Meet Chadd Stoops of One Good Film Films

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chadd Stoops.

Chadd, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
The year was 1994. I was attending a small, but very prestigious theatre college in Greeley, Colorado represented by one of the top ten acting teachers in the nation. We were an all theatre school, and at the time the University didn’t have a film department. Film acting was the ultimate dream for many of us, so me and seven of my other theatre friends wrote a screenplay in hopes of putting ourselves on film. Again, this was 1994, “olden times,” before digital, so if we were going to be “film actors” we had to put ourselves on actual “film.” However, film was expensive, and we were poor college kids, so with nothing but hope in our bank accounts we took our near feature-length script to the University to get funding for our “would be” project.  Intrigued by our courage and story the theatre driven college, surprisingly, gave us the financing we needed to produce our movie!

Now at this point in time (1994), “Indie films” were popping up everywhere, and so this film was really an exciting opportunity for new comers like us. We might actually get our shot at our dream careers as film actors!

Once we got the money, we wasted no time, and spent our entire Christmas break preparing and then filming this comedic “masterpiece.” We worked tirelessly, and with a few days left before school started up, just two scenes shy (about five minutes from finishing it), we got the processed footage back only to discover our film tragically had no sound. All our work, time and money down the drain. The name of our film (ironically) was called “Louder Than Words.” Needless to say, we were devastated, and the project was abandoned.

Fast forward twenty-one years later, the writer and director of our film (out of the blue) sent us (the cast) the still unfinished film via YouTube as a kind of “Christmas joke.” Upon reviewing our disappointing effort (once again), an epiphany came to me on how we might be able to turn this whole thing around.  A chance to finally finish this film while at the same time turning this negative experience into a brand-new way to tell a story. What if we made a movie about finishing this movie, except it wouldn’t be a Documentary? This movie would be a fictitious/fantastical story revolving around the actual event of the film we all tried to make in college, while using the same cast 25 years later. It would be the first true “reality meets fiction” kind of a tale. I’d never seen anything done like this before, none of us had.  All we had to do was find the cast! After that all we had to do was accomplish the seemingly impossible. Write a movie in a way that had never been done before. Our tagline? “Seven former college students reunite to finish a film they began 25 years before.”

How does this work as a movie?
The film would open in the same college town, of Greeley, Colorado. We (the audience) would see seven shadows (basically our cast) watching our footage the way we first saw it, back in 1994 and discovering it was without sound. The “fictitious part” would come in to play once we (the audience) realize they (the cast) have just eight days before having to show their film at a Gala. The once a year Gala which typically funded the college’s famed and coveted theatre program was now risking everything on a first-time film. The cast could either lie and try to “fix the problem” or come clean. Eight days later, on the night of their films premiere, the lights go down, the curtain goes up, and the film has mysteriously vanished.

Twenty-five years later, upon the death of the teacher, our story truly begins. These seven former students who lied to a town and stood up their teacher, (years before) find out their old film was buried in a time capsule two stories below the stage they all performed on and is going to be unearthed and released to the long awaiting public who paid to see it, per the dying request of their teacher. They now have eight days once again (as grown adults) to now break into the school, break into the time capsule, steal their old footage, complete it and return it before their 25-year-old lie catches up with them all and it is shown to the world. The catch? None of them get along, but on top of all of this, there is a Usury law being enacted.

The Usury Law is an actual law in Colorado which states a financial grant is considered a personal loan subject to collection at maximum interest compounded annually at 45 percent per annum. Basically, they’ll all owe $7 Million Dollars unless it is completed.

The movie is a rollercoaster ride from beginning to end. There’s action, suspense, comedy, romance, a twist at the end and a heist thrown in for good measure. This is going be unlike anything anyone has seen before.  On top of this, audiences will get a chance to see a finished product of the lost movie within the movie, which will be finished in real time as we make this new feature length movie! We will release this older film (finished) on Blue Ray and DVD after the theatrical release along with the making of and other features.

We’ve worked tirelessly on the script and have been pitching this to financiers over the past few months. Instead of going the traditional “Go Fund Me” route, we are offering to anyone and everyone a 4% finder’s fee ($160,000 of the total which is $4 Million) for those who can get us a meeting with an investor or investors who then decide they’d like to invest in this amazing once in a lifetime opportunity!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Writing this has been really uncharted territory for me. Most films are written and then you cast the film to fit the characters. Our film was done a little backward. The actors were already there, so we had to create characters around seven actors already in the film.

Another challenge was creating a Pitch Deck for financers.    A pitch deck is basically comprehensive power point presentations that visually, as well as in writing, explains the movie, the cast, crew, how the movie will make the money back, budget, target markets and the like.  It costs upwards of $4,000 to get a decent Pitch Deck finished. I didn’t have the money, so I took 3 months to teach myself how to do it. (If you’d like to see my Pitch Deck, you can check it out on our website. www.louderthanwordsthemovie.com just underneath the video presentation.)

The talent in this is also needed in to support our cast of “no names”; however, some of these people when to the school! We are calling upon Nick Nolte (who performed during summer stock at UNC), “Sully” Sullenberger (who did his undergraduate degree at UNC) Christopher Walken, Alfred Molina (Spiderman 2) and Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day, and Happy Death Day 2 U).

One Good Film Films – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The company I’ve created is called ONE GOOD FILM FILMS. This is the first of many really GOOD films to come. The idea behind the name is I just wanted to make one REALLY good film.

A film that exceeds the expectations of those watching and gives them (the audience) the feeling that their money was well spent on a great story and an incredibly unique movie going experience. That is what we are going to do with this film and with the films to come.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I’d have to say finishing this script. I would love for anyone interested in wanting to help us find investors, to please email me. I’ll send them an NDA (non-disclosure agreement), and we can get the script and adventure out to you!   We can use all of the help we can get in this area! Thank you! God Bless!

Contact Info:

• Address: 1135 Glenville Dr. #4
• Website: www.louderthanwordsthemovie.com
• Phone: 3103657503
• Email: onegoodfilmfilms@gmail.com or info@louderthanwordsthemovie.com

Image Credit:
storyboards by: Fernando Servin
phone: 714-597-1329
email: servinfer@gmail.com

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