Thanks for joining us.

You're about to view the documentary Come Soon , uh, produced here at the University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications.

Stick around afterwards for a talkback session with the production team and the subject of the documentary.

I was, I was playing, like, a ukulele, and my mom heard me.

And, like, she came in the room, she was just like, “Shut up, shut up!” I'm like, “Mom, what?” She's like, “You can sing?” You know, I’m like, “I’m sorry!” She’s like, “No, it's incredible!” ♪ I've seen rate of healing.

♪ ♪ I've seen the sea.

♪ ♪ Stood in the... ♪♪ When I was 15, uh, we moved to North Carolina from Buffalo for the first, first of two times.

Being the oldest and watching my family go through a really hard time, and being really angry and not having an outlet, um, writing became my outlet for me.

And so, these songs became, like, my, my hiding place, or to kind of express those inner feelings of anger, or frustration, or loneliness.

Um.

And so I was like a closeted singer songwriter until I got caught.

♪ But it’s not my home.

♪ ♪ Not my home.

♪ ♪ Mmm-m-mmm.

♪ ♪ Walking these streets... ♪♪ There's a huge age gap between my brothers and me.

I'm seven years older than Isaiah and then ten years older than Elijah.

So right off the bat, I start playing when I'm 15, 16, and Isaiah is quite a few years younger than me.

♪ The shadows of spirits.

♪♪ I'm the drummer.

-I play bass.

-And guitar, sometimes.

It's just like, it's become such a huge part of our life because we're so involved in it.

When we’re little, and churches, and everything that we've gone through and listen to.

I don't know where we would be without it.

And, like, really couldn't get through life without.

Yeah.

♪ Does that love ever truly die?

♪ ♪ Does it ever end?

♪ ♪ Well, I can’t go back home now after all I’ve seen and learned.

♪ ♪ It’s true they don’t come easy, ♪ ♪ it must be earned.

♪♪ That’s Noah Moses and the Flood, Noah Moses and the Animals.

Noah Moses and the Prophets.

And then, Noah Moses and the Flood was thematic and it sounded the coolest -out of the three options.

-I think you should just say, “The Flood.” I don’t think you— They think we should be The Flood.

I think it's easier to say.

But, we got Spotify now.

-So... it’s out the window - Noah Moses and The Flood So that’s the name But we had to figure out some way I could still do my solo gigs and also have them play with me from time to time as 12-year-olds - Yup - Child labor.

Mhmm They've been professional musicians since they were eight and ten years old, and they have been in the music scene from festivals to going on TV, all this stuff, like they have experience.

They’re seasoned musicians now at 22 and 20 years old.

I'm very proud of both of them.

Don't tell them I said that.

No you keep doing your thing and I’ll do the other thing.

Okay, wait.

One... No wait!

It's like a shrunken down version of everything that's going on in our lives.

Like the whole time we're making little faces at each other, trying to get, like, someone's a little off beat.

We're trying to scooch them on to being on the right beat.

And it's usually Noah, by a little bit.

Cool.

If you ask them, Isaiah, the drummer, will say he's not an artist, he's a musician.

He doesn't want, like, they don't want the limelight.

- Artists are very like... - Watch it I say that they're artists because they're very like they get emotional quickly - especially in practice.

- How dare you Because he talks too much when he gets upset and he doesn't talk at all.

And then it just goes.

So then I’ll just start jamming out, trying to get them to chill.

The song selection becomes really important.

And as the only songwriter for the band, it kind of dictates what I write songs about.

If I write a song that's too personal, they get weirded out.

It's super cringe.

I do not want to hear about how lonely you are.

Yeah, it's a little gross.

Only a little bit of throw up, it's okay You're not singing?

I thought you were going to sing.

We played in, like, some coffee shops - before, and people are just like -Yeah - Look at these... - Yes ruckus, making noise definitely depends on the venue because we've definitely played some shows where that was not well received.

But not here.

Yeah, not in Gainesville.

[Cheering] We moved here initially to Melrose, Florida, which is about 30 minutes from Gainesville, to start a sunflower farm.

Long story short, it failed miserably.

And now we have six acres ♪ ♪ Sometimes I lay ♪ ♪ under the moon I thank God... ♪ ♪ When I started, I had a massive chip on my shoulder and I was like, I'm going to be the best, I'm going to play and everyone's going to stop what they're doing and you could hear a pin drop.

