Neat coils make for escape foils

When two arms become one!

Every so often I work with a model that really, and I mean really, tries to get loose. They shimmy and shake, wiggle and wriggle with all their might trying to loosen the ropes. Delicate fingers capped with shiny polish reach towards knots and pick at rope coils. They rub their faces against anything to get that gag out and if given the chance will roll everywhere to find something to help with release that would only come from the end of the set.

Anyone who has worked with me knows that I will tailor a restraint based on their requests. I will make adjustments, I will redo certain aspects and I will respect any limit. I will tie you up quickly and release you even faster. I'm a firm believer that if you can't get somebody out in the time it takes to cut them loose then you deserve to spend a lot of money on new rope. Anyone who has worked with me also knows that despite how flexible I am you will be restrained tightly, completely and with everything as taut as possible.

I had a model ask me once, "Jesus, why do you have to tie so tight?" I offered to loosen things up for her. She refused and said, "It's not a complaint, I just really want to know why everything is so damn tight." I really had to think about it after the shoot. Why did I tie so tight? Am I an ogre? Is it just visually appealing to me? After a couple days mulling over it I was putting together a clip sampler for a website interested in me helping them with content. Going back through my footage I realized I used to tie tight but much more modestly. The rope was snug and neat, but there was a lot less of it and it was much less strict.

I worked with a model about two dozen times during those early days who was for lack of a better term a character actress. She didn't do lines very well and couldn't handle complex direction. The way she handled that was to tell photographers she was a great struggler ... tie her up as tight as you want, and she would do her best to get free until you said, "cut." The first time I worked with her she actually got loose. I was shocked. I watched dumb-founded as one knot came loose, followed by her ankle ropes, followed by her going into a drawer, followed by her finding nothing but using the corner of the drawer to work loose the knot on her wrists, followed by her rubbing her elbow ropes on the mantle until they slid off. She had no concern for personal comfort. Her entire goal was to endure anything to keep struggling and get loose.

I realized at that point the reason I tie so tightly is that it's the only way a girl won't get loose. It was a simple matter of form following function. My goal was to show true restraint, and my tagline was heroines at their most helpless. That means nobody gets out until the shooting is finished. My footage showed a clear evolution from the time she showed me what happens when a damsel actually tries to get loose. Each time I worked with her she tried harder to get loose, and I made things more and more impossible for her to free herself.

She never got loose again, nobody has. The experience did show me though what a real damsel looked like, and it taught me that if someone really wants to get loose you really need to be strict to make sure they don't!