Sean Weathers is very passionate about cinema. He is the very essence of the type of love and passion Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut were espousing during their days at Cahiers du Cinema. His films have little to no budget and usually a lot of sex and nudity in them. Yet, despite working with little money, limited sets and quick shoots, Weathers makes very watchable films. Classicalite caught up with the New York based auteur to talk about The Fappening, what he calls "Guerilla Filming," low budget movie magic, sex in film and Tina Krause.
Classicalite: The thing that first caught my attention about you is that you was you call yourself a guerrilla filmmaker? How would you define "guerrilla filmmaking?"
Sean Weathers - Getting a film finished by any means necessary. For me, I have no money and limited resources. I shoot on location without permits, and most of the time my crew consists of one other person aside from myself (Aswad Issa). In my last film (The Fappening), I shot about a third of it without any crew, which was an issue because I'm in almost ever scene. I was stuck with doing a combination of POV shots in which the camera represented myself and for the scenes I couldn't do that in I'd have to set up the shot, hit record and then step into the scene with the other actor(s).
CL: Give me a little scope on your budgets. What is the most you've ever paid an actor? In The Fappening, you have Tina Krause, who, while not uber-famous, could be considered a cult favorite.
SW - While Tina is one of the biggest name actors I've shot with, the most I've paid an actor to be in my film was Sasha Simmons, she was the first girl I scammed in Scumbag Hustler. The cheapest film I've ever shot was actually my biggest seller to date, They All Must Die!.
CL - The erotic horror genre isn't known for great screenwriting. However, in the films I have watched of yours, you seem to have a lot of talent in this field. When did you start writing screenplays?
SW - Thanks, I never wrote anything of note before House of the Damned and I was lucky in that I was able to shoot my first three screenplays. Since then, I've probably shot about a third of the scripts I've written. When you make zero budget films, it's all about writing something you can shoot over the course of a few weekends rather than the next Star Wars.
CL - Let's talk a little about your background and how you got into films.
SW - I got my hands on a camcorder when I was a kid. I honestly don't even remember how, but unlike today, it was a big deal back in the 90s. I started off by recording my friends, tried a documentary and eventually decided to do a movie. I haven't looked back since.
CL - What is your favorite film and your favorite exploitation film?
SW - 2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by my favorite filmmaker of all time and in my mind, the greatest -- Stanley Kubrick. As for favorite exploitation film, I'd say The Sadist. I was lucky enough to interview the star of that film, Arch Hall, Jr., on my podcast.
CL - House of the Damned has a copyright date of 1996? Were you really 16 when you did that? How did that film come about?
SW - Yes and yes, I placed ads on craigslist and posted on Myspace looking for cinematographers, Aswad Issa replied -- he helped me with my failed documentary. He had already shot films before so when I made the transition, he was a big help and we eventually became partners. I sent him a list of treatments and he suggested House since it could be shot easily in one location.
CL - What was the documentary about?
SW - It was called Gemini in the Hood. We followed around a guy who tried in vain to be a porn star.
CL - Can we talk about casting? What percentage of those you use are professional actors? Friends? Porn actors? Most of the actresses end up nude in your films, like Mandingo Sex Addict -- how do you make them comfortable because, as you say, it's just you or you and Aswad a lot.
What about the lead actress in They All Must Die? That was a lot for someone to undertake for very little money.
SW - What makes someone a professional actor? I'd say 95% of the actors in my films are aspiring actors. It's not like being a doctor or a lawyer, if you go on a couple of auditions and maybe get a part here or there you're an actor. Last I checked, like 2% of SAG actors make a living acting and most of the people that call themselves actors aren't even in SAG.
You can't make someone be comfortable doing nudity and sex scenes on camera, it's up to that person. What makes things tricky is you can't just trust the actors that say yes either, because actors lie, it's what they do for a living, so you first have to find actors that say yes, and then find out which of those yes' mean yes or else you can find yourself on set with no-show actors or ones that show up not wanting to do what they agreed to.
I spent four months casting that film. I try to squeeze as much as I can out of every actor, the more they give the more I take, she gave me a lot and I pushed her to the limit.
CL - The rape scene in They All Must Die was handled very well from a photographic aspect. It was long but didn't feel fetishized. No matter the role, your actors always seem invested in their parts.
SW - Thanks, we planned the whole film around the rape scene. We went as far as to not have the actors meet the actress until we shot the rape scene, so their first interaction was in character during the rape. When the actors came to me with any issues, with a normal set I would try and defuse them, on this one I would try and make tensions higher to keep the intensity up.
My approach with actors is to make the best of what I have and try and make them do as little acting as possible.
CL - You said you have a lot of unfilmed screenplays. Where do you get ideas from? How long does it take you to complete a ready-to-film script?
SW - Ideas and inspiration can come from anywhere, some ideas come together in a few days, others weeks, others months. Writing is far from an exact science for me.
CL - How did you get Tina Krause for The Fappening? Were you a fan?
SW - Tina lived in my neighborhood and I'd been wanting to work with her for years. She's a very beautiful woman, but she brings a lot more to the table besides her looks and I do have plans to work with her on several upcoming projects.
CL - Definitely, she has comedy chops that have never really been utilized. She can actually act. What do you envision for her without giving too much away.
SW - After The Fappening, I watched a lot of her films to get a clear idea of what she can bring to the table so I can write roles specifically for her.
CL - Let's talk about being investigated by the NYPD after making They All Must Die.
SW - I'm not allowed to comment on that.
CL - Then let's talk a little about your new project.
SW - Night of the Walking Dead is a psychological gorefest that will keep you guessing until the shocking end. Featuring characters inspired by The Walking Dead TV show and comic books, it's available for pre-order now and will be officially "On Demand" October 31st in time for Halloween.
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