We were lucky to catch up with Rosa Costanza recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rosa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Screenwriting: The Core of Film & TV Creation

Early in life I would write short skits with my older step-sister, Sunshine, and we would perform these semi-rehearsed bits and record them onto my Casio Kids Audio Cassette Recorder. I particularly remember reworking the quintessential 1980’s TV series “Miami Vice” with her, doing spoofs that included us singing our own version of their theme song. Fast forward twenty-something years…

During my early career in Film & TV, I was afforded the chance to read thousands of scripts as I worked in production. I broke down these scripts as part of my job. I also studied Feature Film Writing at UCLA Extension, gaining a series of A and A+ grades. I used the time learning from advanced professors at UCLA to workshop my first feature film script, getting notes and making revisions as part of the writing courses. I then took that same script I had written, with the revision notes from teachers, and sent it to various paid screenplay evaluators – as part of entering screenplay competitions or just hiring the review of other writers. Some of these competitions included:

Academy Nicholl Fellowships, Austin Film Fest & Slamdance Screenplay Competitions, Scriptapalooza, Script Pipeline, Sundance Labs, Film Independent, Final Draft Big Break, The Black List.

I joined various screenwriters groups through UCLA and another alumni network, which I found super helpful to have peer group camaraderie. We had a monthly meetup as screenwriters, with writing goals each month. Having to stick to a monthly page count output as a writer, and regularly reading my group’s works in order to offer evaluations and notes, helped me hone my own skills of story analysis. I stuck with one group for five years.

I studied Story Analysis, also via UCLA Extension, and was then hired as a paid script evaluator for the BlueCat Screenplay Competition. Providing notes and feedback on other people’s scripts gave me a chance to really understand the dynamics of what works or not in a feature film script. Now I am a Judge for a “Social Vision & Impact Award” as part of a film festival.

I am hired as a screenwriter for feature film, episodic TV, short form content/ branded content and music videos. I have created show program formats for an unscripted competition show, a home renovation show, and documentary series. So, having the chops needed to be able to create the program structure in which to hang content has allowed me to be hired in various genres and work across Film & TV styles.

Normally the idea of being pigeon-holed in to being a writer in one genre or style seems a major obstacle for creative people. I have broken out of that by applying myself to the study of writing, learning the screenwriters’ language and core skills, by having a methodology to use with clients who hire me to create content.

Recently I delivered a Holiday Rom-Com feature film to a producer client, now in revision mode. I am writing two of my own new script projects, one is in treatment form and I am ten pages into the first draft of the script. I am addicted to being creative in this way. That is probably the most essential skill there is as a writer: an obsession with the craft!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My Life as a Female Filmmaker

When I was a teenager I was sure I would be an actress, having spent many years of my youth in the theater. However, my dream was thwarted when I couldn’t get parental permission to be in a film I was cast in which had cast a bunch of my friends as background talents, but I was offered a main speaking role. That film was “KIDS”. I was 15 years old. My mother asked me to call the producer and decline the role after she read the script. Seems like solid parenting in hindsight, but at the time I was crushed. I then became determined to learn the behind-the-scenes roles of Filmmaking.

I studied audio engineering and music production at a vocational school called the “Institute for Audio Research” (IAR) in NYC in the late 1990’s. I used the knowledge of audio production equipment and techniques I learned at the IAR and began assisting on location sound teams in NYC, mainly Columbia & NYU grad student thesis projects. I apprenticed with a man named Bill Daly (RIP), who brought me on to Dick Wolf’s TV show “NY Undercover” as a Sound Dept Assistant.

These early experiences led to me having a near 18 year career as a Production Sound Mixer, and sometimes as a Boom Operator, working on well over a hundred projects in that time. My expert level knowledge of filmmaking was also gained in the decade plus that I spent as a Y-1 job class member of IATSE Hollywood Local 695, with A-List production credits doing Production Sound and Video engineering. My credits include SULLY, TEEN WOLF and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY.

Working in physical production for film & TV for over two decades sharpened my knowledge of all aspects of media production. I have a diverse roster of production credits in various roles; my administrative role as a Producer and in my creative expansion as a Screenwriter & Director.

