Gary Whitson

Interviewed by Tina Krause.

1. Let’s get a little background. Your name?

Gary Whitson

2.What do you do? Your title?

I am both founder and owner of W.A.V.E. Productions. And I do everything else as well. actor, director, makeup person, lighting technician, etc.

3.What other jobs have you had in the past?

For years I was a public school teacher both in mathematics and what was called Special Ed back then.

4.What does WAVE mean?

W.A.V.E. originally meant Whitson’s Amateur Video Entertainers. It was coined by Aven Warren and Mike Brady, two of the first people who came to the meeting I had when I began in 1987. With the advent of more professional level performers, it was changed to Whitson’s Audio & Video Entertainment.

5.How did you get into what your doing now?

I ran an ad 14 years ago this past September, asking for anyone who might be interested in making horror movies on video. A number of people responded and 4 people showed up for our first meeting. The girl who came was never heard from again, but the three guys stayed and we shot over the next few months with an actress who was unhable to attend our first meeting due to hurting her leg. That was Clancey McCauley, W.A.V.E.’s first Scream Queen. We began shooting almost every weekend and completed several videos which included Stalked, Witchfinder, Hadley’s Hellhole, Road Kill, and Witchfinder. We also submitted a short film to a local station for their Saturday Night Dead Show. We didn’t win, but it was fun. The money end of it didn’t start until I hit on an idea. One of my earlier interests was comic book art. I use to sell illustrated short stories and drawings to indiviual customers. I figured if there were people who would pay to have their ideas drawn, maybe they would pay to have their scripts become movies. Our first custom was a vampire movie called The Asssassin. It was only 10 minutes long, but the guy who ordered it was happy. From there we did Warped Weekend, which became part of Twisted Teens, Carol’s Revenge, Dungeon of Death, and a bunch of others. Custom tapes now make up about 50% of our productions.

6.As a child or young adult what were your aspirations?

My main love was for comics. I wanted to become a comic book artist. I read all the DC’s and Marvels in the 60’s and 70’s and spent a lot of hours just trying to draw hands. In 1985, I decided I would give myself a year to either become a paid artist or turn to something else. The art didn’t work out, and two years later, I turned to making movies. During the whole time I was growing up, I loved movies, especially the horror and sci-fi ones.. But at the time, film was far too expensive to be able to do anything but a few shorts. One was called If A God Should Fail, a takeoff on the Marvel type titles of the 70’s. It was a combination 6 Million Dollar Man and a Hercules movie. Several years later I did my first Fanny Starr story in 1981. It’s a character I continue to do today.

Tell us about a very young gary

Well, I remember getting our very first TV back in the early 50’s. Most of the shows then were old westerns and the movie serials of the 30’s and 40’s. That’s where I got my interest in the serial and damsel in distress storylines. And I always loved the idea of being on TV and producing my own shows.

7.Did anything or anyone influcence you to become what you are today? What was it and why?

I would say a number of things influenced me. One was the horror and exploitation movies of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. Early TV had a great influence as well. The Twilight Zone was a favorite show because of the twist at the end of each episode. Alfred Hitchcock Presents was another good one.

8. Do you have favorite works of literature or any favorite movies?

Edgar Allen Poe was a favorite while growing up. I read a number of his stories including the Tell Tale Heart, which I would love to shoot some day. And the 60’s had a lot of Poe adaptations in the movies which also influenced me. My favorite horror movie would be the original King Kong because of all the special effects and the classic “damsel in distress” storyline that it contained. And of course Psycho would rank right there, too. I still wish it had been done in color, though.

9. Some may say that what you do now is not a movie but a fetish tape, What would you say to those people?

To be honest, I never even thought about it that way until someone in an interview described my tapes as “fetish horror”. My objective at the beginning was to produce what would be considered a mainstream storyline, but include scenes that would be more graphic than what you would normally see. If someone was killed, it would be done in a very gory and/or violent manner. Costuming would play an important role too. One of the things I hadn’t considered when I first started doing what I call “custom tapes” was the wide variety of topics we would cover. And many of those topics are indeed fetishes. Fetishes such as feet, bondage, wet t-shirts, specific clothing, etc. I never knew what a vast array of fetishes their are. One video we did involved having the characters being turned into mannequins. From my standpoint, it was just a plot device to capture the characters. From a customer, I was told it’s a major fetish, that there was even a mannequin page. Who knew? But what I’ve always tried to do is make a movie with a beginning, middle, and end. Something with a real storyline. I’ve refused numerous storylines whose only objective was to show some violent or sadistic scene. This isn’t to say I don’t do violent movies. But I try to make them within the context of a real story. And my feeling is everything is a fetish of some kind or another. People may just not call it that. Why were the Omen pictures popular? Probably because of the bizarre and violent way the victims met their end. Is that a fetish if you like to see violent deaths? I would think so.

