• Before we discuss STRINGS, could you please share your journey as a screenwriter?

I first discovered my talent for Writing as early as 11 years old. Right off the bat, I was already coming up with amazing ideas i turned to stores at that age! It wasn’t normal Fan Fiction like how everyone starts out nowadays. If an 11-year-old is writing “RoboCop vs The Terminator Parts I, II, and III” then there is potential! Fast Forward years later, to when I attended College to study Film. That’s when I took up Screenwriting since it was my first class during my very first semester. Having minored in Music led me to teach Guitar to pay tuition, Film has always been my true calling, and writing as well. I took it very seriously and started my journey continuously honing my craft as a Screenwriter. I took an internship at Amazon Studios into a Freelance job in 2015 and had it until I was laid off in 2019.  

I came back to being a Screenwriter in January 2024 to make peace with a life I had left behind moving from San Francisco to Las Vegas where I reside. All my life I wanted to succeed as a Screenwriter and Actor and have that as a career for the rest of my life. So here I am!

• Can you tell us what inspired you to write it?

I wanted to make light of the hardships of my upbringing. I grew up in a Family that constantly had pitfalls spawned from their own past mistakes. I’m not saying they were criminals, but they were very troubled regardless, and having learned of that very early on in life, I also knew early on that I could do better than them. My Family, however, saw that as a bad thing. Due to their life experiences, having a better life was an illusion. From migrating to the US to having businesses fail, going from very rich to very poor then working their way up the ladder to middle then high class again, after it all they were convinced it was a Fool’s Game. Naturally, when I decided to pursue my endeavors, they’d do anything and everything to sabotage me. That, of course, toughened me up and got going. 

I simply wanted to take that part of my life and turn it into a Structure for a Script, pouring all my love for Action, Mob, and Spy Movies paired with my extensive knowledge of True Crime, Conspiracy Theories, Music Theory, The U.S. judicial system, and Rock N’ Roll to piece together a Perfect Work of a Ficitonal Screenplay known as, “STRINGS”!  It’s NOT a True Story or based on one, it is Fictional, and no, I’m not a criminal. I don’t even have a record and never will! Haha!

• How long did it take you to complete the script?

6 Months!

• What was your writing process like, and what obstacles did you face while writing?

I was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome in 2017 but did not expect to experience all of its symptoms until late last year. It was very tough for me to type and had to learn how to cope with the symptoms and keep writing. Hence why it took about 24 drafts to perfect the script! But I was able to finish within 6 months and had to be very persistent. 

• STRINGS is a story of self-exploration. What led you to choose a hitman as the protagonist?

The Protagonists that my Favorite Actors have played in almost all my Favorite movies or Shows were Assassins whether for Government or The Wrong Side of the Law! From The Actors who played James Bond to Clint Eastwood to Charles Bronson, Bruce Willis, Liam Neeson, Chuck Norris, James Gandolfini, Al Pacino, and so on.

I also wanted to challenge myself and ponder the question asked above. No one who kills even for a living would be considered a good person, let alone, hard to come off as a protagonist unless there was an end goal that ended their morbid ways. John Wick, so far, is a good example. A Hitman who killed to get out of the business, then a personal vendetta over his made him come back to kill again but only to get back out after. Even if it meant adding plenty more onto his body count.

In the case of Frankie Strings, he was forced into a life of Crime since childhood but knew early on that he was far better than this much to a degree that if finds a way out, he’ll take it!

• The story encompasses two sides: love and violence. Was it a conscious decision to include love to balance the violence, or did the story itself demand it?

It’s a Mob Action Script. Aside from the Action making this needed, you can’t show the Mob without their acts of violence that give them their reputation. I, at least, had to tell a story that would require violence instead of having the action become senseless.

• What kind of research did you conduct to understand the world of hitmen and mafias?

Oh, boy! Where do I begin? From all the Mob movies out there, the endless documentaries of Notorious Crime Bosses and Drug Lords, being trained in Martial Arts, Self-Defense, and Weapons, watching interviews of former Mob employees on YouTube telling how they’d go about their targets with emphasis on making their kills look accidental or of the victim’s device, and being brought up in a rough neighborhood! That’s about sums it up!

• The script features a lot of voiceovers that add a unique element to the story. Are you planning to use them during filming, or are they solely intended for readers to better grasp the narrative?

I want this script turned into a film! The voiceovers are inspired by the movie, Goodfellas. Ray Liotta’s narration was the sole inspiration for the voice-over.

• Do you have plans to turn the script into a movie? If so, when do you anticipate starting production?

I want it to be turned into a movie! I have been putting all my efforts into getting this Script and its rights bought and made into a film!

• Lastly, what advice would you give to aspiring screenwriters who aspire to work in Hollywood?

NEVER GIVE UP! I made the mistake of constantly starting and stopping then and you bet, it slowed me down. No matter what life throws at you, don’t let it distract you from writing! Write your script, get it done, make it original, and use your network in the industry (if you don’t have a network, then GET OUT OF YOUR DAMN HOLE AND NETWORK!) to get feedback for you to make it marketable without sacrificing your voice, and most importantly BE ASSERTIVE! Take advantage of every opportunity that comes to you. With the Post-Writer’s Strike making the Industry’s Backlog of Writers getting past the Industry Gatekeepers so far backed up, you need to find those opportunities or people and get your script through. The biggest regrets in life are the opportunities that were not taken. The Film industry is very unforgiving so you either pursue it or you don’t. No in-betweens and no holding back!  GET GOING!