And like, they're going to listen ♪ ♪ when negativity’s around ♪ ♪ I know someday, it’ll all turn around ♪ ♪ because all my life ♪ ♪ I’ve been waiting for, I’ve been praying for ♪ ♪ for the people to sing ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ That don't mean ♪ ♪ you know best ♪ ♪ [Singing] I've learned from Gainesville because the community is so giving that it's not a rat race.

You don't have to walk around with a chip on your shoulder, like there's enough room for everyone to be the best.

And everyone is so supportive and loving and just, like, actually inclusive.

♪ ♪ Baby no I don’t need your help ♪ ♪ The best is when you connect with the audience.

And that can be a small group or a bigger group.

That's where the magic happens.

♪ ♪ I don’t need your help ♪ ♪ Thank you for your help ♪ ♪ I got this funny feeling down in my bones ♪ ♪ I guess that's what you get ♪ ♪ when you always seem alone ♪ ♪ I’m feeling this way after I’ve been standing in the crowd ♪ ♪ The more vulnerable you are in a song, the people typically receive it better.

And so, me being willing to, like, show this part of me that is painful, has allowed other people to, to share their stories with me.

So ultimately that's - What more can you ask for?

♪♪ So please come soon ♪ ♪ Oh please come soon ♪ ♪ Because all of the pain and the blame and the games ♪ ♪ I don't want to go through ♪ ♪ So please come soon ♪♪ It definitely feels like you're an army when you're up there with your band and your brothers of like - We get to influence the space ♪♪ I’ll probably fumble over my words ♪ ♪ but hey ♪ ♪ hope it’s not too bad ♪♪ In some ways, it's way easier doing that with your brothers because it's like, you are now this force and you're pushing out this thing.

In other ways, like, it is self-conscious because now, like, you're sharing something that's really intimate with you and your family is right there.

♪♪ So please come soon ♪♪ Which means that you yourself have to be vulnerable.

[Singing] ♪♪ Oh please come soon ♪ ♪ Because all of the pain and the blame and the games ♪ ♪ I don’t wanna go through ♪♪ Welcome back.

We hope you enjoyed Come Soon, the documentary.

My name is Houston Wells.

I am a senior lecturer here at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, and we're joined in the studio with the production team of, of the documentary as well as the primary subject of the film.

And let me just do some quick introductions here.

I'll start over here.

This is Elizabeth Insuasti.

You served as the producer on this project.

Although there were a lot of shared responsibilities, I realize that.

Amber Davis, you are our primary editor on the film.

And then we have Paola Perez.

This was - you were the director of this and everything, like I said, everybody wore multiple hats.

And then over here, we were thrilled to have joining us in the studio, Noah Moses who you know now, at this point, and I say the primary subject of the documentary, not the only subject of the documentary.

We got to meet some members of your family and enjoy that.

So let's - I have some questions to ask you guys.

We ready to jump right in?

- Let’s do it - Okay.

So, and this is a question really for we'll start with the production team here.

How did you decide to focus on Noah and his music for this project?

Take us through that process.

I can start off.

So when we started in this class, we were told to find a germ of an idea, and we all kind of grouped together because we already liked music and culture, and that being a big part of small towns in Gainesville, especially.

In my past work, as well as Elizabeth's past work with WUFT Amplified, led us to Noah Moses.

So he was kind of one of our starting points to just talk about music in Gainesville.

And very quickly, we learned that there was a lot more, than met the eye.

And we really wanted to just explore that story, the story of like, family and working with your siblings and just being kind of a local musician and, and obviously played out in a pretty cool way.

So Noah, walk us through.

They came, maybe literally or otherwise, knocking on your door and saying, hey, we want to we want to find out about you and tell your story.

Now, obviously, you're somebody who's used to being in front of people.

But what was this?

What was - this is a little bit different than you being in control of that.

Yeah.

I think initially it was just an Instagram message with Paola saying like, hey, we want to shoot a documentary about the Gainesville music scene.

Can we just talk to you and you know bounce some ideas off of you?

And obviously we had a really good time just talking about the music scene and, you know, talking about our own experiences with music and whatnot.

And then that kind of just rolled into, hey, you kind of wanna make this documentary about you and your family.

So kind of it was it was a very natural, organic.

I think we all clicked really well, and it's been really fun working together with all of them.

It's just yeah, very organic connection and just kind of seem to I guess so for me and not on the production side, it kind of seemed to just write itself.

It's probably not the case because you all worked really hard.

But to me and my brothers as as kind of the guys on the other side just it seems so natural.

We really just enjoy the whole process.

And I think that's probably a pretty big compliment for somebody to say.

