Meet Chad Sano of Sano Film Productions

I grew up in Riverside, California. I had two very supportive parents who would take me on auditions. And when I wasn’t auditioning, I was filming and making my own movies. My cousins loved to help me. Just a bunch of kids making the worst horror movie the world had ever seen! After 6th grade, my parents told my younger brother and I that we were moving to Colorado. I hated it… at first. It grew on me. But Colorado was no California, no big auditions, or really any auditions for that matter, at least for me.

But my mom still tried to get me out and took me to different agencies, but it wasn’t easy. Even though I wasn’t auditioning like in California, that didn’t stop me from creating my own films again. This time, I only had my younger brother with me who I would always force to be in my film. Sometimes he would run away from “set” (upstairs) and bolt out of my clutches, so he didn’t have to be in my movie anymore.  We got in a lot of fights over this.  Sorry mom.

After I graduated high school, I knew I wanted to go back to California and pursue my dream of acting. So I did just that.  But it wasn’t easy, I left all my friends, my mom and my brother in order to pursue my acting career.

And what did I do when I arrived? I got a serving job in a restaurant in Orange County until a year later when I realized I’m just wasting my time by not going all out and auditioning. So I quit and started auditioning full time. And that’s how it started. Living in Orange County and driving to LA in horrible traffic, and most of the time it was for free work or for some audition to a random film project that no one was ever going to watch.

This is my 8th year doing this, and I have to say, not giving up has been the best decision I’ve ever made. To start, I got to work background for some amazing films and got to see what life on set was like. Over time, I was represented by a few different agencies. (Although till this day, all my bookings and IMDb credits have been booked by me and making my own connections, so if anyone reading this thinks that because they don’t have an agent, they won’t be able to act, that’s not the case.) I was on some game shows, then started booking short films, then just recently been able to book a few parts on TV shows.

Last year my wife and I were on a reality show with Khloe Kardashian. Every year gets bigger and bigger! However, there is a lot of downtime as an actor. Not every day is an audition, at least not for me anyway. So I decided to create “Sano Film Productions” which is essentially my way of saying, “If I can’t be acting all the time, then I’m gonna make my own films, so I don’t have to wait for anyone else.”

I work on events, weddings, conferences, things like that, but luckily I have been able to start doing what I love and telling narrative stories from commercials to short films. My newest goals are to take some of my ideas and pitch them to Netflix and other services in the upcoming year! I’m extremely happy doing what I love, and I know God has amazing things planned and I am excited to see them come to fruition!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way? 
Definitely not. I’m sure every actor (And creative in general) has the thought of, “I’m not good enough, why am I still pursuing this?” Especially when you audition and nine times out of ten, you don’t book it. It’s definitely not easy. There’s no guarantee you will ever make it. But when you love something, that doesn’t matter because even the journey is a blast.

Even financially it has been a struggle. Making a living as an actor is a very difficult thing to do. Luckily I have my filming business to pay the rent!

Please tell us about Sano Film Productions. 
Sano Film Productions is a company comprised of my wife and I. We are two movie fanatics who strive to do amazing work. We are a power duo together. We specialize in telling stories with intention and with maximum effort.

Right now, we are creating mostly short films, but in the near future, we hope to be creating much more than that!

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently? 
I would’ve been more social and made more friends and connections with like-minded people who just want to create to create. I would ignore the stupid thoughts of “I’m not good enough” and just started doing my own thing a long time ago.  Worrying if other people will like my film was the biggest waste of my time, and kept me from creating.  I mean, it’s tough, I’m still learning not to worry about other peoples’ opinions.  Whatever you are passionate about, pursue it to your fullest ability and don’t let anybody stop you!