My first short film as Writer/ Director, XING, screened at the renowned Festival de Cannes – Court Métrage, and went on to 25+ festivals in a 2 years run. It gained global distribution with a French company, and helped launch my own production company. Five years after getting my first film into the festival circuit, I have produced nearly two dozen short works for others (tv episodic pilots, short films, music videos) and I have written and directed 7x pilots/ shorts/ music videos myself.

When I made that first short film, XING, I made a Kickstarter campaign for $15K that closed successfully, then my family kicked in some funds and I raided my own savings for another few thousand. If I had not made that investment in myself, in my own voice, by slicing the XING short out of the feature length script, I would not have been able to re-tool myself away from being a Sound Mixer and Video Engineer, and make a new career for myself “Above the Line” as a Writer/ Director.

I now have been hired as a Screenwriter for feature films, episodic TV and music videos and have over 50+ awards as a Producer, Director & Screenwriter.

My Emmy nomination was for a PBS TV series produced with the LAUSD, SPOTLIGHT ARTS, highlighting fine art and performance as a proven rehab for inner city youth. I want to give back and am passionate about mentoring, lecturing, and volunteering, and have done so at: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), Yale University’s Film Studies Center, and the Ojai Valley Film Society. I administered a $250K private donor grant program for individual artists, artAffect (2018-2019) with agency HAVAS Chicago. I have taught filmmaking master classes at Cal Arts and Orange Coast College.

I have been asked to lead panels on “Proof of Concept” creation sincerely because my XING short film did so well. It put me in a position to encourage others to reach for their own creative dreams. I could NEVER have imagined that – 5 years ago – all these new opportunities would come my way because I felt so strongly to try to exercise my own voice.

So, if you ask me, the best thing that anyone can do for their creative self is to put your own money where your HEART is in your art/ work and step up for yourself. Greenlight yourself. All you can do is try. But if you don’t try you will never know.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My particular mission or goal is to inspire others in my field, especially women/ BIPOC/ LGBTQIA+ and others who have been marginalized for whatever reasons. The upliftment of diversity & inclusion in our industry is what I participate in many ways, not just as a female filmmaker in a gender minority as a Writer/ Director. I host filmmaker panels and run a Diversity & Inclusion Program at the Ojai Film Festival since 2021 and judge an award for “Social Vision & Impact” sponsored by Panavision.

I also assist the Commercial Directors Diversity Program (CDDP) for the DGA & AICP. This year (2023) I facilitated participation of mentor companies and peers & set up panelists for a series of 15 workshops, which were held in-person in Hollywood and virtually on zoom. I helped judge entrants’ submission materials before they were sent on to the Mentor company peer group judges.

By sharing my experience as a female filmmaker, giving my time to mentor or assist other creatives, I hope to inspire courage to follow one’s passion for their chosen art.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

We in the Film & TV industry are in a volatile time, with an historic and unprecedented strike underway led by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA. This strike action is supported by the other unions and guilds that represent talents working below-the-line as crew as well as the above-the-line talents like writers and actors.

Writers and Actors especially have to spend a lot of time at their art/ craft in order to land one sale of a script or one audition that leads to a role, and the rates that they command are supposed to help sustain their lives as well as acknowledge their years of training and honing their craft.

Developing a script takes weeks and months, sometimes years, before the written work is even ready to be optioned for development in to a film or TV show. Actors have many unpaid hours of self-tape auditions and callbacks, hoping to get cast. And the fact of so much rejection means that when one project or another comes through and hits, we must try to make a sustainable career.

Society in general is learning that the Hollywood business model which is supposed to be equitable for creative people has been corrupted with regular old greed and that none of the networks/ Studios/ streaming platforms have been transparent about their profits of, cheating partners and creatives out of residuals and royalties that they should have had from their creations in order to lead sustainable lives. So, society needs to support the strike effort.

Support the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, support the Teamsters and IATSE, support the other unions and guilds who may have to authorize strikes in order to gain fair and equitable pay for workers of any roles.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sevendirectionsstudios.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosacostanza/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosacostanza/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@xingfilm/videos
• Other: https://www.imdb.me/rosa

Image Credits
All photos are property of Rosa Costanza, Seven Directions Studios LLC and/or XING LLC