It seems like it wrote itself because we know on the other side that there's a lot that goes into that.

And if it comes off as being sort of a natural, almost inevitable telling of the story, then that's I think that that's a testament - to the hard work and time - Absolutely that you guys spent.

A big part of this film is live performance.

And what challenges did that pose for you guys as a production team?

Well, we also all worked as camera operators.

Every time that we were going and following Noah anywhere that he was playing.

Just because it's happening and you want to make sure you're getting as many angles of it as you can, and if you know a camera dies or something happens, you want multiple backup angles.

I think this is this is for the tech nerds out there.

It was really interesting trying to find a way to capture good audio live without it sounding just like a studio recording or sounding like an iPhone video from the back of the room.

So I'll be very quick about this, but I know that there's like three people out there who will care.

We had a, an external, like, audio recorder, in our case, it was zoom, plugged into the soundboard that was recording the electronic outputs.

And then we also had one stationary, like locked off camera that was getting, like, general room sounds.

And then we kind of just mix the two, and it came out with like a really authentic sounding, high quality version.

But besides that, it was also just like on a, more like what we were recording.

We just communicated with each other about like, okay, this concert or this show is going to be two hours.

Let’s not roll the whole time.

But we were doing like like baseball signals, like Amber would be manning the wide camera.

I’d be like Amber, they're playing Come Soon.

Roll, roll.

And I'm like up on like a raft or somewhere just being like, go do it, do it, do it.

And in the end, that worked out.

The only thing I wish we did better was, like, match of our time codes more.

Or at least rolled the whole time, because, and Amber, I'm sure could probably talk to to us trying to sync audio and video a lot more, but it's tough when you've got a lot of different cameras.

Kind of going off of what Paula said, at the end of the day, like, it was really just a team of three that could, you know, like, we had a dream and three cameras and like, Paula kind of director slash DP also like wearing many hats and all of us having to like, camera operate like it was very much an all hands on deck.

And I think because of that, it made us very close.

And like for me, although it may be seen as like the difficult or the heart of it is that there was so little of us.

But I thought it was a good thing too, because it meant we were very involved and a part of the process.

So, yeah, I went - I was going out of town that weekend and no one else could go, and I just went with my own personal camera.

And I'm like, you know what?

I'm gonna just shoot something.

And that ended up being a really important aspect to it.

And later on, when we found out we needed more footage of the three of them playing.

So you never know, we say yes and go is the lesson I learned.

I also just want to say we recruited so many people to just like, especially because this was happening and like some of us would be out of town or just would not be able to go, that we even, we even, got Houston to go film part of a concert for us.

- That was also very integral in the... - I'd forgotten about that There is some of my shots in there yeah.

So it's very funny because especially we were using part of like WUFT Amplified or other like footage.

So it's like principal crew and it's three people that it's like additional camera operators and it's like everyone you've ever seen or known.

But yeah, I guess it just goes to show like how much goes into recording things and documentaries as like, as they're happening because there's so little that you can plan when it comes to just like, we're not gonna have Noah move shows around so that we can make it.

So here's one for you Noah.

Ultimately at the after the, the entire documentary was put together, there was some explorations of some more personal themes, your interactions obviously with your family and then some of your, you know, own, personal thoughts and stuff that were expressed through your music.

What was that like for you?

I guess I'll answer with a personal answer.

A lot of my life, I felt like I was misunderstood or too complicated.

So to have that combated with, these three super talented people wanting to make a documentary about the music that I've made with my family was kind of the the opposite of that idea.

And so then, to sit in an auditorium with a bunch of people and have my story told, and then everyone really loved it, it was a really special moment.

And, you know, they're talking about how it solidified their friendship and teamwork.

And I feel the same with them as them coming in and really seeing myself and my family's life, and getting to share that with them and make something really cool.

So ultimately, it gave me a lot of confidence in who I am.

And I think that's really important for everyone to realize like you're, you're enough just being yourself and you're cool enough.

So the more that we're able to do that, the better off the world's going to be.

I mean, come on.

That's fantastic.

Amber, I want to turn the spotlight on you.

You were handed a pile of material, and this is, It's always a fun conversation in the production of documentary film, with the students or anybody is sort of entering into this the idea that the story is really crafted in the edit.

Obviously all these parts are necessary, but this is where some big decisions are made and the direction and the structure of the piece.

Talk us through that process, of just being having hours of material dumped in your lap and you have to craft something from that.

Yeah.

