Back to basics

There are no magic formulas when it comes to bondage content. Sure there are trends that can be reliable, but just like the stock market the fickle nature of the business can make things shift in unexpected ways. One week you are convinced that a mile of tape all over a gal is the ticket and then that clip tanks. The next week you make bank with a hogtie only to have the next hogtie fizzle. You find a model that everyone loves but they don't like her in straps.

That's why I've been going back to basics. I put together a list of things I felt creatively empowering a long time back. As I attempt to meet the expectations of people there's a risk of shifting too quickly, getting too far away from what you do best. That's why sticking to the core of what you like doing is a key to maintain focus in a dynamic industry. Every clip I've done that holds true to the elements I wrote down in my mission statement has done well. Over the last couple of weeks that strategic regrouping has met with promising results.

That doesn't mean I'm not taking chances. It doesn't mean I'm not taking feedback. In fact I'm taking more chances and incorporating feedback more than ever. The foundation isn't changing though. I have developed several areas that I feel I do well and create a branding for my work. In taking chances you run the risk of walking away from too many of those elements. That's a bad thing. You need to explore and take risks just enough to test new areas without stepping out of realm that people expect you to be working within. Keeping a solid and recognizable core keeps people interested while letting you test new areas.

The latest clips I shot was a great example. I get a lot of response to my living room feel for my videos. It gives the impression that it could be happening anywhere, even right next door. That gets boring though, so I took a chance on shooting at the beach while on vacation. I didn't have all my equipment, but the new location made for an interesting story idea that I feel works. The location pulled me out of my normal villain character, made me more bold and the interaction showed that. I took off the mask, the spanking was harder, the take-down was rougher and we even did a simulated scene in one of the clips. Normally we'd cut that out but it just really worked with the clip as a whole. So we left it in!

The Bitchy Beach Babe Pissed Off the Wrong Renter with Angelique

Tatyana's Only Bondage Appearance

I like to push boundaries. I guess it's good that I'm into bondage! One thing I'll always say to a model is that I'll bend you but I won't break you. Everyone has their own physical and mental limitations. I love to find those and see if I can get the model to exceed them.

No, this doesn't mean tying someone up until they can't take it anymore and then leaving them there for 5 more minutes. Forcing someone to endure a predicament past their comfort level has nothing to do with the model pushing themselves. There is a huge difference between having a choice and having no choice. When a model knows they can bail and still agrees to go that extra five minutes that is a self-discovery. That is also trust.

It takes a lot of trust for someone to allow themselves to be tied up by another. Trust is a huge element for me. You establish a dialog, work someone up to a certain level and then hopefully have a chance to work with them again and push things further. I've worked with many a model several times and by the second or third shoot the trust level is high. They know I'm not a maniac. They know I untie quickly. They know that if they push it right to the edge I can get them out in 30 seconds. The trust level allows them to do things they never would have thought themselves capable of and the results are exquisite. The highest compliment I receive is when seasoned fetish models tell me I tie quickly but comfortably for something strict and I release them quickly but gently.

There is another level of this though that I really enjoy. The level of trust and bravery that someone has to undergo to allow themselves to be tied up the first time. Imaging never being tied up and your experience with the subject being the mild ties seen on television. Now imaging a giant rubber ball in your mouth, your elbows welded and your back arched into a severe hogtie. What goes through your mind? How to you know you should continue? It takes a dialog between photographer and model. Just like any shoot, if you know how to talk to someone they will be more comfortable and push themselves past limits.

That happened when I worked with Tatyana. When I first contacted her about bondage she was unsure. I didn't push. I just left it open, offered her references, allowed her the option of an escort and was honest that it would be a challenge. She contacted me a couple weeks later and we did a test shoot. She came in a bondage virgin and struggled her way through two sequences that left her sore and exhausted. She could have bailed at any time, but she gutted out two video sequences and 4 photo sets. Bondage wasn't for her, but she still tested her own limits to see what she could get onto film.

No story, no plot, just two sequences of her with her elbows jacked and showing off a wonderful arch that those oh-so-flexible Russian gals can achieve. See her only appearance in bondage in Russian Beauty Rushin' Nowhere.

