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Mini Biography

Ben Kuchera grew up in rural Indiana, the son of a Lutheran Pastor and School teacher mother. He showed an interest in art at an early age and continues to paint, draw, write and animate as well as make films.

Kuchera wrote and directed his first 16mm film, a short called "Rest Stop 2 Miles" which he shot on location in rural Illinois. Leaving Minneapolis after ten years, Kuchera would soon build on that experience by undertaking his first feature length project, "Mayfly Days," while attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This would be his first 16mm feature film.

As he wrote, shot and edited "Mayfly Days" over the next several years in Los Angeles, Kuchera began his studies at the California Institute of the Arts, where he received his bachelor's degree in Film/Video in 1999. He accepted a scholarship to study Fine Arts and Electronic Media at the University Cincinnati and completed two years in Masters studies before leaving to work in the commercial video production industry.

Married to Sarah Bajus on June 12 2004, Kuchera now lives in Lexington, Kentucky where he is an independent filmmaker, illustrator, and musician. His comedy and music albums are for sale on itunes under one of his names...Ben Kuchera.

Kuchera is also a graphic design professor, and artist by trade. He is currently working on his next documentary code named, "W.K." This is a project that will be shooting over three years for completion in 2009.

Spouse

Trivia

Worked as a movie theater projectionist the summer before principle photography began on his first feature. All of this money was used for the production of the film.

The shoot budget for Kuchera's first 16mm feature Mayfly Days was $80,000. This amount was completely out of his own pocket.

His first film was a 16mm short called, "Rest Stop 2: Miles". Its lead actors were Michael J. Taylor, and Michael Harris. The film was shot entirely in Taylorsville and Harristown, Illinois in the summer of 1993. This was the summer after graduating from high school. Michael J. Taylor went on to college, and Michael Harris went to West Point. Kuchera was admitted to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago after the half-hour short was seen by the admissions representative.

On his first day at CalArts, Kuchera explained to the dean of the film school that he was planning on using the Art school as a post-production facility to finish his 16mm feature, "Mayfly Days". Four years passed with no financial help from the school, and finishing the film became the biggest battle toward graduating from the institution. Eventually, the film had the first three reels finished at the work print level in February of 1999. Mayfly Days would then be film finished August 30, 1999, and then re-conformed and edited for digital distribution in HD in 2009-10.

After filming Mayfly Days, Kuchera took a hiatus from filmmaking and began focusing on other Art forms, one of which was photography. Mayfly Days sat on the shelf for years, having never been seen in its entirety even by the director. Even though the film had been photographed, the negative would not be processed for two years. It sat in a freezer. The negative was processed at that time and a telecine revealed two years after the shoot that the camera had been faulty. 40% of the original film was lost and this led to reshoots in 1997 and in 1999. In the eleventh year, Kuchera decided to finish his film in high definition so that it could be seen for the first time by 2009-10. The film went back into post-production as of June 1 2007 with an additional investment of $30K.

Kuchera's first feature film was edited on a six plate movieola.

B.D.Kuchera is a devout Christian. His official date of receiving Jesus Christ as his savior and God was June 5th, 2005. He was baptized on June 12, 2005.

Kuchera once worked in a camera shop repairing 35mm and large format film cameras.

In 1989, Kuchera was working on a small computer on a service called Sierra On-line. It was a small community of PC users that were networked through 56K modems. This was the internet, before web-browsers of any kind. Having a home computer was a scarcity in the United States. Having this technology at a young age gave way to a film that would later take years to complete. This film was called, "Mayfly Days".

For many years, B.D. Kuchera (Benjamin D. Kuchera) and his brother, Peter Kuchera snuck into movies through the back doors of theaters on Hollywood Blvd, Sunset Blvd, and the Santa Monica prominade. 3-5 films a day were seen in these excursions, sometimes traveling between all three L.A. locations. The PCH was a highly traveled highway for the two brothers. It was very common to drive North and stop at strange restaurants, or travel to Malibu, San Francisco, and the Red Wood forest. Both Kuchera's consider this time to be the most "drug-trippy" and joyous time in their L.A. lives. This was of course, a complete stage of denial. Hands were shaken with the famous, dinners in strange hotels in Hollywood at 2 am, shoulder to shoulder with famous authors, surviving on ice cream at AM/PM gas stations, watching fires in the brush. The two brothers were walking through the heart of crazy in tinsel-town, and crazy was an understatement.

While skipping class at CalArts, Kuchera would spend many days in post tele-cine environments in Culver City and on studio lots.

Once an employee of a small computer repair shop in 1991 called L.R. Data, Kuchera was hired to sell video games and build 386 DOS based PC systems. He also began his studies into Non-Linear Editing in 1993, but chose to focus on film editing while at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Personal Quotes

"Why people who make movies about aliens, robots, dinosaurs, and comic-book characters call themselves filmmakers is beyond me.

No matter who they are, no matter what they say, no matter what they intimidate you with, make your film. And when you finally do get to make it, with or without them, make it the way you dream it to be.

If you are calling yourself a filmmaker, do yourself a favor and shoot some film first. Otherwise, show respect to the medium you never touched and call yourself a videomaker.

The one thing I've found to be universally true in the film business, particularly in L.A., is that almost any moron can get millions upon millions of dollars by chance. Deciding to make a film that doesn't matter seems to be the prerequisite to getting the budget of your dreams.

The most exciting thing I can think of when it comes to being an artist, is a world where an artist can make whatever he/she wants, and never rely on industry distributors. No test audiences, no prescreenings, no critics, no magazines, and no video stores. Just an electronic space on the internet where you keep your digital work. A place where this work can be seen any time, and anywhere. No one can stop that. No one can take away that pure freedom once it takes hold.

When they say that it's impossible, remind them that YOU are the possible

Never ride the circumstances. It will kill your optimism along the way.

Everybody's got a script. Everybody's got a movie idea. Nobody does a damned thing about it.

What's the point of ever making a film if it's not true to what you believe? What's the reason for making things if you're always worrying about your audience? What's the consequence of intimidating yourself by caring about the opinions of others.

I've not only got something to say, I've got something I have to say.

It's happened. The most exciting. No industry distributors needed. No test audiences, no pre-screenings, no critics, no magazines, and no video stores. Just an electronic space on the internet where you keep your digital work. A place where this work can be seen any time, and anywhere. No one can stop that. Thanks God people finally get a voice outside of L.A.

Where Are They Now

(July 2005) He lives in Lexington, Kentucky where he is a film and television producer, independent filmmaker, artist, and writer. He is currently working on revising all his written works and is also working on his first novel, a book filled with short stories.

(March 2007) Kuchera is a film and television producer, independent filmmaker, artist, writer and college professor based out of Lexington, Kentucky. He is currently working on revising all his written works and is also working on his first novel, a book on his walks with God and how he has found someone that really loves him. His maker.

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