Said Franco has known since he was a little boy growing up in Mexico City that he wanted to work as a film editor; and considering the massive amount of work that he has accomplished in the field to date, there is no question—Franco has definitely made his childhood dream a reality.
“As a child, I was always intrigued by how a movie could impact your life and how strongly it could make you relate with the main character. Later, I started to learn about film editing, and how great movies begin with great edits,” recalls Franco.
The work of an editor requires a person with multifarious skills. Not only does the editor need to have a keen eye for detail and immense creativity, but they also need the highest level of technical skills in the field, as editing for film and television means working under insanely demanding deadlines and producing work with precision.
In Franco’s world, there is no time to dawdle. Often times this adept young editor receives hours upon hours of footage for a television program and he is expected to turn it into a coherent story within a single day. Yet even in the face of such pressure, Franco never misses a deadline.
He loves his work and he is extremely good at it, so most of the time it doesn’t feel like work at all. He admits, “You get so into your project that time flies by and when you realize that you have been sitting down for more than 10 hours, you just take a walk and come back to complete the editing because every second counts.”
Today Franco has created a glowing repertoire of work that includes working as an editor for some of the largest networks in Mexico; in fact, many of them are the largest networks in all of Latin America. These have come to include Multivisión, Televisa, and TV Azteca. Even during the beginning stages of his career however, it was clear that Franco was going to make it to the top of the industry in Mexico.
After graduating from Universidad del Valle de Mexico (UVM) with an MBA in TV & Communications, one of the top 10 universities in the entire country, Said Franco began his professional career working on the hit series Capadocia produced by Argos Communication and HBO Latin America.
Working on the three-time International Emmy nominated program under Alberto Silva (Lucia Lucia, La Habitacion Azul, Vivir Mata) equipped Franco with an understanding of the inner workings of the industry and the confidence he needed to take on even bigger jobs.
“In the five episodes that I was an assistant on ‘Capadocia’ I truly believe that my ability to be a trusted contributor on set is what gave me all of the future opportunities would follow in my career,” says Franco. “From that moment I realized I had the skills that an editor needs– full concentration on how the final product is going to come out, and the ability to overpass the obstacles that arise on a normal production.”
After working on the first season of Capadocia, Franco went on to work as the director of post-production at Televisa, the largest mass media company in Latin America. There he was responsible for editing a long list of high profile projects including the promos for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the Super Bowl.
He also edited the promos for the incredibly popular telenovelas Verano de amor,
Atrevete a sonar, Sortilegio, Mi pecado, Hasta que el dinero nos separe, Camaleones, Los exitosos perez, Mar de amor and Corazón salvaje. As the editor of the promos for these television shows, Franco’s worked showed internationally across Mexico, Ecuador, Columbia and other South American countries.
He says, “My skill and ability to understand the clients, and where the final product was going to show is what gave me the position of being in charge of the promotional department… I know how to give information to the viewers.”
Working as the editor of these promos meant Franco was tasked with an incredibly important role: getting return viewers excited about the next episode of the series, and sparking the interests of those who had never seen the show. And when considering amongst other telenovelas that many of these shows dominated ratings, it is clear that Franco is an extraordinary executor of his craft.