Trivia

In 2009, Ray, and his wife Migdalia, founded the "15-Minutes of Fame" film festival, in Palm Bay, Florida. The festival showcases the work of independent filmmakers from across the U.S., and around the globe.

Ray was an active member of the International Cinematographer's Guild (Local 600) for 32 years.

Ray learned how to operate 16mm movie projectors in the 7th grade, and was appointed classroom projectionist. In the 8th grade he was put in charge of ordering and delivering educational films for the entire school district. He was also granted permission to put together a weekly lunch hour movie program of cartoons and old time comedy films. The PTA also turned to Ray to order movies for weekend children's programs, and to operate the movie projectors.

As a teen, Ray often volunteered to be the projectionist at the Avalon Theatre in Clatskanie Oregon. His pay was free movie passes. 50 years later he returned to the Avalon to produce an indie film festival.

In high school, he was the school district's first videographer. He shot football, basketball, teacher evaluations, and special events.

He collects 16mm movies, vintage movie posters, and vinyl records.

His first job in television was splicing commercials into TV shows, and cutting long movies to fit shorter time slots.

Memorable news stories include the eruption of Mount Saint Helens, Skyjacker D.B.Cooper, and coverage of the religious cult leader, Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh.

Ray was invited to a seance party in a Hollywood Hills home once owned by screen legend Bela Lugosi.

For Telemundo's "Sevcec" show, Ray was embedded with a street gang in Los Angeles for a week to film their activities. That episode was awarded an Emmy in Miami.

While working for PBS in Miami, Ray worked as a studio camera operator, lighting technician, teleprompter operator, and floor manager.

He worked in television for over 30 years as a news, sports, and entertainment cameraman. It was calculated that during this period he filmed over 10,000 segments for broadcast.

He worked through the evolution of several formats of cameras. He began shooting with a film camera, evolving to the analog videotape U-matic format, then Betacam, Beta-SP, standard definition (SD) digital, and finally high definition (HD).

At Universal in California, he began as a film inspector, was later promoted to a booker in the sales department, and at age 20, promoted to Sales Manager in Atlanta for their United World Films division.

One of his early jobs was at Filmtreat International inspecting and repairing 35mm films for theatrical re-release. Filmtreat's many clients included MGM, Disney, Warner Bros, Universal, Fox, and many independents. Ray worked on the re-release of Gone With The Wind, Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs, and dozens of other memorable classics.

Often had lunch with singer Mel Torme. They both collected rare 16mm movies, and discussed their latest acquisitions.

While working for Telemundo's program Edicion Especial, which was the Spanish version of Entertainment Tonight, he filmed a virtual who's who of everyone in Hispanic show business, including Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Jose Jose, Ricky Martin, Edward James Olmos, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Julio Iglesias and countless others.

Played bass guitar in a garage band called Crystal Spectrum.

Professional wrestler "Playboy" Buddy Rose would often knock on Ray's front door in the middle of the night for Ray to shoot a promo for Buddy in Ray's living room. Buddy would usually pay him with a crisp new $100 bill.