Ebed Pictures debuts first feature film

Lights! Camera! Action! College Cinema of Enterprise hosted its very first red carpet movie premiere Oct. 3 for local production company Ebed Pictures.

The event celebrated the company's first feature film "Christian's Carol."

Cast, crew and those who helped make the movie possible were welcomed in style with the red carpet treatment complete with limousine outside the Enterprise theatre.

Ebed Pictures is a faith-based production company focused on providing a new type of Christian movie experience.

Owner, producer, director, writer and actor Joshua Sheik said he was happy to finally see it all come together and be able to celebrate the hard work that was put into making the film.

"The idea behind Ebed Pictures is to bridge the gap," Sheik said. "You have seen what Hollywood produces where you're embarrassed to take your family to it, and then a lot of the Christian movies are fantastic movies but they're not really meant for Christian adults. They're great for Christian families, but I want to make movies that Christian adults can come to, enjoy and watch and it's entertaining, but without that garbage like unnecessary nudity, random swearing and excessive violence."

"Christian Carol" is a spin on the classic Charles Dickens novel "Christmas Carol," in which a man feels he's been good enough to "make the cut" into heaven.

However, during a near death experience he is visited by a friend from his past who shows him otherwise.

Sheik said the idea for the film came to him during church.

"I really felt moved by the spirit to do this film," Sheik said. "I think it was definitely His involvement (that got it done) because in 35 days we went from no script, no actors ... and 35 days later I had a fantastic crew that put in so much time to make this product and I had phenomenal actors."

Sheik said 35 days of preproduction is unheard of in filmmaking.

"The only person I can give credit to for that one is the Lord," Sheik said. "He took care of us through the entire thing."

The film took 25 days of filming with a crew of more than 100 people that shot location at several Enterprise locations.

Viewers will recognize Main Street, the Enterprise Recreational Complex, as well as several local businesses.

Sheik said the community was very supportive of his filming and were gracious to open their businesses so his production could move in for filming.

The film will be showing at College Cinema from Oct. 21-24 for residents to enjoy.

For each film produced by Ebed Pictures, the company chooses a charitable organization to receive 50 percent of the profits made from the film.

Enterprise's Always Hope Pregnancy Center was selected as the charitable organization for "Christian's Carol."

"They do fantastic work not only helping women during a really difficult time in their life, but also they helped dozens of women last year come to know the Lord," Sheik said.

Ebed Pictures has already completed filming of its second film entitled "Worth Fighting For," which was also shot in Enterprise and should be available next year.