Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Conrad Faraj. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Conrad, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I am a self-taught filmmaker and learned everything through trial and error. It was a rewarding process because I was always discovering something new. Growing up, I would always make 1 movie a week. I would gather all my friends and we would create something unique (or usually absurd) and have the best time. I wish I would’ve taken the craft more seriously then. I didn’t do that until my last year of high school, but I felt that every short film I made was a stepping stone into what eventually would become my career.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m an independent filmmaker based out of the midwest. I have loved telling stories all my life, and ever since I picked up a camera at age 13, I haven’t been able to put it down. I have directed several feature films including Fighting the Sky, The Colours of Desire, and the upcoming The Stars and the Storms. Most of my career has consisted of short films and commercials, including the NBC One-Shot winning film “Wedding Runner” and the Harry Potter fan film “Mudblood” which has earned over 2 million views online.

Our team has won the Cleveland and Pittsburgh 48 Hour Film Projects, and our works have been selected at a number of prestigious film festivals around the world including Burbank International Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, New York Supershorts, Orlando Film Festival, Madriff International, Chicago Horror Film Fest, and many more.

I love telling stories and am passionate about cinema, and can’t wait to continue furthering my career.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

So I currently have over 470 thousand followers on TikTok and roughly 80 thousand on YouTube and it’s been a real struggle since the early days. The key is perseverance! I remember always having to promote my work back in the day with flyers or spam emailing everyone trailers and posters of my films. For over 13 years I felt stuck trying to get people to watch my work (and sometimes it’s still not easy), but once in a blue moon, everything just starts aligning and people start to take notice. I’m glad I never gave up because you never know when the time will come for YOUR audience to find you.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My goal will always be to move forward into the next step of my filmmaking journey. I never want to stop. I want to always be constantly learning and discovering new things about the craft. It’s what keeps my creative spark going.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.conradstudios.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conradfaraj53/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/conradstudios

Image Credits
Photos by Dominique Murray, Sharon Vetalice, and Scott Morrison.