Inside the mind of Kamron Waithe, producer extraordinaire

There’s always an explosion of concepts and ideas in Kamron Waithe’s mind.

Even in casual conversation, she would begin discussing one thought, which may soon branch out into five.

But within this creative overflow, there’s some cohesion and structure: She knows exactly what she wants, what she's looking for, and how to bring those ideas to life.

This perfectly aligns with her roles as a film/TV producer, creative director, first assistant director, and digital content creator.

She has worked on several notable local music videos such as Coutain’s Artform and Jamtown, Machel Montano’s Pardy and Shake The Place featuring Destra Garcia, and TV series like Carnival Catwalk.

Creating content that fills her with pride is always her main goal.

Theatre kid days

Waithe, 27, was born in Belize to TT parents and moved here when she was seven.

Growing up in Marabella, she attended the Savonetta Private School and then St Joseph’s Convent, San Fernando.

She believes her fascination with creativity stems from seeing her mother work as a seamstress.

“She’s always been very crafty. So I think creativity has always been around me.”

Admittedly, she never helped with any sewing. But she channelled her youthful creativity by doing ballet. She began in Belize and continued in TT, adding modern and folk styles to the mix.

In addition, she said she regularly performed pantomimes during primary school.

“So I was around music heavily then, too, and I enjoyed doing music as a subject.”

Like most children, she had to learn to play the instrument that’s often the bane of a parent’s existence – the recorder.

Typically producing the high-pitched, squeaky, out-of-tune sounds, she boasted that she was “pretty good” at it.

“I loved the recorder. But my friends tell me not to tell people that,” she said with a laugh.

When she finished primary school, her brother was attending Presentation College at the time. That school had a mixed choir and she joined as she enjoyed singing.

“We would do a musical every year. So that's kind of where I got a lot of my classical singing training, and that's where I went fully into being on stage.”

She soon joined the choir at her own school and was studying theatre arts, too.

She also later joined the choir and worship team at the San Fernando Open Bible Church.

“I've always been involved and I've always loved music. I've always loved singing. I still love singing.”

Asked if she still does, she candidly replied: Yeah, in my shower.

“But music and theatre is where it all began.”

At that time, she wanted to aim for the stars. Literally. She was considering astronomy as a career path.

“At that age, nobody ever really knows what they want to do, right? So I was very confused.”

But the stars did not align for this to happen after all.

Hello, content creation

One of her best friends, Shurdelle Jennings, teamed up with her to join their church’s youth ministry’s social media team.

Because of this, she connected with people like cinematographer Melvern Isaac, Christophe Pierre (visual strategist) and Shaz Pierre (creative director).

“And I think that's where I got introduced to production and I didn't even realise.”

When she moved on to form six, she was part of the first cohort of students to do performing arts as a CAPE subject.

It was a bit stressful being a new subject, but she got it done.

“The next few years were like a big blur and blob,” she admitted. “And I am really thankful to my parents for supporting me while I figured things out.”

Somewhere in there, she also did behind-the-scene photography for Isaac.

“But within those years, I met a man named Dexter Musgrave at a conference. He spoke about being a creative and using your creativity within the context of church and religion.”

Describing Jennings as being “very bold,” she said her friend grabbed her, walked up to Musgrave afterwards and said: You’re going to be our mentor.

“He don't know us from nowhere, nobody had introduced us, she just did it. And Dexter, a creative strategist, kind of took us under his wing.”

It was through this she got involved in the field of advertising, which she did for some time.

“There was this one really cool job that we got to do where we had to develop and design games. That was one of the coolest things because we had to come up with the rules, design it and got to produce it.”

She also recalled working with Musgrave on a web series called Intoviews.

“And that was the first time, unbeknownst to me, that I was producing a project.

“I used to be able to take things from in my head out to the real world. So I would take an idea from concept to execution and not really realise that I was doing it (producing and directing).”

Meeting people like Chris Henry and D’Andre Wilson also boosted her creative process, she added.

She and Wilson have a podcast called Recess, which Henry produces.

Wearing many hats

As a producer, she said she helps navigate how best to execute projects with the available resources and timelines.

So she helps with budgeting, casting, scheduling, set locations in some instances, etc.

And as a first assistant director (AD) aka the director’s right-hand man, she helps through cast and crew management, communicating with different departments, among other things.

In both roles, she gets to suggest ideas as well.

Given TT being so small, she said sometimes the roles are intertwined.

She said people are often shocked when they hear how loud she can shout and speak on set when addressing large casts.

“They sometimes go, ‘Where is that voice coming from?’ and then they see me and they’re like, ‘But she’s so tiny,’” she said laughingly.

Her first official video producer credit was earned thanks to her friend and pannist Joshua Regrello.

“In 2022, he randomly called me and said he needed my help with his music video for Play Panman Play. And I was like, ‘What? What makes you think that I can do that? Why are you even calling me?’ He said, ‘I just know you could do it.’”

And she did.

“He had some locations in mind, so I had to help him scout. I didn't physically help him scout, but he would have sent me pictures. And based on his idea and his concept, he also already had a videographer on board. So I was responsible for making his big idea make sense.”

On how the experience was, she said she realised she thrives under pressure.

“I just got it done. And after, I realised this was something I could do for people other than myself.”

She also got the chance to produce Lost Tribe's 2023 Carnival band launch.

It was there she met acclaimed director and editor Josiah Persad.

“We worked really well together. He's very quiet, and I am very loud because I’m a theatre kid. So we complemented each other.”

Through him, she got a lot more opportunities with the industry, eventually joining his company Twin Island Company.

“We did Fuego for Destra, some videos for Lyrikal, Ding Dong, Shal Marshall…and then we did Shake The Place.

“That shoot was a lot of first AD work, which was scheduling and managing the sets. I think I had a bullhorn because it was one of the biggest sets I had ever done.”

She went on to be a challenge producer on local fashion series Carnival Catwalk. This, she said, challenged her (no pun intended) be even more innovative in her approach.

When it comes to music videos, she has worked on Pardy by Machel Montano, Kanvas, Artform, Riddim and Jamtown by Coutain, and many others.

She couldn’t quite put it into words as a child, but now she sees creativity as “a vulnerable act to participate in.

“It's like partnering with God, the creator of all things, to breathe life into something that has to exist in the world. That is a very sacred experience to me."

She continued, “There are songs, movies, pieces of art that I've seen that have saved my life, that have taken me to very beautiful points, encouraged me, made me smile, made me think, and made me change my perspective on certain things.”

She has a lot more projects in store to be released soon, including some with Parleur Productions – a company she co-founded with her friends.

She said her mantra is: Honour the creativity within myself.