenced by internal or external forces?

RS: Mostly more, inside. Yeah mostly it's the inside, because I have my own ideas, more perceptions, it's more internal than external. Like I see movies and get inspired, but I get more clues and hints on how people who shoot movies that spark the hidden ideas that I try to push out forward.  

Q3.1. How does your environment influence your work?

RS: um, well, mostly it's where I live. Different landscapes, walking down to the pier, it's not so crowded. Or driving through the bridge or to the Freedom Tower and getting ideas of what places to shoot films and stuff you know?  

Q4. Was art always apart of your family or something you stumbled upon?

RS: something I stumbled upon. Not exactly something that was apart of my family.   

Q5. If there was a film or franchise that you would do your own interpretation of, or continuation, which film would it be? Why? And what would you change and what would you keep?  

RS: film, or franchise? Could be movies? Or games? Hmm. Interesting? Very interesting question Anthony. I have a couple, I'll say of course, the Devil May Cry series. A person who is totally against the idea where you make prequels of what gets you there. I need sequels and in between films have flashbacks of how things happened, instead of making stuff that takes the story way out pushing audiences away. You introduced audiences a whole thing and then went backwards. But Devil May Cry is a series that could live on as long as Legend of Zelda and Mario. Another would be Zone of Enders, . And another one of the best concepts in gaming history is heavy rain. In heavy rain, the actual decisions you had to make made you feel as though you were living the actual story. Like when you have to save Ethan, should I drink this poison etc, the whole concept of that is amazing. I would love to make games like that. I would want to bring that into a movie, and make audiences feel apart of the movie.   

Q6. What's the most difficult part of the creative process?

 RS: envisioning whatever you have in your mind and how you would incorporate it into the actual film or drawing without worrying about whether the final product will come about in the end. We had a couple of movies where we didn't write scripts or storyboard, like we just decided one day to go outside to create movies. It could lead to something more, but you know besides not having the right equipment or building effects programs, but I feel like hopefully soon we could end up finishing what we actually started or both beyond the Fight City stuff. To be able to make that one little mini one shot.  

Q7. If you could make a book, comic, film, or tv show off of an album, which album would it be and why?

RS: like music? Um, hmm. Interesting. Believe it or not, I'd have to say, maybe LinkinPark's Meteora or Hybrid Theory. Between those two. It's just one of my favorites of all time, why not incorporate the music into a film. I think it would be great, it would be awesome to bring it life in film.   

Q8. If you could speak to a deceased creator, who would it be and why?  

RS: dead creator? Oh my god, believe or not, but we don't know exactly what God looks like. But I would say Jesus. Because believe it or not, whether Christian or Catholic or not. If God made himself as Jesus in human form. I think the creator of all creators would be the person I would go to. I would have ask one question: you created all the people on this earth but not other people on the other planets and universe? Because we're just a small Galaxy.  

Q9. If you could, which living creator would you like to speak to? Why them? And what would you like to collab with them on?

RS: Christopher Nolan, I would ask him to help me out with my Fight City film. I would ask him: hey Nolan o have this fight city thing going on would you like to help me out? Haha.

 Q10. What themes interest you to draw? Happiness or tragedy?

RS: happiness. As long as whatever you're doing whether is suspense or thriller, as long as it leads to a happy moments or ending. Because a lot of media focuses too much on sad things. The reality of our world is already sad enough with suicides and killings. Instead of showing all of that, why not show more happy stuff besides love stories and someone passing away and stuff like that.   

Q11. 30 years from now what would you hope to have and reflect on?  

RS: oh, I would be 59, wow. Woah. First of all health. My home, my marriage still, my kids grown, to see my kids actually older with their own careers and their own families. Just them being successful. That's my priority aside from staying healthy. Also, at some point never forget God, like always, stating the reason why I make it to that time is due to him giving me that chance to. Hopefully at that time I'd be able to see my father. So he could know and have enough knowledge of my kids and who knows, maybe I'll have another one. They maybe that little girl will come out. Surprises are surprises, and my wife (Wandy Soto) with a good career with her book completed and hopefully me with a better job / retirement.  

Q12. If you were to write a book what era of your life would you could on thus far?

RS: I would say my childhood. Moments of my childhood, life, living with my parents and the imagination that I had when I was a kid. As they say that part of the stuff that I don't remember, but just hearing people have stories of myself. I would make a whole book about a that character playing outside in the dirt barefooted. Going into a lot of trees and abandoned house and the firsts steps of learning and riding a bike down the hill and hearing people saying "pedal pedal pedal". Good moments when we had good systems like Nintendo and Nes. Getting creativity from Legos and playing with planes and watching Steven Segal, Norris and Van Damme movies with my grandfather. That's where I got a lot of love from martial arts movies. Those guys always had serious faces never breaking a sweat breaking people's fingers no matter what.  

Q13. If you had a superpower, what power would you want and why?

 RS: super power? Hmm. The pier of healing. Because believe or not, I can't , but not for people who broke their arms. Just for people who really need it like kids who have damaged eyes or limbs or born with blindness , cancer and AIDS at an early age, or amputees or other defects. But if anything, it's healing . I could heal myself or my son and loved ones. I wouldn't mind the power of flying or super speed like superman and the flash like "hey let me visit my dad". Or super intelligence , or taking a pill like limitless or like Luc Besson's Lucy (without turning into matter), just to be better than Einstein. Wisdom and healing. You just need the mindset so companies can throw themselves to you, and healing to help others and myself.   

Q14. What would you advise to the next generation or to your younger "past" self ?

RS: finish school you know? Finish school, make sure you have your things ready and set up before you even think of marriage or getting married. Um, and above all, respect and love your parents. Oh and just be creative and follow your dreams , however reachable they can be.   

Q15. What are your hopes about the future in terms of yourself and the world?

RS: hopes for myself is, you know, just try to stay healthy. Try to be able to be around to see my kids grow up so I can see them do things on their own. Keep reaching forward and continue fighting for my wife and kids. And for this world, it sees like it's not going nowhere, but hopefully somehow, just be able to come to peace, which we know that's not going to get better since it seems to be more about survival. I just wish we didn't have these wars and live life like a movie or fairy tales. Whatever happens I just want to be there for my kids and my wife and protect them.   

Closing statement:  

RS: any last words? Last words? Last sentence, last night haha umm, .

WS: "bae say, I ain't got no hoes I get money myself " hahaha.

 RS: thats suicide haha.

WS: I got the last words, say "Finish Her!"haha.   

RS: uh damn, that's hard... Never forget God in your life. I matter how good or bad in your life, never forget the one that gave you life. And always enjoy Japanese movies haha but always enjoy a good movie no matter the director or how they did it.