We have written, directed, and edited most of our films. In the past five years, we have been producing short films and music videos in the Horror/Thriller genre with very successful festival runs. We have had to make every film from the ground up and taught ourselves to work under many hats. It’s beyond difficult to make films and we are proud to say that our work has been featured on CryptTV, ALTER, Omeleto, and even the costume brand, Spirit Halloween.

In 2019, when we sat down together and said that it was time to start working toward a feature. It’s our dream to direct one together and we wanted the first screenplay we conjure up to be powerful. To set a tone. At the time, the two of us have never written a feature before, only shorts.

We would meet together and study Horror screenplays that we admired. How they structured scares, how a moment was described, and what our own style would look like. After years of working on the story, traveling back and forth to study the area where the story is based, we wanted to polish the screenplay. It’s difficult to spend so long on something in a world that wants you to kick out material at a rapid pace. It was time that we needed eyes on the screenplay that wasn’t our own. We started with feedback from trusted friends and then moved on to coverage, writers with produced screenplays, and the biggest critics of all; our mothers.

I was working for an independent film studio at the time and they had me take every Stage 32 pitch that they could get their hands on. I felt like I was pitching at least 6-8 executives during my time there. It was difficult since I had never done a pitch in this format before. Especially since it wasn’t my own material that I was pitching. However, it taught me how to really craft, fail, and learn what marks to hit in the story.

I had one executive that wasn’t able to make a session and Stage 32 gave me a code for a new pitch. Shortly after, the company I was working for went under and they let me keep the code for myself. After Costantino and I finished our feature, La Burra, during the pandemic, I decided to dig up the code and use it to start pitching our script. The first executive I tried was Sarah J. Cornelius.

During my pitch with Sarah, my Skype was having difficulty. Therefore, I had to do the session over the phone instead. I was so nervous since I had to think on my feet. However, she was intrigued and asked to read the full screenplay. Costantino and I were so excited since Whitewater Films has produced such incredible films. After weeks of wondering how she would react to the story, she wrote back with enthusiasm. Our untapped legend, scares, and female protagonist resonated with Sarah and we all set our first Zoom meeting.

Sarah has simply been impeccable. She has been working so hard to put La Burra on the screen. Sarah has even helped us structure a format to make offers to actors in a way that stands out. In the past six months that we have been signed with Sarah, she has put the screenplay in the hands of interested studios, established producers, and is currently having meetings with distribution companies. We feel that all the pieces are going to line up together for La Burra in the very near future.

Our advice to fellow writers is to take criticism. Fail. Embrace it. This is how a script goes from well-written to something extraordinary. Get honest feedback and read your scenes out loud to see how it sounds coming out of your mouth.

If we read a scene and it doesn’t sound right coming from our voices, that’s how we know a line of dialogue or a scene needs to be looked at. Oh, and don’t forget you used to do this for fun. We have to tell ourselves this all the time in order to write something special.

Mitchell V. Slan

Instagram: @mitchell_slan

Twitter: @MitchellVSlan

Costa Ciminiello

Instagram: @cityofcosta

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