10. Is this the kind of movies you always wanted to do or do you have other interests and if so what are they?

I’ve always wanted to do horror, science fiction, and mysteries. One of my biggest interests growing up was the special effects in most horror and sci-fi movies. I read a lot about how they were done. I subscribed to a fanzine called Cinemagic that went into detail about creating special effects for low budget movies. But this isn’t to say I only want to do these kinds of movies. I’d like to do a comedy, an inspirational movie, a straight drama, something really bizarre. In other words I’d like to do almost anything.

11. What was the first movie you ever did? Tell us a bit about it, how you felt how you did it etc.

The first movie on Super-8 film was If A God Should Fail. My first movie as W.A.V.E. was called Sisters which eventually became Stalked. The idea, which was later used in Strangled 4, “The Perfect Crime”, was that a woman wanted her twin sister murdered because she thought that she was cheating with her boyfriend. But due to a mixup with Daylight Savings Time, the killer murders the wrong girl. Or does he? In a scene never shown, all the typical explanations come out, but by the end, you don’t know which twin has died. I love murder mysteries as well as horror. So many of our movies contain mysteries. Who’s the killer? Why is he or she doing what they are? We had to scap the Daylight Savings idea when the guy playing the boyfriend couldn’t shoot any more. We did additional scenes about 8 months later and re-edited it into Stalked.

12. If someone wanted to know who is the real Gary W. How would you describe yourself?

One thing I’m sure of is very few people really do know me. Customers can only guess based on the kinds of movies I make. One guy thought I must love feet because we made so many foot tapes in the beginning. I would like to think that I would be known for helping people out. Unfortunately things haven’t always worked out the way I thought they would when I’ve tried doing that. A good example is what happened a few years ago. Someone who had quit shooting six months earlier returned to taping. She wasn’t working at the time so I offered her part-time work, in addition to taping. I really didn’t need her since I already had someone else working, but I knew she needed the money and I thought I’d help her out. And she had always been very reliable and enthusiastic about what she did. She eventually became my sole employee. I also tried helping her out with her own projects and getting her own company underway. But apparently, she didn’t think I was doing enough, or paying her enough, and eventually quit in a huff. To this day, I’m not entirely sure what happened. All I know is I tried to help her out, kept her employed when I really didn’t need her, and then she abruptly quits. I haven’t had to replace her because I can easily handle the work myself. But the whole situation really soured me on the idea of trying help someone in this business. It hasn’t stopped me entirely, but it’s made me much more cautious about trying to help anyone else out.

And people have a tendency to pidgeon hole you. If you make slasher movies, you must be some kind of deviant. I personally think that movies of this kind offer a release from every day tensions and worries. I spent a lot of time at Drive-Ins watching two or three movies at a time in order to get away from my problems, at least for a few hours. Ironically, I don’t get to see too many of the current horror movies. My wife isn’t a big fan of the genre so we usually go and see comedies, some sci-fi, and dramas. So to answer your question, I’m quiet, sometimes too quiet, focused in what I do, and I try to be truthful and helpful to the people I know. I sometimes come across as aloof, but that’s mainly because I’m concentrating on the work at hand. I would hope that I would be remembered as an ok guy who did the best he could and helped anyone he could.

13. There are lots of trials and tribulations in film making tell us about yours funny and not so funny?

I think the most trying aspect is not being to get exactly what you want shot done. So many factors enter into things. People coming late or not showing up at all. Things taking longer than anticipated. People having to leave early. In an early movie we did called Hung Jury, we had to replace the actress who had the lead role when she didn’t come back to shoot after the first day. Luckily, it worked out for the best. But it was difficult to rewrite the script with only a week before the next scheduled shoot. A somewhat humorous situation occured when we were shooting a pool scene for Stalked, one of our earliest movies. There’s a fight scene in a pool. Clancey originally shot the scene with a bra on. But shooting ran late and we had to finish the next week. I was upset at the time that we hadn’t gotten it done that day. When we started again the next week, Clancey said she had brought only one bra and was debating on whether she should go home braless or shoot the scene braless. Needless to say, we said she should do it braless. So if you watch the scene carefully, one of the actors wives picked up on this, you’ll see Clancey going into the pool with a bra on, but coming out without one. This was W.A.V.E.’s first wet t-shirt scene. So as it turned out, not all delays are bad.

14. Do you have fun doing what you do?

For the most part, yes. I still look forward to waking up in the morning and going to work. There are aspects, as with anything, that are not as much fun. I think the most enjoyment comes with the pre-production of a movie. Everything works perfectly in your mind. You get to create a whole new storyline and envision it exactly as you want it. And I like all the aspects of what I do. That includes designing the covers, doing the paperwork, editing the movies, writing some of the scripts, and acting in the movies. It’s never boring.

15. How do your family and friends feel about your line of work?

My parents were always supportive and my brothers sometimes envy the fact that I get to be with all these beautiful women. Most of my friends have been somehow involved in W.A.V.E. at one point or another so they’re familiar with things.