I think being an editor is, like, very rewarding because you get to see it being crafted and you get all these little puzzle pieces.

You have to put a story together.

And like when I tell you we had so much footage, it was a lot to look through.

But, I mean, starting with, like, the interviews and stuff, it was just cutting it up and finding little themes here and there that kind of went together.

And it was a lot of cutting things out, like so much.

And, the good thing about us is that we got a lot of footage of just them jamming together, walking outside, and I kind of - The way I edit is I kind of find transitional pieces that transition into the interview section.

So it was kind of finding watching all the, like, fun footage and like keeping it in my head and then being like, oh, that would be a good part.

Or like that would be a good transition or like things like that that would, craft the story together.

But it definitely came a long way.

Like I never thought we'd kind of end up having it more centered around Noah himself.

I thought it was going to be more about like, the family or the brother aspect, but I think framing it just around him, it kind of did like a full 180 or 360 back First of all, I really want to commend Amber because just like this entire movie, the heart of this movie is in the edit.

And it would not be the same if we put on like six hours of just raw footage on screen, obviously.

But also just like I was sitting next to Amber when we premiered the doc, and I'm seeing her mouth along every word just because of how much she's looked at this footage.

And it was like, especially just like between director and editor, and we'd, like, sit down and try and figure out, okay, for me, one of the best parts about this documentary is the ending and how full circle it is.

And with the different montages of the brothers and then Noah and like just how it ends.

And we spent a long time trying to figure out how it would end.

And I'd be trying to like, like draw, like sketches to be like Amber.

This is like what I want.

And I'm like, I'm throwing words at her like she's she's supposed to know what everything I want is.

And then she just comes back with like an amazing understanding of the edit and it’s truly like - I just want to make sure that Amber is receiving every flower in the world - because it's so great.

- Aww thank you So it's interesting to hear your description of that process, and how things sort of evolved.

The story changes over time as you get new material and you get to reflect on it.

And by the way, I'm completely familiar with the idea of, like, knowing so fully what you've edited and one thing that, that you may encounter that I've encountered before is, like, you work with material, shot material and then you feel like, you know these people on screen because you’ve spent hours with them and they've maybe met you once and you see them out in the world and you're like, why?

I feel like we're best friends.

And like, I have no idea who you are.

But the - And talking about how it's changed.

Let's think more, maybe a broader scale, the entire project from when you started and you mentioned it came from a germ of an idea to where it ended up.

How did Can you talk to us about the evolution of this project?

I know the initial idea was Gainesville music scene.

So we did a lot of outreach to other potential interviewees, that were connected to the Gainesville music scene.

And one thing that I thought was really fun, in like reaching out to people, was how connected everyone was.

Like, one person would always lead us to three more people and like, it was really nice.

Even though we didn't end up, either using them like, interviews or just talks with people, they all kind of helped give us a background and a context that I think, even though it's not explicitly stated, I think was present when we were continuing with the documentary.

This like background of Gainesville music and just like this community focus of it.

It's one of those things that it's even though it's not in it, it's in it in the like color and the depth of the interview and like the depth of the documentary and the like understanding of local music and the community that follows it.

I think just being able to like, for our own personal interest and knowledge, being able to like, really understand the community that we're trying to like, portray on screen, even if it isn't as - like in an interview, as we once thought it would be, I think, I think I agree with Elizabeth that it ended up the way that it needed to.

We needed to like, talk to those people because it's also like when we'd be talking to someone we'd bring up Noah and they’d be like yeah, he’s just like the best guy ever and we’d be like, all right, maybe there's something here.

Yeah.

I mean, like, I felt like all roads lead back to All roads lead back to Noah Moses.

- Yeah.

- And then he splits them in half.

I think there's just like so much that we learned about just like story and family and being a part of other people's world with this documentary.

And I hope that when, when you watch it, you feel that you got to be a part of that world a little bit, too, because it was fun being there.

Noah any closing thoughts?

It's hard to just like sum up because it was just the whole experience was so cool.

You know, this side and getting to learn each of their the ways that they see art and seeing the collaborative effort.

So it's just been so much fun throughout the whole thing.

And I was sad when it was over because it was just, you know, it was almost like a weekly thing where they would come over and we’d do some, some fun adventure, like going in the woods, you know, whatever.

Showing them the property or jamming.

So it was just a super cool experience all the way through and really grateful to be a part of it.

Fantastic.

Well, thank you everybody for being here in the studio.

Thank you for joining us, for the documentary Come Soon.

And, for everybody here in the studio.

Thanks so much for joining us.