Life Imitating Art

In the days before camera and camcorder yours truly drew ... a lot. Splash pages, comic strips and portraits were my favorite artistic outlet and the scenes were often about tightly bound and gagged damsels in all sorts of dire predicaments. As the years went by I started photographing bondage scenes as reference for the drawings. As I discovered the creative outlet of images and video the drawing slowed down but I still see them in my work.

The drawing of the poor girl tied to the sign post was drawn far in advance of the video screenshot shown. If you turn the screenie upside down though and you'll notice they're basically the same. The positions, angles and style of restraints that I prefer far predate even the first time I tied anyone up. I owe my creativity almost entirely to that. Drawing gave me the ability to visualize restraints. If it doesn't look realistic or possible in a drawing then there's little chance it will work in real life. That's why I still sketch. If I can put it down on paper and it makes sense then I know I can find a way to realize it in the flesh.

At first glance it may appear to be coincidence. If you draw 100 drawings and photograph years of images and video you're bound to see similarities by pure chance. In fact that is very true and I see that all the time; however it's impossible that every drawing pops up some how in multiple videos. I'm fond of saying do what you love and you'll love what you do. My drawing and photography has always focused on what I enjoy. It's only natural that my subconscious would reproduce all of those sketches. If you think something is cool, you're going to see it pop up in your work form time to time without even knowing it.

Don't Leave Me Hanging

For years before I made Do Not Disturb I'd had this crazy idea of a girl hanging on the back of a door struggling while outside anyone who heard noises would see the sign on the handle and assume it was a couple having a good time. They'd be partially correct. Although the girl was having no fun at all at least her captor would have something to enjoy!

The problem the idea posed is that suspensions aren't just something you throw at a model or even yourself. It takes a firm grasp of what you're doing and a model confident in her abilities to handle the suspension. More than that, suspension with a rig is totally different than using what is available. And that is what my work is about. My heroines face perils that are born of the immediate surroundings and items that will fit in a small bag. Who carries a suspension rig around for crying out loud?

Then I got the chance to work with Maria Shadoes. We did the usual capture sequence, a chair tie, a hogtie and an aggressive mauling scene but I hadn't tested poor Maria enough. I'd seen her work and knew if I didn't do a suspension or put her in a split I was wasting a great opportunity. That's when the door idea started to form. Before you knew it I had created suspension points out of nothing but rope and a closed door. Poor Maria was upside down with her ankles spread, gagged with a 2-7/8 inch ballgag, head-wrapped, elbows crushed and her head pulled back by a hair knot.

The position was everything I strive for in a rigging. Every struggle was agony and effort. At the end she is completely exhausted, and I don't mean tired. I mean she couldn't move and just hung there motionless as she was untied, her gauze hood frothed with her own drool. Even more delicious is that I was her only rescue. The position relied on the door being closed. If anyone opened that door the suspension would fail and she'd fall face-first into the floor. The position tested her to the very edge, the effort totally broke her and the predicament prevented any rescue. In every sense she was totally dependent on her captor and that my friends made her a true damsel in distress.

Just Hanging Around

I absolutely love a video I shot with Maria Shadoes some years back. I had a little different formula back then since I was working mostly on a tripod for the camera work. Sure, I had a DV camcorder but it still produced somewhat shaky results when the footage was hand-held. I even went so far as to make a steady cam, but it was useless for shooting in tight spaces. Where was I? Oh yeah, I shot mostly on a tripod. The problem with shooting on a tripod is my style has always been about drama and the best way to get drama with static angles is a lot of camera cuts. The change in scene tells the brain that something is happening and makes it get "re-interested" in what is going on.

The big lead-in is basically to say that a lot of cuts means a lot of editing! I've wanted to put up this video for a while, but it's been a real bear to edit into something I am comfortable releasing. I could just throw up 35 minutes of Maria wiggling with her elbows welded the entire time, but I demand drama. My post-production motto is the same as my restraint motto. The editing has to be quality; if it's not tight it's not right. My editing software isn't helping either because it keeps choking on empty frames I forgot to fill (technical blah blah).

Regardless, I will figure it all out and get a clip up soon. It's going to be called Maria Shadoes in Do Not Disturb and will feature a tight chair tie, callous man-handling, jacked hogtie and a door suspension in a hotel. The entire time poor Ms. Shadoes wears my fattest ballgag and a tight wrapping of gauze over her entire face. Wish me luck ... this edit has been fighting back harder than Maria did during the takedown at the beginning of the video!