16. Is there anything you wouldn't film or do pertaining to your work?

Like I mentioned earlier, I want to do something with a story. And everyone has a line that they don’t want to cross. Many people would say I’ve already crossed theirs, but I look at our movies as fantasy and nothing more. I wouldn’t do porn. As a sidelight to this, a friend and I were at a video convention, going though the adult section. We were looking for possible potential actresses and he asked one of the porn stars if she’s like to be in one of our movies. We described them and her answer was, “I don’t do slasher movies.” Now here’s someone who’s done all these porn movies, but “slasher movies” were a no-no. That was her line, I guess. I think some violence can be too much. I turned down a custom tape that someone else ended up doing because I thought it crossed the line. It showed a naked girl tied to a chair and shot twice in her crotch.

17. Do you ever wish to quit and do something else?

I’ve had those days on a number of occasions. A few years ago a good friend quit shooting due to personal problems. That was by far the most devastating thing that’s happened to me over the years. If I could change one thing, his leaving would be it. It’s been over four years and I still feel terrible about the whole situation. And ironically, there were times early on that I thought about packing it in and he was the one who convinced me to continue. I don’t ever see wanting to do something else. I do see the day where I cut back on what I do. As it is, I work 7 days a week, 10-11 hours a day. I enjoy it, but it can become a grind. But I think I will continue shooting movies as long as I can hold the camera.

20 Do you want to make higher budget films in the future? What are your plans for films in the future?

I’d love to have more money to make better pictures. But I like the independence I have as my own boss. I make all the decisions. But I wouldn’t mind being able to shoot a movie with a decent budget and with the time to do it right. But I don’t delude myself that a larger budget would solve all the problems. I once read a book on the making of Star Trek 5, directed by William Shatner. You wouldn’t believe the problems he ran into shooting that movie. And here’s an established franchise with over 20 years of experience behind them, and still he has the same kinds of problems a low budget film maker has.

As for future movies, we have a sci-fi movie that we started shooting in Las Vegas called Alien Autopsy which has three scientists kidnapped by aliens. It has a Twilight Zone ending. I’m in the middle of a film noirish type project called The Seduction with several twists at the end and we’re in pre-production for a movie called Vampire Possession in which a girl is possessed by the spirit of Dracula.

21. Are there any films that you wish you never made? why?

I’m sure if I went back and looked at everytrhing I did, I might have done some things differently. But I don’t think there are any movies that I wish we never made. There are some that I might have passed on looking back on things. But now that they are done, I don’t have any regrets about doing them. I’ve always tried to make them the best I can. And my feeling is that any of our movies could offend someone. A good example is the Perils of Penelope which is a very innocuous tribute to the serials of the 30’s and 40’s where the heroine is constantly finding herself tied to railroad tracks, about to be electrocuted, dropped into a vat of boiling oil and so on. We were playing it at Fanex and one of the organizers came along and said we couldn’t show a bondage movie. Of course, right down the row from us is this giant poster being displayed showing women in ripped clothes being whipped. But that was ok as far as he was concerned. Ironically, only minutes later, he collapsed and had to be rushed to a hospital. I guess Peneope had been too much for him.

22. Any film your particulary proud of and why?

I personally like Dungeon of Death 2 best, I think. It has a nice mystery, some bizarre things in it (one customer criticized me for trying to be like Felini), and I thought everyone in it did a great job. The ending where the main character commits suicide (I won’t say who should anyone want to watch the tape) was, to me, one of the most moving scenes we’ve ever done. And I thought Vampire’s Curse and Jungle of Screaming Death were also quite well done. And another favorite is Female Mercenaries on Zombie Island.

23. What is your favorite past time other than film?

I watch a lot of TV. That probably dooms me right there. I love to go to musicals. My favorites are Man of LaMancha, Les Miz, and Phantom of the Opera.

24.anything you want to say that wasn't covered feel free to mention and talk about.

People shouldn’t just look at the surface. We all have our shades of grey.. And I think the biggest thing that gripes me the most are the hypocrites, the people who think it’s great if they do it, but terrible if someone else does it. Over the years, W.A.V.E. has developed a reputation, some of it good and some of it bad. But invariably, the critics haven’t seen a WAVE movie, or if they have, it’s only been one or two. We have over 125 titles that we have done over the years. Not every title is like that last one. So unless someone has sat down and watched most of our movies, they really don’t know what we’ve done. Are W.A.V.E. movies for everyone? No, they’re not. And that’s how it should be. We’ve carved out our niche, no pun intended, and the people who want to see our movies can do so as long as they are 18 or over. No one is forcing them to buy our tapes. It’s like the people who gripe about certain shows on TV and think they should be taken off. If they don’t like something, all they have to do is just turn the channel or shut off the TV. There are things I don’t like or titles I think go too far with some things. But I don’t think they should be banned. Just don’t watch them or buy them.

To wrap things up, I hope we have brought some entertainment to the people who have bought our tapes and I hope to to continue to upgrade our product. We are always trying to get better. I hope it shows in our tapes. And I invite feedback to this interview. Anyone wishing to contact me can do so at waveids@aol.com or visit our web page at www.wavemovies.com.

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