Filmmaking has always been in Rosa Costanza’s blood. Her grandfather Thomas Horton Sr. was vice president of Thalassa, the production company set up in Hollywood for Jacques Cousteau's T.V. series “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” and “The Cousteau Odyssey” in the 1960s and 1970s. He also went on to form his own production and distribution company focused on undersea content, specifically sharks, and helped create Shark Week. So as Costanza grew up, she was surrounded by filmmakers and she held a deep respect for the craft.

At 16, her grandfather noticed her interest in the industry, and Costanza told him she wanted to follow in his footsteps and be a writer and director. Aware of the difficulties women had breaking into this competitive industry, Horton advised Costanza to study the technological aspect of filmmaking, as it would give her a competitive edge.

She did just that and studied audio and video engineering in the late 1990s before going on to have a career as a production sound technician for nearly 17 years. It was a pretty fulfilling profession, but she knew she still had untapped creative potential.

“I became one of the first 20 women ever to become a Y-1 production sound mixer with the IATSE Local 695 union in 2007,” Costanza said. "After being a union technician for over a decade, I realized I had lost my passion for the role. The drive I had to show up to set was to study the work of the directors. So, I focused on studying screenwriting and directing formally."

Having already written some of her own screenplays, Costanza decided to pursue this passion by completing the Feature Film Writing Certificate at UCLA Extension. This program teaches students about the entertainment business, story analysis and the role of agents. The most effective course for Costanza was the rewriting course led by instructor Michael Barlow, in which they workshopped their personal screenplay drafts. Costanza brought one of her feature length drafts and received feedback from her professor and classmates.

“I took my screenplay into the class to workshop it, and it completely changed my career,” Costanza said.

She selected a dozen-page sequence from the feature script to create a short proof of concept film titled “Xing.” After running a successful Kickstarter campaign, she produced the “Xing” short.

The 2017 short film catapulted Costanza into success. She won the award for Best Unique & Artistic Film at the UCLAxFilmFest. Then it was featured in over two dozen film festivals in two years, including the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, Programme de Court Metrages.

“I think about how I took a chance on my own voice and how I told myself, ‘I've worked on so many other people's projects, and I've supported so many other directors and creators, let me see if I can do this for myself,’ and the result was beyond my expectations,” Costanza said.

“Xing” is rooted in dance music culture. Costanza has been a fan of techno and house music since its beginnings in the 1990s and she loved going to clubs and raves.

Though her film festival run wrapped up in 2019, she has no plans to leave the project behind. The “Xing” short film won six awards and a distribution deal, launching the development of her feature film of the same title plus the “Xing 360” game, an interactive dance challenge app supported by Northern Ireland Screen, in 2024. She has also developed a comic series from the feature script and a virtual reality immersive concept, turning “Xing” into cross sector IP.

Success has kept Costanza quite busy. She has worked as a screenwriter on assignments from other producers, creating pilot episodes and proof of concept films for others. She has directed and produced independent works across genres: an outdoor wilderness survival show, dark comedy, action, music heavy drama, home renovation lifestyle programming and a docu-series.

Costanza said she owes part of her success to UCLA Extension, as it helped build her confidence in her projects. She has gone on to take a film finance course to learn more about the business side of filmmaking.

“I have a new team that I'm building of line producers and executives for ‘Xing’ who I feel have confidence in me because I can speak the business language. That comes from me doing the entertainment business and film financing classes at UCLA Extension,” Costanza added.

Besides winning awards for “Xing,” Costanza has also been nominated twice for Emmy Awards for producing a documentary-style T.V. show titled “Spotlight Arts.” She has won over 50 awards from independent film projects submitted to festivals, as a director and/or as a producer. She is now finishing the one-hour pilot episode for a four-part docu-series titled “White Label,” a companion project to “Xing,” that explores the inception and growth of rave culture in New York City.

She feels another aspect of her success comes from not pigeonholing herself to a single genre, but instead branching out and trying new things. She advises future filmmakers not to let any restrictions get in the way from pursuing their passions.

“Use whatever your social channels are and don't let anything stop you. Use your phone and shoot sample media, create content to define your brand that way,” Costanza said. “Don't let budget or anything else stop you, no matter how big or small your idea is.”