'Modern Whore': How a Creative Crush Turned Into a Sean Baker-Backed Film

Director Nicole Bazuin joins No Film School’s GG Hawkins to discuss the decade-long creative collaboration behind Modern Whore, a hybrid documentary based on Andrea Werhun’s memoir about her experiences in sex work. Bazuin explains how the project grew from a music video friendship into a book, short films, and a feature, while breaking down the film’s mix of interviews, stylized reenactments, storybook-inspired visuals, and post-production discoveries. The conversation also covers self-editing a feature, storyboarding an entire film, bringing Sean Baker on as an executive producer, and making work from the stories already in a filmmaker’s orbit.

In this episode, No Film School's GG Hawkins and guest Nicole Bazuin discuss...

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Shooting Modern Whore on the Alexa Mini and editing the film in Adobe Premiere Pro

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How Bazuin and Andrea Werhun met while making a Super 8 music video for Broken Bricks

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Turning a “creative crush” into a decade-long collaboration across a memoir, short films, and a feature

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Why the film uses a hybrid documentary format with firsthand storytelling, staged scenes, and stylized reenactments

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Adapting Andrea Werhun’s vignette-style memoir into a cohesive feature structure

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Protecting authorship and agency when telling stories about sex work

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Building a visual language through hand-drawn storyboards, color, and “storybook come to life” compositions

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The nine-to-ten-month edit process and the value of test screenings with anonymous feedback cards

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How Sean Baker came aboard as an executive producer after working with Andrea Werhun on Anora

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Why filmmakers should look at the relationships, stories, and access already present in their lives

Memorable Quotes:

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“Sometimes you have to step in and fill a role.”

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“I think right from the get go, our work has been multimedia.”

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“I do think the adage is true that you write the film once when you're writing the script. You rewrite it again when you're shooting it and you write it a third time in the editing process.”

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“Feel free to make it your own.”

Guest:

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Nicole Bazuin (imdb.com/name/nm2760209)

Resources:

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Modern Whore on IMDb (imdb.com/title/tt37619362)

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