We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kevin M. Kraft. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kevin M. below.
Kevin M., looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
When I was a child, living in upstate New York, I came up with a number of adventure stories that “occurred” in our area…because nothing ever happened there on its own. One of these tales involved a Bigfoot-type creature terrorizing the town. Well, when I finally embarked on my filmmaking endeavor, I wrote a screenplay called MOMO, about a father and son who fight to survive a single night against such a creature in their family cabin in the Missouri woodland. It won the ZedFest Lo/No Budget Screenplay Competition in 2010 and also received a KIDS FIRST! ® recommendation from the Coalition for Quality Children’s Media. I wrote is as a really low-budget feature that would star my eldest son, Tyler and myself. When subsequent efforts to find funding for the movie failed, my wife suggested I write the novelization and get that out there, which I did. The novella went on to win the Winner: Christian Book Award and the Missouri Indie Authors Project Book. After finishing his college courses for photography, Tyler asked if he could take a shot at making the MOMOO movie. I thought that was fine, that maybe it would benefit with an infusion of “new blood.” He had my blessing and became the producer. COVID and circumstances caused us to have to reimagine how the film could be made, and we decided very quickly that we would have to make the movie ourselves. Tyler asked me to direct. Well, of course! Tyler, Timothy, and I, with input from the entire family rewrote the script for our meager shoestring budget–probably the hardest and most painful aspect of the process and eliminated all but the two main characters and the monster. As well as directing, I would co-star, provide the musical score, and be an executive producer. Tyler would produce, be cinematographer/cameraman, editor and special creature effects designer. Timothy would co-star with me and also help with lighting and setup. My eldest daughter, Tamara would serve as assistant to the director, which mean she’d be my objective eyes on the set while I was performing. Having experience in drama, she was also our acting coach. My youngest daughter, Talia would provide special makeup effects and capture sound under Tyler’s direction. And my wife, Sharon would serve as production supervisor. We implemented our crazy plan and began filming in the fall of 2022 in Kansas City, Missouri and Rusty Pumper Hill in Basehor, Kansas. I have to say it’s turning out nicely. And I’m really very happy that I’m getting to realize this dream and work with my family on it. For this reason, MOMO: AN INSPIRATIONAL THRILLER and the film is most meaningful to me.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I began writing fiction at a very young age, having been enthralled by great storytelling, from my father reading Bile stories to us to my teachers reading fiction to us. Even my brother Ken, could tell great stories and would regale my brother and I for hours with his adventures. I hoped and aspired to become a great storyteller myself and began writing stories in second grade. A lot of it was derivative of whatever I was hearing or watching at the time, of course. But I found writing to be quite easy and natural. For my 10th birthday, my parent bought me something called a “typewriter,” and I taught myself how to type. There was no stopping me after that. I wrote short stories and a couple “novels.” At the same time I aspired to because a great American author, I was even more fascinated by motion pictures. I would write scripts and devise stories and then act out the roles I had written independently in the basement and the garage and the backyard.
By thirteen, already demonstrating what was apparently exceptional talent as a vocalist, I became enamored with the guitar and, to a lesser extent, the piano. I hated practicing my piano lessons; they were boring. I preferred to pick it up by ear. It was similar with guitar. I took a couple lessons, became impatient, and taught myself what I wanted to learn. I should mention that I had, for a long time before this, appreciated motion picture and television scoring and the importance music played in visual media. I would create scores for my projects as well, when I learned to write music. In fact, even when I began writing fiction, my endgame was to make movies. And that remained the case as I became an adult and interested in all aspects of filmmaking.
Now, while I am an admitted technophobe, I will also admit that I have benefitted much from it. Digital technology made filmmaking AFFORDABLE and placed it within the ability of anyone. It also yielded software like Musescore and Performer Lite, which allowed me in just the last few years to finally hear the rich orchestration I have only been able to imagine in my original pieces. I remember hearing–I think it was the Theme for Doboro the Bottlenecker play through my speaker for the first time. It brought me to tears of joy.
And I can’t go very far into this without mentioning Miss Emily E Finke whom I have to thank for introducing me to Musescore and the world of digital music reproduction. (I believe you have interview the exceptional young artist). She’s also responsible to giving a name to my musical style–many who have heard my music have asked me with furrowed brow, “How would you describe your musical style?” In the past, I would say I’m sort of a hybrid of all the styles and genres I have consumed during my lifetime, and many have described my orchestral work as sounding “old” because it emphasizes strings–I’ve always been in love with cellos and rich strong movements! And I imagine Miss Finke has encountered similar allusions when it came to her music. But she has singlehandedly created a new genre, thankfully: “nouveau classic.” I love that! I hope she won’t mind me adopting it for myself.
Returning to writing, I took up screenwriting after high school and have written a number of scripts through the years, a few of them, including MOMO, becoming award-winners. But I think the thing I am most proud of is my association with bestselling author James Byron Huggins and, through a series of wonderful occurrences, writing the script adaptation of his fantastic novel LEVIATHAN, which we hope will become a motion picture in the near-future. I have been honored by his friendship and his trust in me to adapt what is my favorite among his novels.
As a faith-based creative, it’s important that everything I do, if not explicitly, implicitly communicates my biblical worldview, and it has been gratifying to see that recognized in my work by even those who make no claim to faith. I believe that is because I do not write with a message in mind. I create Christian characters and then throw them into extraordinary situations in my stories to see how they respond according to their faith. Any message comes about organically, and my readers enjoy that. I also don’t go out of my way in some of my more gritty stories to sanitize it for virgin eyes. In my Doboro the Bottlenecker action-drama series of novels, there is mild profanity used by some of the supporting characters because to avoid it made the dialog so unrealistic as to be downright silly. Fittingly, though, Doboro himself dislikes profanity and lets other know it.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
From my earliest childhood memories, I was an insomniac. Whether it was due to my very active imagination or a physiological abnormality, I rarely slept during the night. This was, of course, problematic when it came to school and church during which I need to stay awake. It was a constant challenge that I couldn’t explain other than “I didn’t sleep last night.” The best advice my parents could give me was, “Settle down and go to sleep.” Medical professionals at the time weren’t doing much concerning sleep science. We didn’t have sleeping pills in the house. But insomnia continued to plague me and worsened well into adulthood and beyond. The worst of it was during the first few years of marriage. I had to drop out of college because I couldn’t function enough to finish. Eventually, I had to leave the work force and collect social security disability, and I languished at home, trying to cope with the tremendous physical and psychological stresses I thought would likely kill me or at least relegate me to the psych ward at a hospital. But despite that, my creative abilities never left me. Before my insomnia reached its worst point, I wrote a slew of short stories, songs, social commentary pieces, and three novels. I owe this to God because it was He who gifted me to be able to do that. In fact, when I teach creative writing classes, I tell student that one way to know if you are indeed GIFTED at something is to know if you can still do it when your sick or tired or otherwise physically or mentally challenged. If you can, you’re gifted to do it.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is, of course, creating. As a Christian, I am so grateful to God that He has placed within His creation–us, the ability to create and experience the utter joy of doing so that He Himself experienced. A lot of people don’t think about this but…why did God take six days to create the heavens, the Earth and the physical laws that govern them? It isn’t because it NEEDED to take that long. He could have spoken everything into existence instantaneously. But He didn’t. He took six days…because He’s a Creative Artist, THE Creative Artist! He loved the process. And He loves us so much He placed that aspect of His character in US. And I love it when other people experience and respond positively to my work. Art isn’t for art’s sake, it’s meant to be shared with those besides the artist. That’s what makes it fulfilling!
Although I could be speaking only for myself! 
Contact Info:
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