Meet Thomas Sahagun

We recently connected with Thomas Sahagun and have shared our conversation below.

Thomas, sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.

My story is like no other, you cant make this stuff up what I have been through to get to where I am today. I began my Journey in December of 2021 under Sahagun Films Production which eventually turned into Elite Films Production. I was going through a rough patch in my life. I had just gotten out of a two and a half year relationship that eventually lead to me having a child with that person and naming him after my father who I look up to so much, but shortly after him being born I got the news that their was a high possibility that he might not be mine. I thought I was living the life I always dreamed of. I was playing semi professional basketball, traveling to different areas, working my way to chase this dream I always had in basketball. I had a beautiful family that I always dreamed of having until the unexpected news. Short after receiving that news, we began the process as quickly as possible and all I could do was hope and pray that he was mine because I grew this bond with him, my family grew this bond with him as well, nothing else mattered to me at that very moment. All I wanted was to be told that he was 100% mine and when everything came back it was determined that he was in fact not my son. I was at a loss. for words. My world had be flipped upside down in a blink of an eye. I fell into this deep dark depression that I didn’t think I was going to be able to recover from. You are never prepared to receive news like that. From that moment on, I felt like everything that could go wrong did. The relationship was over, everything was shut down due to the pandemic, so there wasn’t a way for games to be played. My dream of playing professional basketball seemed over, I ended up losing my apartment I stood in at the time. There came a point where I felt worthless, useless, and that I didn’t belong. When things began opening back up again, I had already lost interests in playing basketball, I no longer wanted pursue the dream no longer, I lost my work ethic, interest in doing anything. My sister was nice enough to let me move in with her. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. As the days and weeks went on, my sister helped me get through this part of my life. It was not easy, she helped me get back on my feet, see my worth, how much I had to offer. I began free writing on my computer, how I felt at the time, and everything I had gone through. I fell in love with writing, I felt free, I watched began watching these Trent Shelton videos that really motivated me each day, his words became very inspiring to me. I have always had interest in writing, acting and film since I was little but I was always to afraid to put myself out there like that and being judged, but after watching some inspiring videos of Trent Shelton, I decided it was time for a new hobby, and to not care what people think. When I was in high school my senior year, I had to write this 2 minute script for a group activity and two other kids had to act it out, I reverted back to that script and began writing. in early 2022 I had finished writing my script in which I shared with a very talented person by the name of “Brian Poth” who mentored me on how to write a script the proper way, he is huge reason why I am where I am today. He taught me the proper way how to put a scrip in the proper format and to follow the proper guidelines because I was no expert. Once I learned the right tools, I began finding cast and talents to my project. My first movie “Slaughter Night” wasn’t what I expected. It was a wake up call for sure. I knew nothing going into first my project. I put way to much trust into someone I didn’t know to help me make the film in which they kept a lot of my footage. Again I fell into this depression because I had worked so hard to write this script and I started to begin to think maybe this wasn’t for me. Chris Crofut who starred as “Brady” in Slaughter Night” stood by my side. A lot of the talents we had in the film left the project and gave up on me, I couldn’t blame some of them. Only three of the eight casts wanted to remain. As crushed as I was Chris Crofut really stood by side and said “everything was going to be okay, stick with it, this is just the beginning of many great things to come” and was he ever right. Chris always see’s the good in things no matter how bad things seem. I took some time to myself to rebuild myself up, and in 2023 put together a small team and changed the name from “Sahagun Films Production” , to “Elite Films Production” I wanted a name that made everyone feel important not just me, Anyone who is a member of our production I see them as elite talent. As 2023 continued and headed into 2024 we launched nine different short films Your Last Call part one and part two starring Chris Crofut and fan favorite actress Maira Apodaca, Halloween The Rise of Michael Myers Fan film starring Chris Crofut as Rob and Erica Fernandez as Julianna. We also launched a few other shorts The Friend, The Friend two, The Break-Up, Psycho, and our last two that really gained so much attention “Ghostface The Fan Film” which started Chris Croft as James Parker, Laura Dimmer who played Mindy and myself who played Ghostface which we had so much fun during that entire shoot. Our final project we have released was “The Break-In” first time kid actress Hannah Oliveira played the girl who was home alone while her dad was at work. Chris Crofut who portrayed the burglar also made another appearance in one of my films yet again. I have really fallen in love with filming to the point to where I know this is what I want to do with my life. I have gone through the unimaginable to get to where I am today. From a deep depression to my dream falling apart right before I could barely even get it started to losing my home, to now a partnership with YouTube, nine films in a year plus two different podcasts per week. I have nothing but the most respect to those who helped me get to where I am today. Family, very few close friends, they always believed I could be something. They helped me see my worth. My mom Betty Sahagun, my dad, Carlos Sahagun, sister Lisa Oliveira, and my best friends Chris Crofut and Maira Apodaca, always believed in me. Since 2023 out films have reached many platforms such as Fancy A Movie, Scene Plus who really took a chance on my films, they have been such a huge part of our success as well distributing out films onto their platforms as well as YouTube, Vimeo, CinemaOnDemand. As we look to hope to get our projects on some other bigger platforms one day such as Netflix and TUBI as that is what we are striving for. We have some big upcoming projects coming out soon one being out hit series The Stalkers Game, and two feature films Unknown Caller starring Alissa Torres and Viktoria Luna as well A Man From Hell and The Stalkers Break In. I have enjoyed my time on set with Alissa Torres who has come a long way since day one acting with us. She has grown so much as an actress and I know big things are definitely coming her way. Also Viktoria Luna who is only 9 years old is an extremely talented young up and coming actress. I look forward to working with her again in future project. You talk about pure talent that little girl gots it. One thing I have learned in these last four years on this unusual journey of mine is that just because something bad happens, doesn’t mean your life is over. Its okay to grieve, its okay to feel down and sad, but know whatever you are going through, something better is always waiting for you ahead.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

We are a growing film production company that has filmed many short films and now making the jump to feature films. We film movies like horror, thriller, drama and will eventually get to love and romance

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Some advice I would give to someone in their early journey is to just block out noise. Along the way I have had people make fun of me for what we do here at elite films production. I have people laugh and tell me things from kids to even adults. At the end of the day, I’m doing what I love and they aren’t. It’s just a bunch of haters trying to bring you down because they are not happy with where they are in their life. My advice would be to block all that noise out and keep pursuing your dreams. Their opinion does not mean anything to you. They are too busy worrying about what you are trying to accomplish. It means you’re doing something right and they are just wasting their life paying attention to you not focusing on their own dreams and goals. If you were not getting hated on, laughed at, or told things you aren’t doing something right. It comes with a territory. Anything is possible, as long as you are willing to put in the time and effort. No dream is ever impossible. One of my favorite quotes from Steve Harvey “People fail to realize your dream is your dream. God Put that vision in you for a reason not for someone else to see it. It’s not for them to see”

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

It has always been a dream of mine to be part of the scream franchise rather it’s acting in the films or helping on set. I look up to Kevin Williamson a lot and he has definitely been a huge inspiration of mine. He is definitely a big reason for my love of horror films. It would be a dream come true to hopefully collaborate with him one of these days and maybe be part of his scream franchise one of these days

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Thomas Sahagun, Chris Crofut, Viktoria Luna, Alissa Torres, Maira Apodaca

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