My Story

Hello friends, family, acquaintances, employers, recruiters, bot crawlers, and whoever else, my name is Spencer Ragona and I am based in Rochester, NY. 

Welcome to my first blog post. To be honest with you, I have no idea what I’m doing. I know I want to start a blog, but about what? The short answer is… I don’t know.

I just want to get something out there. I like writing stories, so short stories could be posted here. Maybe a thought I’ve been stuck on for a while. Or maybe a hyperfixation I want to yap about, maybe about video games. My life experiences. Maybe some tutorials. I don’t know. But as of right now, as I would envision it, it’s going to be a random mess with no rhyme or reason. 

I did write an “About Me” section, but it is incredibly long and people told me they ain’t reading all that. So why not have my first blog post be the original about me? Problem solved.

My Story

After transferring to a Deaf school, one of my very first assignments was to film myself signing 20 vocabulary words. Then edit with iMovie to overlay corresponding words. This was love at first sight. I immediately downloaded iMovie on my personal iPad, and made so so so many films. I actually still have my very first film! 

I probably made over 100+ homemade films, casting my stuffed animals as 'actors', and forced my poor parents to watch all of them. They all had the same plot. I just made the same thing over and over again. Sadly, they're lost to time.

I went to Deaf Film Camp at Camp Mark 7, and there, I discovered Final Cut Pro. Immediately, I wanted more of this software. But I did not have a laptop of my own, and iPads at the time did not have Final Cut. Fortunately, Rochester School for the Deaf intensely supported and actively nourished my passion. Did they have adequate resources? ...no. But they did have Final Cut Pro on their computer labs, and any and all film projects appropriate for me got assigned to me… (at least, that is when my grades were in good standing. I was never really academically inclined.)

One of my proudest moments is when one of the film I worked on, Faces in the Fog, won three awards, and one of them is best editing. Guess who did the editing? Me!

I would say 2016-2019 was the “golden era” of my video editing passion. I had worked on several projects, mostly freelance. One time, I edited a video for Daily Moth about Rochester Deaf Festival.

Things took a turn for the worse in 2019, when I transferred to a boarding school. It’s a long story that is personal, but the summary is: my connection to freelance editing was effectively severed as I was contained on the school campus.

The school did also give me opportunities to edit, but the issue is that they’re much more academic in nature… and am I academically inclined? No.

COVID hit in my sophomore year, and the world was at a standstill. In my senior year, the school reopened. They also offered me a paid position on their student media crew (well, I did apply and interview for it, but still). The problem is that COVID restrictions was very much still in effect which meant there were barely any events to document.

In 2022, during the height of my mental health issues, I took an affinity to Heartstopper (2022), which was directed by Alice Osemen. It has had major ramifications on my approach to storytelling. I always loved small details- I really do think they can make or break the story- and Heartstopper is like a gold mine for details. My focus has shifted from societal to interpersonal.

I got accepted into film school at RIT. I was so so so so excited. But when I arrived there, there was one major structural issue I had not anticipated: it was not designed for someone like me.

And well… it was a film school. Emphasis on school. I consistently get As and Bs in classes, with a single class having a final grade of C. So it wasn’t like I was struggling academically. Doesn’t negate the fact that there is a disconnect from my passion and creativity.

I was starting to think maybe film isn’t for me after all? But when I had a summer film internship after my first year under a Deaf boss, I realized “no, this is what I love. I’m good at this.” I discovered that I knew, on a primal level, editing is very much my thing.

And so in my second year, I experimented with incorporating ASL in my work, but still, I experienced friction with the film school. I started to consider whether I should leave or not.

I decided to take a “soft gap semester” to figure stuff out and did not take any filmmaking classes. Instead, I took a bunch of boring electives that I didn’t want at all like art history. But when I got back to filmmaking in the spring semester, I felt like I really rebounded and this time, there was no culture shock for me.

My momentum for my passion was finally gaining traction. I was so excited about it. NTID had their own film studio, and I worked there for my second internship, right before my final year. Again, I had a similar experience. I thrived really well in Deaf-centric environments. I enjoyed it immensely and I made some good connections from it.

In 2026, I had another breakthrough. I realized the best way to approach editing is to treat it like a sandbox. Same reason why I love Minecraft and writing. So I tried to be much more casual, and the jump in my editing quality was undeniable. It has consistently produced some of my strongest works in my final semester of college. Those are more radical / experimental in nature.

I would continue this post, maybe add some updates... but for now, you're all caught up in my life story!