Sandy Slaven
- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Cassandra (Sandy) Slaven was born in New Castle,Indiana on November
4th, 1968 to parents Cecil L. and Anna E. McKillip Slaven. Her father
was a factory worker for Firestone out of Noblesville, Indiana and her
mother was a homemaker. From the time she was six years old Sandy knew
she wanted to write for films, often sitting hours on end with a pen
and notepad in hand. She began writing poetry and often left poems out
for her father before he left in the early morning hours for work. Her
first taste of writing professionally after having received her
screen-writing degree was for a reality show that had came to New
Castle in 2004 entitled 'Small Town Scenario'. The premise of the show
focused on three small Indiana towns and their quest to write a script
about their community. Sandy was selected as the co-writer for the New
Castle group. Although the reality show was not picked up it motivated
Sandy and she started focusing intently on her screen-writing. She
participated in the 48 hr. film project out of Indianapolis, Indiana
twice. The goal of the 48 hr. film project is for a film group to
obtain a cast and crew, they are then given a topic and from there the
group has 48 hrs. to complete a short film which would be available
for theater viewing by the week's end. It was from there that Sandy
learned discipline when it came to her screen-writing. Sandy from 2004
to 2012 has written countless short film scripts, She also during that
time became a caregiver for her parents who were both stricken with
Alzheimer's and never attempted during that time to do anything beyond
the writing stage with those scripts. After the passing of both her
parents, her mother in 2006 and her father in 2007 Sandy made the
decision to start writing scripts with the intent of making motion
pictures. She co-wrote the short fantasy film Guilty with co-writer
Candy Beard originally wrote in 2010. She worked with Candy Beard again
in 2013 on the film short Smoke And Mirrors. In 2015 she worked on a film about early onset Alzheimer's disease titled Losing Breen which was shot in her native Indiana.