Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Oramas.
Hi Daniel, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’ve got a very fun culture blend going on: my dad’s Cuban – the family fled Havana a few years after the revolution, when Castro revealed his true colors, and went to Puerto Rico, and then later on to the Dominican Republic, where he met my mom. I learned Spanish first because that’s what we spoke at home! I was born in Miami, and the house was always full of our wonderfully colorful family. Of course, we also had the very Latin thing where good family friends are tíos and tías. And my Dominican family is simply massive – there were lots of tíos and tías to keep straight! Not only that, but my brother and I were incredibly blessed to spend a lot of time in Santo Domingo as kids. Nico and I were the gringo cousins! My absolute favorite memories of childhood were trooping around in the mountains of Jarabacoa in a little gang with my cousins.
All that changed when we moved to Memphis, TN in 2001. Talk about a brutal culture shock! But that’s where the “y’all” comes from. The South was a little different back then, and it was tough to fit in. My parent’s home was always an oasis of calm. In time, I found my circle and made great friends. I hung out with the art kids all through high school – got an academic scholarship to Auburn University and picked up photography along the way. In college I got a job shooting high school football for the local newspaper and worked the Auburn ESPN games as a utility. I spent a lot of time in the theater. Lighting design was my favorite class, Fereshteh was the best teacher I’ve ever had. I worked two summers at a small production company in New York where I learned how to edit – and we won multiple Webby Awards – and spent my last studying in Spain.
I moved to Atlanta after graduating from school in 2014, because my buddy Charlie had a room for $250/mo in Decatur – can’t say no to that! Atlanta was going through its first big production wave with the tax credits and I wanted to see if I could make it work; I’m still here eight years later!
I started as a production assistant, and worked up steadily through lighting/production/camera departments before I started directing in 2017. It was a lengthy transition where I was still working on and off set in different roles before I had fully switched over. I cut part of the stage visuals for Future x Drake’s Summer 16 tour, and did the same for Elton John’s farewell tour in 2018, among other things. Then I met a couple of excellent writers and the absolutely wonderful people at Drama, Inc., who all wanted to collaborate together on making fun projects with me and producer/friend Jacob Kiesgen. We tackled one short, then another, then another and another and all of the sudden we had four or five or six shorts we did together in just a year. One of these projects won the Atlanta Film Festival Audience Award in 2018, which is still one of my favorite experiences in my career. There’s nothing like sitting in the back of a packed theater with your team and watching an audience lose their minds howling at something you’ve made together.
Debonair Films started in 2019 when I started producing independently for some of my clients. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel the world on projects with my company, shooting in Italy, Mexico, the USVI, Guatemala, and, most recently, France. My background makes me uniquely qualified to shoot abroad — which is kind of my dream! So far I’ve managed to balance these responsibilities with freelance work as a director and DP for other folks.
One week I’m producing a broadcast spot at T.I.’s studio for my friend Joseph, the next I’m the cinematographer on a toiler paper industrial for my friend Andrew where the entire crew is cutting it up in Spanish, the next I’m directing a concert film with the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus with my buddy Dan, the next I’m flying to Morlaix to self produce/direct with Parisian label Upton Park for their band Cancre.
Every day is a new challenge. It keeps things exciting!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Easy? Ha – no. This is a very tough industry – it’s incredibly hard work. A 12-hr workday is common, and you spend it on your feet for the most part. If you’re in charge of anything, it can be even longer hours. The schedule is always shifting, and changes unexpectedly. It can grind you down. Your day is measured in 15-minute sets of problems to solve. Move the light; change the lens; apply the makeup – can we go faster? You have to be calm under pressure, and think clearly when you’re stressed. Above all, you have to always be on: you have to perform. It doesn’t matter where you are on the chain of command, people are depending on you. Your income is never guaranteed, and the jobs are very feast or famine. It’s a rollercoaster every step of the way.
But we get to create for a living! And the people who do this are a resourceful, imaginative, fascinating, hard-working bunch. There’s a reason most of my friends are industry folks, I honestly admire a lot of them. You naturally weed out the bad apples over time.
Just do your honest best and be good people. Admit when you don’t know something, and ask to learn. Pay attention when shown. Work hard. Own your mistakes and always, always try to be better every day.
And when it’s time to relax, relax. Hustle; then relax. If you can’t enjoy a long dinner watching a sunset, or take an aimless walk in the neighborhood, or spend time with your families and friends – isn’t that the whole point of living? You need that time to chill, to recharge, so when it’s time to work you do it with redoubled vigor and a stronger, clearer mind.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
Stylistically, I’m pretty versatile. Everything I shoot is different, and I like to think that each project is tailored to its intended goal. The story is the most important thing. Then — what techniques do we decide to use? Every story is completely different, but the goal is always to impact the senses and the feelings a certain way at a certain time over a given time. You use the tools of cinema to shape and color the audience’s emotional experience. It’s an incredibly complex task. Anyone who thinks this is easy has no idea what they’re talking about.
As a director (and writer), I tend to focus on telling stories rooted in everyday reality. I find a lot of humor in the little silly things in life. Because I come from theater, my photography has a tendency for strong colors and my eye tends towards dramatic, layered lighting schemes that are “slick” but not “sharp.”
It’s hard to put everything that I do in a box, but broadly, I make sure that it’s always an experience. I want you to forget that you’re watching a thing, and have it take you away somewhere else.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I think a friendly attitude and a positive disposition is important. It doesn’t cost you anything and it can make a world of difference – especially if you’re traveling! Also, every problem has a solution, you just have to find it! If the solution is not possible, find the workaround! When we’re on set, I am relentless.
I think this adaptability comes from having to always go back and forth from English to Spanish in my daily life. The two languages are better at different things: English is more precise; Spanish is simultaneously more blunt and poetic. Sometimes my English is fantastic. Other times not so good. Communication is approximation, so I always try to lead with good intentions.
I grew up with the bright colors of Latin design, the exaggerated shapes, the plates on the walls, the fantastically dramatic paintings my parents have of farmers working the land in the Dominican countryside. It’s bled into everything; if you come into my home, it’s all dark woods and warm colors. I’m incredibly lucky to have that perspective. It’s informed my whole attitude and given me a curiosity for understanding how other people live around the world. I’m a big history/art buff, so I spend a lot of time reading and listening to music. I’m inspired by the mosques in Samarkand, by South African bubblegum music, Italo-disco, flamenco dancing, chiaroscuro paintings, New York hustle, Detroit techno, Soviet montage theory, French house, Habibi funk, Japanese city pop, Indonesian action movies, and, of course, cumbia. And that’s just getting started!
The world is such a fascinating place, we’re so lucky to live in an era where there’s so much more information about these things available.
I’m very lucky: in my case, life is art; art is life. I love practicing every little bit of my craft and I’m incredibly blessed that I get to do it with so many of my friends.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.debonairfilms.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debonairfilms/?hl=en
Image Credits:
Alex Baxter; Cara Tripodis; Brock Hanson
