Meet Edwin FrankO | Actor and Film Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Edwin FrankO and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Edwin, we’d love to hear about a book that’s had an impact on you.
The Writer’s Journey 25th Anniversary by Christopher Vogler is a book I’ve recently read that made a huge impact on my growth as a storyteller.

I doubted my writing capabilities for the longest since returning to college, especially writing stories. I was always conscious about my writing and never was excited about papers being returned to me with all of those red Xs and circles, especially at USC. I have to give a big shout-out to my screenwriting Professor Julie Sayres for pushing me to only submit my best work. I use to submit work to her without having it proofread and Julie would be upset if she had to correct so many of my grammatical errors because then it would take away from helping me improve my story. Since then I tried my best to only submit my best work before sending it out. Which was the case with the project I’m currently working on.

When developing my recent story “Fuego” I turned to the Writer’s Journey to understand story structure and character archetypes. The result of reading that book came a meaningful story to inspire my community who haven’t discovered their “fuego.” The story is crafted around my acting and dancing talents but more importantly how I felt about many issues in my life and community. When I felt I did my best to tell the story and couldn’t find any grammatical errors, it was time to send it out to my closest collaborators for feedback.

However, I wasn’t receiving the critical feedback I was looking for from friends who were honest with me. I still couldn’t believe I wrote a structured story so I started to test the waters and send them out to industry friends and strangers. They loved it and it made me wonder who else would feel the same way. I decided to test it with my first screenwriting competition, ScreenCraft. If they would have rejected it, then I would have said “Ahh, ok this story sucks!” But instead, I’m a Quarterfinalist in the short film screenwriting category! Even if I don’t make it past that, I’m truly honored and beyond grateful for this. I am now convinced that I’ve grown as a writer.

My advice to those who don’t read books, read the ones that deal with your goals or plans. They will make an impact on your growth and point you in the right direction. For more information about my recent project check out fuegoshortfilm.com

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m just an ambitious kid from Barrio Logan, Southeast San Diego, who is trying to inspire his community to create their own opportunities.

Being the first in my family to go all out to pursue one’s passions isn’t common in our Latino household nor is it often encouraged. That didn’t stop me, I definitely got my ambition from my Father. He was a man full of many ideas but empty promises. That’s when I started to realize I was doing the exact same thing at one point in my life.

I became a director by accident by the way! As a teen, I turned to music videos and films to learn how to dance. By high school, a colleague of mine wanted to highlight my talents in his film. That’s when the acting bug bit me and ever since then, that’s what I wanted to pursue. Also, keep in mind, I was very uneducated, coming from a low-income family where education wasn’t really pushed upon myself and my seven siblings, we had to figure things out on our own. Lucky for me, I was very driven by my passions and I was determined to pursue this new passion of mine.

Pursuing acting for film consisted of many auditions and heartbreaks, but eventually, I landed a lead role on a UCSD film project that opened my eyes to film production. I loved every single moment about the film process, specifically the collaboration between the actor and director.

What started as creating projects to keep me busy as an actor turned to me keeping busy as a director. Fast forward to today, I am now a proud Puerto Rican Mexican American USC alumn with a Production degree from the School of Cinematic Arts. I’m currently developing feature films shedding light on my culture while continuing to grow and learn with content that revolves around my passions: sports, fashion, music, and dance.

While at USC, the music video and commercial production course taught by Candice Dragonas and Suzane Hargrove of “Pretty Bird” at the time, could not have been more inspiring to me to pursue this avenue. I went on to fundraise to create projects for artists and small businesses that couldn’t afford quality content. Since then, these opportunities have continued to flourish.

I didn’t get to where I am today by myself. I owe thanks to my family, friends, community, and colleagues. I’m always looking to grow and learn from the people I admire so I too can help educate or inspire that one kid needing that push to pursue their passions.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Since I currently live in San Ysidro, I love showing friends who aren’t from San Diego, the Border, and how close we are to the fence. It always amazes them. If it’s at night, I love showing them the views of Tijuana from the 905 freeway. It always inspires me because it’s a constant reminder to myself that I’m representing for Latinos everywhere in my position.

Other than that, Mexican food is a must anywhere South San Diego!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I dedicate this to my community and friends who continue to support my fuego!

Website: fuegoshortfilm.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/edwin.franko

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fuegofranko

Image Credits
Photoss By Jen Rubin