GREENSBORO, North Carolina (AP) — Kaleab Kurtz has learned a lot about filmmaking in recent weeks. And it’s not all about cameras and scripts.
It’s also about tight schedules, delays, difficulties casting unpaid actors, cutscenes, equipment failures, and how COVID-19 can pull an actor out of a production.
“It taught me to be more prepared and to always walk on set like you knew something was going to happen,” Kurtz said of putting the finishing touches on a movie.
The 18-year-old is one of 10 artists chosen for this year’s residency at Hyers at the Greensboro Cultural Center.
Creative Greensboro, the city’s arts and culture office, manages the program. It offers residencies of up to six weeks for dance, theatre, music, film and poetry projects led by creative individuals and organizations in Guilford County.
Artists enjoy free access to rehearsals and performances at the Stephen D. Hyers Theater, an 88-seat venue in the cultural center.
They also receive support with materials, equipment and marketing of residency activities.
During his residency, Kurtz filmed around town and in the parking lot of a former Harris Teeter, the Lutheran Church of Christ, and a baseball diamond.
By the end of the summer, he said, he will complete and create “Life,” a film about teenage homelessness.
Kurtz is not homeless himself. He lives with his father, Chris, a church administrator at Christ Lutheran Church who also homeschooled his son.
“I’m so proud of him,” Chris Kurtz said. “Why not support your son’s dream?” »
Since the age of 4, Kaleab has wanted to be a film actor and this remains his main career goal.
His first role came at age 14 in Atlanta. He told his dad he thought he could appear in Netflix’s hit series ‘Stranger Things’.
He ended up as an extra in the show’s third season.
Kurtz took acting and film classes at the cultural center. There he met Todd Fisher, the performing arts coordinator for what is now Creative Greensboro.
Kurtz hadn’t seen teen homelessness in real life, but researched the topic through YouTube videos.
“I saw how people treated him like nothing,” he said. “I wanted to address teen homelessness because these kids don’t know what to do with their lives, how to go about their day, and worry about how to get food.”
When he was selected for a residency at Hyers, he had to choose actors – but had no money to pay them.
Kurtz has written screenplays for the three films he will direct.
He titled one “Our last moments”. In the 17-minute film, two best friends wake up in a heavenly environment to find they are dead.
In “Michael and Amelia”, Amelia longs for someone to know her dream matters. Michael is that someone.
Kurtz often plays main characters in his films and plays Michael in this one.
“Next time I make a movie, I’ll get someone else to play the main character, so I can do behind the scenes,” Kurtz said.
For “Life,” Kurtz chose not to cast actual homeless teenagers. He said he didn’t know any.
Instead, he chose mostly people he knew. He wanted to help them add movie credits to their resumes.
He cast Rose Whitman as the actress and props man.
Shortly before filming, an actor tested positive for COVID-19 and had to leave. Kurtz picked eight more people, but they kept dropping out. He finally chose Jonathan Dauphinais as the actor.
“Now that I know Jonathan is kind and reliable, I’ll be working with him more often,” Kurtz said.
And he recruited John Davenport as director of photography.
A total of 15 people worked on the three films, Kurtz said.
On the first day of filming, Kurtz’s camera broke. His computer too.
“But other than that,” Kurtz said, “it went well.”
Films can be combined into one film or separated into three – depending on the wishes of a film festival.
Kurtz hopes they open doors to careers. He appreciates the Residence at Hyers for the mental space it offers.
“They give me and John a lot of space to come up with ideas and do our editing,” Kurtz explained. “It was nice to have this time to talk and edit and come up with ideas for more shots that I can do.”
He hopes the film’s credits will help Davenport get into UNC School of the Arts, which Whitman will attend.
“The more movies I put on them, maybe they’ll have a better chance of getting hired or maybe they can go to school and they’ll be fine,” Kurtz said.
In August, Kurtz will begin online filmmaking classes through New York University.
“It’s exciting to see a young artist at the start of their journey learning from all the mistakes as well as the successes,” Fisher said. “Giving artists like Kaleab the space to explore their art is one of my favorite parts of the Residency at the Hyers program.”
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