The Knights who say BIKINI: An Interview with Thomas Edward Seymour

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Thomas Edward Seymour is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to independent filmmaking. He's an actor, writer, director, producer, editor, cinematographer, and even a composer. Seymour's hard work paid off after his second feature film, "Everything Moves Alone," received several nominations and landed the prize for "Auteur of the Year" at the Bare Bones Film Festival in 2002.

This past weekend, I was able to catch up with the filmmaker and ask him a few questions about his more recent (and slippery) projects--a series of dark comedies bursting with "boobs, blood, and bad words."

Landy: Thanks for setting aside some time to answer a few questions for DVDTOWN, Thomas. I guess our first question is: how did you guys come up with the title and premise for the original "Bikini Bloodbath" film?

Seymour: I had been making indie films for some years when Jon and I decided to team up. Jon and I knew we wanted to delve into B-movie horror. We were always huge fans and saw it as an opportunity to make fun movies, double our money and improve our craft. We were trying to make up names that summed up everything that the film represented in one title. We had like twenty combinations of words we were working on and then Jon just blurts out "Bikini Bloodbath" and my brother Bruce Seymour and I were like "Yup, that´s the one."

Landy: It sure is a clever and catchy title. Where did your inspiration come from?

Seymour: Our influences for "Bikini Bloodbath" came from films like "Sleepaway Camp," "Gut Pile," "Friday the 13th, "Silent Night Deadly Night," "Halloween," and "Leprechaun." We were looking at low-fi horror films. The great thing about horror is that even if it´s bad you kind of love to watch it. We were working off that premise—the "bad on purpose" genre. We started writing it and it became very silly really quickly. I guess that´s just how Jon and I write.

Landy: How long did it take to shoot each film?

Seymour: Bikini 1 took nine days, Bikini 2 took eleven, and Bikini 3 took twelve.

Landy: What was the approximate budget?

Seymour: Bikini 1 was eight grand, Bikini 2 was twelve grand and Bikini 3 was twelve grand.

Landy: Wow, that isn't much at all. How were you able to stretch it so far?

Seymour: Stretching a movie dollar is sort of our specialty. A short shooting schedule will save you the most money, so you limited locations and the overall length of the feature in order to compensate. From there your talent is on set fewer days so that costs less, crafts services only has to be hired for 9 to 12 days. Most of the male roles are our friends and we have a basic rule. If you are a guy and you are not famous you don´t get paid on the Bikini Bloodbath films. There are some exceptions of course. Also most of the crew doubles as actors in the film at some point.

Landy: What was the most difficult hurdle you encountered making the movies?

Seymour: Really the endurance is the biggest problem. You have to have enough wind to be a leader 14 hours at a time and then get up and do it again. Big hurtles are when actors "no show" and you have to grab someone off the crew to jump in and it happens a lot on these sets. That´s the biggest offense to me. If someone "no shows" on my set I pretty much don´t work with them again, there are of course exceptions, though.

Landy: Do you have a favorite moment from the films?

Seymour: Well I think for the most part everyone hit the mark and did a great job but almost any scene with Phil Hall and Dick Boland in it makes me laugh. Dick Boland has a great line in "Bikini Bloodbath Carwash" in the car wash scenes. "Well, hello Scarlet. I didn´t even know girls worked." And then of course when Dick Boland gets his nipple cut off I think that´s pretty awesome. Leigh Radziwon did a great job on the horror effects. Phil Hall just cracks me up. When he gets hit in the nuts with Todd´s football in one of the high school scenes, I lose my shit. Phil actually won a Best Supporting Actor Award from the New York B-move Awards for his performance in "Bikini Bloodbath Carwash."

Landy: That's cool. I read about Hall's award on IMDB.com and I'm sure he's pleased with it too. Do you have an interesting story that didn't make it into the bonus features?

Seymour: There were a lot of very big hurtles on the "Bikini Bloodbath Carwash" set. It was a ton of problem solving. We needed to shoot all hot tub scenes but it was pouring rain and there were no make-up days. My brother Bruce Seymour and friend David James Sheehan went out and bought a huge carport and put it together over the hot tub. We shot all the wide shots using that but the audio was terrible because of the rain. So we went inside and put up a black backdrop, pulled a few camera tricks with the iris and the lens length to blur the background and show the close-ups. It turned out well. You can´t tell the close-ups were shot inside. That is one of maybe ten stories like that just on "Bikini Bloodbath Carwash."

Landy: Rachael Robbins replaced Leah Ford as "Jenny" in the sequel. What happened there?

Seymour: We had been talking to Rachael from the very beginning. We wanted to hire her for the first film but she was contracted for other work. So when part two came up and she was free to do the film. We hired her right away. I think Rachael is a very talented comedian and gorgeous and well, she´s born for this kind of role.

Landy: I thought she was great, too. I could tell she was having a blast making the film just from her body language. Up next is "Bikini Bloodbath Christmas" correct?

Seymour: Indeed.

Landy: When is that coming out and can you tell us a little bit about it?

It will be ready for next Christmas. It stars Rachael Robbins, Debbie Rochon, Lloyd Kauffman, Monique Dupree, Sarah Dauber, and Sheri Lynn... almost which everyone from the second film. This is the weirdest of the trilogy--with Rachael now working at a Bikini Bong Shop ran by Miss Johnson´s sister Mrs. Johnson (AKA Dick Boland in Drag). Miss Johnson (Debbie Rochon) is now bed ridden in the hospital recovering for her past injuries. Gina Davis (Phil Hall) works at the Kurgen Deli across the way. It is a Bikini themed deli. Jenny gets dared by William Defoe (Sheri Lynn) to go to the chef´s grave and touch it. She does and accidentally resurrects the Chef again

Landy: Does this mean the infamous Chef Death (Robert Cosgrove Jr.) will also be returning?

Seymour: Coz owns a few businesses. He just started a Bakery called Wonderland Confections. It´s doing very well but it takes up a lot of his time. He has an open invite to act in the Bikini films. Maybe he'll be in part 4.

Landy: What kind of special features can we expect? Have you considered doing an audio commentary at all?

Seymour: Well as you know there´s a good amount of features on the "Bikini Bloodbath Carwash" DVD. There´s four documentaries, bloopers, outtakes, a photo gallery. But if you´re talking about "Bikini Bloodbath Christmas," yes we plan to do a commentary, and have documentaries as well as all the other goodies.

Landy: What are you planning to do after "Bikini Bloodbath Christmas?"

Seymour: We´re doing a horror film called Blood River and also an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling´s Mark of the Beast. If anyone wants to invest, drop me a line! After that we´ll do Bikini Bloodbath Ghost Town

Landy: Well, thanks again for the chat. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Seymour: I just finished a new film that running in festivals right now called London Betty. It´s been getting some really good press lately. It stars Nicole Lewis, Daniel Von Bargen and is narrated by Clint Howard. If anyone wants to find out more go to londonbetty.com. Also you can buy Bikini Bloodbath Carwash on Amazon.com right now. I think it´s very funny and worth the money. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me and thanks to the readers for supporting Indie film especially when times are so tough.

Also don't miss DVDTOWN's reviews for Bikini Bloodbath and Bikini Bloodbath Carwash.

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