Atlanta creators write new comedy series “Sink or Swam”

in-between the walls when the shower would be on.

“I know that turning on your shower you’re not supposed to hear that noise, and it’s not just a little shake, it’s between every room…I don’t know what they could do to fix that, but I feel like that alone should’ve been a tell to at least check the water, I felt like it could’ve been avoided… but then again that’s beyond me.”

“Two days before the water went out people were complaining that the pressure was bad… [the water] wasn’t frigid, but it wasn’t as hot, and then the following day that’s when [the water] was really cold and there was barely any pressure, so they just cut it off,” she said.

The plan was for the water to be off for only a few hours. Residents were informed it would come on in the early afternoon, however they ended up not having water for the duration of the day.

Although the residents were informed that the water would be cut off, residents without cars or guaranteed access to other campus residences were left without a place to go. Although the solutions weren’t what most were hoping for, the residence hall did allow students to use the dining hall restrooms.

One thing Vickers took away from the situation was to not take working water for granted – the full extent of the issue wasn’t felt until she had to go to extra lengths to do what was formerly so easily accessible.

Although the issue of having no water is resolved, remains of the problem still dwell. One floor began to flood after the water came on due to the use of a washing machine. Residents on this floor had to do their laundry on other floors and were not informed when this issue would be fixed. Along with this, a hallway on the first level of Piedmont Central was partially flooded. When we spoke to Vickers, residents were still not able to use the stairs due to this. In an attempt to dry the water, residents may have received an extra gust of wind due to numerous fans placed in the vicinity.

On the hour-long car ride coming home from a work trip in a nowhere town in Georgia back to their home in Atlanta, Patrick Cavillo and Ana Bernot-Reilly revisited the trip, cackling with one another about the almost-comically bad work trip they just experienced. Cavillo, a non-profit clinic worker who travels to different civic groups explaining the cause in hopes of donations, just stood in front of a crowd of elderly women “The Olive Tree,” a knock off Olive Garden, giving a motivational speech for the clinic he works for.

While the two laughed in the front seat of the car reassessing the weird banquet room from 1997, the old folk of the Lion’s Club nodding off and the bad italian food served at the event, the two creators realized the inspiration for their longthought about project stood right in front of them. For about five months, Cavillo and Bernot-Reilly brainstormed ideas for the series the two strived to create. After the comically-bad “Olive Tree,” experience, Bernot Reilly turned to Cavillo and expressed interest in loosely basing the series off his own job interacting with random people that do not care.

Once the idea was thrown out there, the two set off working on putting tangibility to the thought and began writing the script for the series. The two bounced back and forth, building a solid story line and writing a pilot for the show, which then turned into a second episode. After several sleepless nights and creative outbursts, the two co-writers had finished outlining an entire seven episodes of the series they called “Sink or Swam.”

“We kind of created the entire story, and then through that we started putting pieces together,” Cavillo said. She [Bernot-Reilly] wrote the first episode, and it’s a collaborative thing, and the second episode I did. We have an outline for seven episodes.”

The story, quirky, comedic and relatable, describes life’s ups and downs through the eyes of main character J.J. Estrada, played by co-writer Bernot-Reilly. Estrada, a Mexican-American, people-pleasing, motivational speech-pitcher, struggles to make her way through a company run by her rich, white privileged boss, Audrey Jacobsen. The storyline consists of many ups, downs and plot twists, but overall the theme revolves around a heartfelt, fun and dark comedy where audience members rooting for the underdog might be surprised towards the end.

Over the course of the last couple months, the cast and crew of the show have been working hard to raise a decent amount of funding to begin working on the pilot, as well as a little bit extra for things such as a bigger production, more locations and more equipment. The crew started fundraising on Seed and Spark, a fundraising company that focuses on webseries and pilots, and were able to raise over $10,000 for the show, meeting and exceeding their original goal for the series.

The cast, crew and production team of “Sink or Swam,” plans on creating a fabulous pilot in order to pitch to distributors who will then pick up the project and cultivate more funds for the show. As this is Cavillo’s first ongoing project, he plans to work as hard as he can to create the best pilot possible,and then he plans to play the rest by ear.

“I want for people to want to see more,” Cavillo said. “I want to see it gain a following. What I hope to see happen is to make a really good pilot, people follow it, people fall in love with the characters and people want to see more. I want it to be unique, and I want people to say ‘oh this is an interesting story. I want to keep following this.’”

To receive updates on “Sink or Swam,” audiences can check out their website or their instagram, @sinkorswamseries, where the cast, crew and production team will post updates on filming, release, footage and more. Filming for the pilot is scheduled for Nov. 16th through Nov. 22nd.