Getting ready to shoot a big scene.

We started April preparing to shoot a big scene for Dead But Dreaming. Jac was planning to shoot that scene for the second part of the trilogy, but something happened on the way to the final cut of the movie.

The creative process is such that sometimes, if not most of the time, the film itself begins to dictate what to do. That happened to Jac not long ago. He was in the middle of cutting some scenes when the film cried out for Mila’s scene, or part of it, at least.

That led to a sudden decision. To shoot the scene that was held back for the next part of the the series.

In Amy’s words: The scene will be somewhat elaborate, it’s the story of how Mila Joya’s character, a slave who is falsely accused of theft, whipped and crucified for the enjoyment of her mistress’s guests, becomes a vampire.

Jan and Amy went location scouting and Amy captured the event on her iPad. She posted the result in her Youtube channel.

The scene will take two days to shoot at that wonderful location and it should not take too long to cut it into the already edited movie. We’re planning to shoot it at the end of April or first weekend of May. We will have the scene ready then and the final cut of the movie will finally move ahead. We’re also having the music scored, doing the sound mix and color correction.

Jac expects to have a final version of the film by the end of May, beginning of June. We’re looking at a July release.

I remember one time, a while ago, one of Camille’s fans wrote to me in a tone that I thought was very concerned and not without certain aggressivity, inquiring about Camille’s health after seeing one of the videos. At another time, another of Camille’s fans wrote to her asking her how long does it take to heal after being nailed. My point is that we do make things look too real and in some cases the stars of our movies do suffer for their art, as YikYakker: reminds us:

Amy Hesketh has spoken about enduring pain for her art – such as having to get a back massage or gulp down a few Motrins – but I can enjoy her scenes more knowing that she also takes precautions.

What we would never do is to put anyone in extreme danger. Amy puts it thus: what we do is not different from what extreme sports enthusiasts do. They run risks but do it with proper precautions.

The most extreme case in our productions is, without a doubt, the roasting scene in Maleficarum, as Ralphus notes: I was the one who commissioned that Amy get roasted on a spit over hot coals in Maleficarum, and I would have felt horrible if she had really gotten burned or overcome with smoke during the filming. But she took precautions and emerged relatively unscathed, except for some major bruising where she was tied and some overall soreness afterward. Suffering for her art. I appreciate that.

Amy suffered for her art in that occasion as in many others, but she was never in extreme peril, more like reckless endangerment, and the entire team was ready to act if it became necessary. However the coals below did their work as the ropes did their’s. In addition the heat of the sun was on her as well. She was being cooked alive. The fact that the suffering was real to a large extent, even if she was never in mortal danger, still the distress was. Ralphus notes again that: on the other hand, it excites me more to know that what I was seeing was real…it wasn’t a skillfully portrayed illusion. She really was being roasted and feeling the heat. …that’s a big turn-on, too.

She’s willing to take some risks, while Jac will work to minimize them.

YikYakker: How many directors get to torture their wives on-screen?

A question that could be expanded to, maybe, girlfriends, lovers, meaningful others? Do I know any? Do I?

Gog: Amy’s so beautiful! I’d love to get a custom scene with her but I’m pretty sure it’d be more than I could afford. She’s pretty much my perfect girl. Soft, feminine, beautiful, sweet, pretty, those beautiful doe eyes, smart……and most of all, kinky. 🙂 Keep buying those lottery tickets I guess. 🙂

Well, there are ways in which a group of people with similar interests join together to make their dream a reality. A collective kind of contribution. We’re wondering if that would be an effective way of financing movies that demand more than we can afford to invest in one production. Many independent filmmakers and even studios, are actually gathering funds by appealing to their fans. We’re considering this method as well. And it’s simple. It’s called “crowdfunding”.

Amy has a very intense, expensive scene for her next production. It involves a lot of extras and actors, a fiery pyre, a far away, great looking location that we must rent for at least a week, all the transportation and lodging for our cast and crew and so on. If I’m not mistaken, the cost of that scene alone is probably half of the total budget of the entire film. And it requires cash, all the cash we can get our hands on.

So, if you want to see sweet, pretty, smart Amy going through an amazing and public ordeal, well… you can be part of it with as much as you can afford. We’ll have the details of how to go about this soon. Amy is setting it up.

And for those who, as Dr Yuya, got tired of waiting for an elaborate and well planned production where a redhead heroine gets publicly whipped. they won’t have to wait too long. Such scene is coming soon in a movie titled Dead But Dreaming.

One frustrating issue for us is TIME. not the magazine. Actual TIME, wouldn’t it be nice to have an idea and having it realized, materialized, in days, or maybe hours, or maybe minutes? Wouldn’t that be really nice? Unfortunately movies take time and money, and depending on how elaborate and well planned is the production, it will involve more time and even more money. That’s our reality. There’s only one way of overcoming this, and that is putting the money together and working hard, trying to keep an schedule. We’re fortunate enough that we can put that money together some of the time when sales are good, wink wink, and that we’re sufficiently organized to work hard in trying to stick to an schedule. Not always an easy task, specially because we have so many productions in our plate.

Dead But Dreaming is coming and soon.

And finally a word or two about SPANKING.

I think the definitive film about SPANKING has not come out yet, some may think that Secretary gets the closest, but I don’t think so and for many reasons, but very close we have Amy’s oeuvre Sirwiñakuy. Charles Lonberger of the Beverly Hills Outlook puts it like this:

Hesketh creates a parable about a particular woman’s growth, allegorized by the use of crowds to parallel narrative developments (a disruptive protest march to signify lead character Anouk’s state of mind at the beginning, and a celebratory crowd to – subliminally – cheer the central couple’s reunion at the story’s conclusion). Hesketh’s portrayal of an S&M love affair rings true: sexual congress is assumed by the Dominant, or captor, but is not pushed, though when it does come, the sex is forced. So does her somewhat symbolic depiction of spats followed by make up roses, whose thorns puncture the flesh of their recipient.

In other words SPANKING is about control, not just discipline. C. L. continues later in his review:

The script is most successful when portraying the harmony of a man who needs to totally control another, buying her clothes, employing her, providing for food and rent, and his chosen, who, as a “child that refuses to grow up,” needs to be completely controlled, and is in constant need of correction. Hesketh’s fiction works best when depicting their mutual fulfillment and affection.

It’s my belief that SPANKING belongs more in the Lifestyle section, rather than the fantasy floor. We deal mostly with fantasy taken to extremes, but occasionally, like in the case of Sirwiñakuy, we tend to celebrate the Lifestyle.