Meet Rosa Costanza | Screenwriter, Director, Producer

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

Hi Rosa, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
A lifelong love of artwork in all mediums, and my individual creativity, is the default that keeps me centered as well as what fuels my drive to produce my own ideas and those of other collaborators. Whether as films, TV shows, live events, music production and music videos, documentary or other visual formats, my passion for the art of storytelling is my main guide and focus.

I used to paint with acrylics and watercolors everyday as a child, and in to my teenage years. Painting one picture is revealing the frame of one moment in a story, but the focus for me creating it is as intense as if I were directing a scene in a movie.

One of the challenges of being an artist is the constant messaging that it is merely a passion or a hobby and not a means to make a living… the POV from society/ family/ peers/ educators often is one that is detrimental to developing an artistic talent in oneself. If you become discouraged against your art because of these things, there is some unfulfilled dream or potential that sticks with you… and I couldn’t live with that myself.

My need to protect my art and intellectual property drove me to study the business side as well as the production/ manufacturing side of music, film & tv and event creation. My ability to craft my own scripts and stories comes from my formal study in Feature Film Writing to gain a certificate from UCLA Extension, where I also took classes in story analysis and further producing topics like film financing. I credit the classes I took through UCLA as well as numerous seminars, conferences and panel discussions, etc… for helping me to craft an education in screenwriting and development.

Writing a script and then creating the various background documents needed to make a presentation and communicate the vision to other producers, team members and collaborators, as well as potential executives and investors, are the skill sets I gathered in order to turn my art in to a career for myself.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I began writing poetry and song lyrics as a child, and progressed with lyrical poetry as a teen. Writing fiction was always an escape for me, like painting, where I could build another world with entirely my own rules on my own canvas. Studying screenwriting formally was the result of a decade spent informally writing on a story that I had to get out of my head. From the first drafts I made in a narrative – novel style – I could see that the first act of my story was complex enough to be a whole feature length film. So I dived in to learning more about screenwriting and story building, analysis of plot and characters, learning how to format my thinking to hit the stride of a film’s structure or of an episodic series.

It was easy for me to write my stories and ideas because I so deeply need to communicate my life experiences. I want to achieve the vision I have for connecting an audience or reader with this subject matter, whatever my script is about. I love the camaraderie of filmmaking, a team effort, but the act of writing the script is mainly a solo endeavor. Screenwriting is one of the only chances I get to fully express and own my idea, before collaborators join in and lend their creativity to the bigger effort of creating a movie.

Learning the totality of the filmmaking craft also informed my screenwriting, as I am able to understand the compoenents needed to achieve a vision from page to screen. I write scripts because I know that, when given the resources and budget, I can produce these visions on to screen.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Los Angeles has something for everyone. My best friend and I would hit all the aspects we love about LA:

– Shopping on Melrose at the funky boutiques with local couture, also in Beverly Hills and in Hollywood.

– Dining at classic Hollywood locations like Musso & Frank Grill, or in luxury hotel settings like the Sunset Marquis or Chateau Marmont. Otherwise hitting the best authentic Mexican, Thai or Ethiopian… or Italian… Also love to go up the PCH to Neptune’s Net for seafood by the ocean.

– Visiting exhibits at the new Academy Museum, at the LACMA, Broad, Getty or other art museums and galleries. The Getty Villa is a favorite just due to the location – let alone the exhibits in it.

– Watching live music at the Hollywood Bowl (if possible), Ford Amphitheater, Greek or at the Disney Concert Hall or another impressive venue such as the humongous stadiums we have.

– Night life/ clubbing at some of my favorite Hollywood spots – such as Black Rabbit Rose, Sound, Le Jardin, Harvard & Stone, or Jumbo’s Clown Room – or in WeHo bar-hopping at spots like The Bayou, Beaches, Micky’s and the Abbey. Going to rave parties in warehouses in DTLA or industrial art-lofts.

– Taking in some local theatre or comedy at any of the clubs/ theatres in Hollywood & NoHo.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Dedication goes out to the following people:

My creative collaborators & fellow filmmakers, with whom I have partnerships in LLC companies, have shot films together, made music or worked with as writing partnerships, etc… so many inspirational moments and developments shared:

FemmeKraft LLC =
Tyler Stone & Peter Raleigh. Work includes feature length dance music documentary FILTERSWEPT featuring Moby, Frankie Bones, Lenny Dee and other NYC legends; horror feature and award winning short from Tyler Stone THE CRUSTIES; various music compositions from Tyler Stone for his own album; music videos including with RuPaul’s Drag Race winners TRINITY THE TUCK “Witch” and RAJA “Moodbored” plus the KELLY x RAJA x TYLER STONE remix of “Shoes” with cameo from Kelly. Plus work for various commercial and independent clients.

Seven Directions Studios LLC =
Gregory Costanza; production & development company with various film & TV works such as house music drama XING, the award winning short film screened at Cannes (2017) and won 6 awards, with investment for development as a feature film; production of 1-hour pilot for the anthology TV series THE LINE; co-production on NYC dance music feature documentary film FILTERSWEPT; writer/ director/ producer services to the pilot creation for an outdoor survival reality TV series LIFELINK, set in Wyoming.

XING LLC =
Gregory Costanza and I oversee the further development of the feature film & branded content for XING, the award winning dance music project scripted by me with incredible collaborators from the music and film industries. XING is a feature film with a VR immersive short, an AR app for handheld devices, a comic book series or graphic novel, a killer soundtrack of electronic music luminaries, and more ancillary content including an NFT drop.

Stuffed Duffel LLC = Jorge Suarez, Luis Suarez, Brent Bye, Gregory Costanza; produced one hour pilot episode for TV series THE LINE – concept created by Jorge Suarez with co-writer Heather Wood. Together we shot one episode with stars Summer Phoenix, Bradley Gregg, Morgan Benoit and Gregory Cruz. Pilot episode is finished with post & being shopped.

Slather Studios LLC = Love Bailey and myself co-wrote a feature film and a 6-episode docu-series based on her life and transition story as a transwoman and professional performance artist living on a ranch run by her ex-convict lesbian mother in conservative Temecula, CA. The docu-series is greenlit and in to contractual negotiations with a production & distribution SVOD platform as of June 2022, with a multi-season arc highlighting guest stars and artists. The feature film is a musical that has a soundtrack created and produced by Love Bailey with various composers, music producers and collaborators.

Website: https://www.sevendirectionsstudios.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosacostanza/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosacostanza

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RosaCostanza

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosa3costanza

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAdU9PCzxBz7g6wGoDrjAwA/featured

Other: FemmeKraft: https://www.femmekraft.com/