CruXing Outdoors

I was planning to engage in a follow up post on our fundraising efforts for past productions, as well as whatever came around to inspire me at that time; however, a comment came my way in the Crux Forum and I felt inclined to respond at length, due to its interesting subject and the details involved in that remark. That happened before we had some hosting issues, which took a few days to solve, we’re back to normal, so here I go.

Sharky4all Dear Margot, From my pov the way to go would be low budget films filmed in the outdoors. I personally prefer the erotic side of the stories ( the prelude of seeing the woman embarrassed by getting naked and forced to walk outdoors in plain site, seeing the woman geting naked while on the cross, the dance on the cross, the carrying of the patibullum etc) But I dont enjoy the bloody scenes like the excessive flogging and the nailing – as in my opinion they break the emersion (they are fake as hell).
I look forward in seeing the movies you produce for our entertainment

We did a few No Budget films in the outdoors, most with Amy, some with Camille and one with Mila. Although they are relatively less complicated to make than big productions, it still takes some hard work and sometimes it is complicated to get to the chosen area. Finding the good location, having the time to go and spend the time out there, from a few hours, or a day, to maybe three days, some cash for transportation, some more cash for meals, water, coffee, etc. at least three cameras and so on.

One of those very nice outdoors films was Romana Crucifixa Est. It took from early morning to late afternoon, there were three cameras, all of them SD, some blood EFX, and it involved flogging, torture and nailing Amy to the Patibulum before having her walk all the way and to finally put her up on the cross.

In theory we could make many of those films but it’s not easy, that’s why we have so very few. That particular location was ideal for outdoors quickies. It was easy to get there by taxi, work all day, with one break for lunch, maybe, walk back to the road and take the taxi back home.

Amy and Jac found that perfect place one day when they went exploring some area with the intention of making such a film. What they found had everything they needed including a nice dried up tree that could be used as a cross.

The area was not too far, within city limits, a few minutes walk from the main road where there was public transportation but far enough from civilization to be isolated and without any problems or interruptions, like a mad crowd trying to stop the proceedings.

Once they checked out the area they spent the afternoon taking pictures and deciding the different spots where they could shoot the scenes for the film. The images looked fantastic, the place was amazing, a great background for Amy’s extreme suffering.

They decided on a date, probably the next day, and went there to shoot the movie early in the morning, with the cameras, small ones, easy to handle, tripods, the whip, the hammer, the nails and the log upon which to nail Amy.

Amy suffered all day, not only the tortures, but also the hot sun, which did not warm her up, it was winter, it just burned her skin. At the end of the afternoon they were done, a new movie was produced and it was simple and great.

A year later, when we were preparing to shoot Maleficarum, Amy had to go away to the US for a short time, Jac had some time in his hands so he decided to go back to that location to shoot a test movie with Mila, who was going to be one of the protagonists in the famous Inquisition movie.

In this quick film Mila was going to be whipped and crucified completely naked. It was important for her to become comfortable with the harsh conditions of the Maleficarum production, the demands on her body and soul, the tough scheduled and the hours of suffering.

One early morning they took a taxi to the location and made one simple movie, The Via Crucis of Mila, without any blood effects or nails. Just a good whipping and crucifixion.

Not much later the location was used again, this time for the burning at the stake scene in Maleficarum. It was not a problem to get there, two large minivans were hired to carry the cast, crew and equipment. They all went there early morning, prepared the set, there was some digging involved to set the stake where Amy was going to be burn and for the cross where Mila was going to suffer her agonies while watching as her lover was put through the fire.

It took all day to shot the burning at the stake sequence and they left the area late afternoon. The production day was good. The shooting was excellent, the acting magnificent, the images amazing… the location served its purpose.

Years later Dani and Jac went over the location to check it out, do some testing, with the intention of making a quick crucifixion movie outdoors, maybe two or even three. Unfortunately when they got there they saw a bunch of construction vehicles, destroying the place in order to build an entire neighborhood… even tough it is a terrible terrain, prone to sink down, really, sink.

They thought of alternatives to make those “simple” outdoors movies, but they could only think of far away places, like the ones Jac and Camille used way back, the same far away location Amy and Jac used for The Perils Of Jane In The Green Inferno.

I read your latest post.
So, are you going to film the Crux 4 movies in August-September and release next march? It seems you are throwing a whole bunch of projects in the way of doing that.
Frankly, I saw a post like this last year. NONE of the projects were completed. Most of the “films” you listed should have been done already.

The plan is to shoot Crucified Four in August/September.

Jac deals with the films on the digital shelves that are in post production, one at a time, or two, but they are not priorities in normal days. There are a number of things he has to do that take time, proposals, scripts, business work, etc. We’re not a TV studio with a dozen editors, unfortunately, but if he has his way, we might become something like that. An editor charges around 1,000 a week, maybe 1,000 a month if the hours are flexible. That would be around 3 to 5 G per film. A film that didn’t cost much to produce, if at all. That’s the reality.

Jac is editing Agent Honey Trap, right now, not every day, not all day. But most of the other films have already gone through editing, some more than others. But there are priorities and right now one priority is to find the resources for the Crucified Four and that takes some serious time.

He’s also having meetings with the principal cast to discuss things and prepare them for their roles.

The film Erix is going to be directing, Aventura, is his project, some in our team will work with him. Jac is not directing it, he’s like an executive producer. He gives advise, mostly, points in the right direction, stuff like that. He makes it happen without doing much work.

Films like Seditiosa, Justine, Maleficarum were priorities, they were made in a regular and consistent film schedule. We worked on them straight through until they were done, within a year from production to final release.

Films like 69 Anneé Érotique, Pygmalion, however, are more flexible and need some things that are not easy to arrange quickly, like music rights, film festivals participation or wide distribution deals, stuff like that.

And then, the quickies, like Agent Honey Trap, are at Jac’s discretion and available time. There was a time, when there weren’t too many things happening, like during Covid, that he managed to produced and release many of the CruXtreme and secret agent movies. He shot more than what he released in a short time.

Between 2019 and 2022 he produced ten films, 6 were released before 2023 when we got involved in Seditiosa and 69, that’s a lot of work, really.

When 2023 ended we had 12 films in the can, 7 of them released. Thats like 2 films per year and that’s basically normal for us, to release two films per year, not every year, but almost. And on top of that we have other productions going on, like documentaries, big and small, music videos. Lots of work.