Faraj
As sophomore film major Conrad Faraj explained the premise of his first feature film, he noticed the tension in the room.
“Yeah,” Faraj said. “That’s pretty dark stuff. I’m not sure how it got so dark.”
Faraj has been working on his film, “The Shadow People,” since Halloween 2009, and it will officially premiere in Columbus this Friday, the 13th of May — all very fitting for a horror movie that follows the supposed mother of a demon child.
Before the official premiere in Columbus, however, Faraj will host a screening and a question-and-answer session in Toledo. It will take place at 8 p.m. at the Rave Motion Pictures theater in Westfield Franklin Park Mall Thursday, May 12.
Tickets can be purchased in advance of the screening for $7 on the film’s website.
Tickets also will be available at the door for the Thursday screening for $8, cash only.
Watch the theatrical trailer for the movie: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbSgZch025k.
Though Faraj has been making short films since 2003, “The Shadow People” will be his first feature-length outing. He said he got the idea to make a full-length movie after watching 2009’s low-budget cult smash “Paranormal Activity” with friends.
“I thought, ‘That’s really good. And they made it themselves. I can make a movie,’” he said. And he started on the script.
In addition to writing the script, Faraj produced and directed the movie, and he had a hand in editing it as well — a post-production process that has taken nearly a year to complete.
“We shot over 60 hours of footage for the film,” Faraj said, adding much of that took place on campus, in Toledo and Cleveland. “We had two editors quit because they had never done features before and it was too much for them to handle.”
The final cut of the movie runs two hours and 18 minutes and cost about $2,000 to produce. The largest chuck of that, Faraj said, came from flying actor Peter Marquardt, who has had roles in “Desperado” and other Hollywood films, to Ohio to star in the film.
Another film by Faraj was well-received. His 2009 short titled “The Artist” took second place at the Indie Gathering Film Festival in Cleveland. Watch “The Artist” here.
