Get to know New York’s Franklin Livingston and some of his Pakistani American actor and influencer achievements: Franklin Livingston received training in filmmaking and directing from New York University, and Yale University. Franklin then went on to study at a world-renowned institution, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, where he was trained in Shakespeare and contemporary acting. In addition to studying at institutions, Franklin got trained for 3 years in classical and modern singing by Melania Maldonado, Speech and Voice by Shane Ann Younts and Lenore Harris, and Acting for American Sitcoms by David Ross. Franklin is a trained dancer, he learned Latin and Ball Room Dances at various studios in NYC and Chicago, as well as Bollywood dances by Pooja Narang in New York City. Legendary dance teacher Saroj Khan trained Pooja. Discover more info on https://filmfreeway.com/FranklinLivingstonFilms.
Where does Franklin Livingston’s possibility personality come in? It is after a long unfruitful wait that Franklin has decided enough is enough! Franklin is now producing content intending to provide grass-root level casts and crew members opportunities to work making films. In the past five years or so, through his Theatre and Film production companies in New York and Los Angeles, Franklin has shown hope in the Hollywood industry by giving out jobs and chances to thousands of upcoming American actors and crew members in major cities to showcase their work to the global audience.
Franklin is a thoroughly trained actor and filmmaker who completed an apprenticeship right out of high school in videography. Since he grew up in an artistic household, Franklin already had significant exposure to acting and singing. Later, he learned about cameras, light, sound, preparations to shoot, footage delivery, editing, mixing, and coloring. Franklin ended up acquiring formal training at New York University. From working with a myriad of diverse cinematographers and technicians, he has learned about various lenses, lights, cameras, and audio equipment which has helped him develop a great eye on the subject of digital storytelling.
For our readers that may be interested in acting, filmmaking, and producing, what advice can you give entrepreneurs just starting out in the industry? Be sure to get the right educational foundation. Research acting schools that you are considering. When you have completed your education there, be sure you never stop self-training. In what ways has the Covid-19 pandemic had an effect your career in the movie industry?Speaking as both an actor that has auditioned with other actors, that turned out to not be so great when we got on set, and as a producer, auditions that are done mostly via zoom now, are awful for picking up on so many of the meaningful but more subtle details that you notice when auditioning in person. In audition rooms, you can see the person enter, you see how they walk and stand. Were their hip sockets relaxed, shoulders relaxed, jaw relaxed? Do they look the part?
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂 I have already begun a movement by bringing awareness and empathy though my work. My collaborators have mentioned that they have learned many things they did not know regarding politics, sociology, and anthropology of America and the world. I am helping create a voice for all-inclusive theater and film in the U.S.
Even still, most of these actors tend to be from India or other southeast Asian countries and not from Pakistan. Although Pakistan and India share some commonalities, their culture, language, human behaviors, and social etiquette make them distinctly different nations, which Hollywood has yet to present in its productions. This difference is not in contrast to those that the British and Americans have in terms of their anthropology. Countless people of color in the United States and a significant community of Pakistani immigrants in the United States have waited long to see themselves in Hollywood movies and television shows with a true representation. Franklin Livingston is ready to face this challenge, and that day is not far away when Franklin will tell stories about Pakistani Americans through his inimitable work in films and television.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that? I was in a meeting with my first TV commercial agents. They asked me if I was working on getting rid of my accent. They said that getting work without having a native sounding American vernacular is impossible. I laughed to myself and replied bluntly that I don’t believe I could ever eliminate my accent and that local people tend to search for a foreign accent when they need a medical specialist or a cosmetic surgeon in Beverly Hills. I think it’s only the Media, the formula, and the system that believes that actors shouldn’t have their native accents if they wanted to play leads in the local projects. Upon seeing their facial expressions, I realized my honesty was a mistake.
Taking possibilities to the next level: Recent updates on Franklin reveal that he started another company in the state of Connecticut, Oculus Films LLC. The company will also serve as an academy that empathizes with the aspiring actors’ busy schedules. Oculus is a unique acting technique that Franklin has developed. Unlike other training techniques that make American actors feel drained, exhausted, depressed, and in some cases become mentally ill, Oculus Acting Technique makes actors enjoy their presence with other actors and crew members. It also helps the actors create content in the moment in the light of the screenwriter’s content, develop a sincere connection with community members and leave the set happy, rejuvenated, and relaxed having a sense of being heard, respected, and encouraged.