I'm detecting some patterns :)

I'm a numbers guy. I've always been great with Math, loved puzzles and watch trends carefully with everything I'm involved with. The really odd thing about that is I hate fantasy football. I guess I should correct myself in saying I like numbers and trends when you can maximize a productive result. Fantasy football is a fun result ... number crunching sales is productive :)

Ever since I first started putting out material I've watched things closely. I change how I do updates and watch the trends. I look at how certain models are received both when they are being published by others and when I'm the only one putting material out with them in it. I'm a bit of a geek because I wrote a heat map program that I export my sales data into. For anyone unfamiliar with a heat map, it's basically a grid of where you color-code values. The cooler and darker the color, the less the value and the hotter and brighter the higher the value. The end result is that every time a clip of mine sells those keywords get weighted into my heat map application.

Now what does all this mean? Well, I know that you like the models I've shot with that people haven't put any material out of or any material in the last 5 years. I know you like elbows that are jammed together. I know you like a lot of things. I'm not giving anything away but suffice to say that out of the last 10 clips that I have put up, they have performed in a manner that I expected. That's great because it lets me put up what folks like and gear future shoots towards those trends. And when the trends change I'll see it!

My latest clip is part of that. Every clip with the girl in it sells well. She's cute, her elbows can be glued together, she can take a huge gag and she makes the most adorable noises. She shows up as orange in my heat map which is respectable being so close to red. The content of this clip is a bit different, so we'll see if that changes the trend. But so far my heat map on this model shows good things. Check out Elita in She Came for a Story and see what happens to a nosy reporter trying to get a scoop on a serial kidnapper!

Test complete!

I did it! When I started publishing material I made note of several things that were live or die indicators for any portal. One of the things I noted was a minimum amount of content. Another thing was video dimensions. You get the point. What would I need to do to actually get seen and get purchased.

Another list that I made was the "fan" list ... and by this I mean the bleep hits the fan list. Having made a ton of websites in the past, I know that the #1 reason people tank is lack of content and the #2 reason is lack of ability to update. With the holidays coming up and a trip to Vegas, I had a choice. Should I set up a number of updates for the time I'd be gone or should I do a little test.

Since I knew I needed to test some things I decided to forgo updates for a bit. I needed to know just how long it would take me to trickle out of sight. Slowly I dropped and it was agony not putting up some material, but I mustered forth. I figured this would be a couple days; to my surprise though it took 21 days for me to get pushed off the top 50 sites list on clips4sale. 3 WEEKS! I have to say that I am absolutely overwhelmed by how long that is for people to keep buying enough to keep my store showing up on that list. I am touched and thankful for the support.

With that test done, I now know that my material can weather what I used to call the 10-day storm. What happens if I get sick, or I have a family emergency or need a vacation. What happens if I can't get my updates done ahead of time? Now I know. As long as I keep putting up quality bondage with quality lighting that is TIGHT as a drum, I can outlast periodic small outages.

The good news is that tells me to keep going. The updates, the shooting and the editing are justified because the portal is sustainable. Thank you to all for your purchases and kind words. Thank you to all for bearing with me while I did my little test.

Now we can get back to regular updates :) This one is of Nyxon (who I see recently topped the bondage clips list at #1) in an escape sequence. I tied her up in thin rope, wrapped gauze over her ballgag and then left her to struggle without panties and with scissors in reach. I love escape sequences because the damsel has to work for it. The elbow ropes don't feel so comfy when you have to bend then out of a certain range ... to get loose you have to do just that. Kudos to Nyxon for the #1, Kudos to her on a great clip here. Check out Nyxon in Pantyless and Painful Escape if you like her or wiggling or escape sequences or tied elbows or ballgags or layered gags or vintage or ... okay, I'll stop :)

Breast bondage!

I like tied boobs. I'll admit it. The first film loop I every saw was of Renee Baker getting her breasts wired up into little balloons. It struck a nerve with me, and it's been part of my work ever since. The assumption that some may jump to is that I like adding some extra pain, but that's not even close.

One reason is that it appeals to me aesthetically. I've always viewed rigging as a form of 3D sculpture. The rope melds with the model to create a work of helplessness. The way the rope sinks into the flesh and the skin bulges around it has always appealed to me, and adding rope to a breast is no different. The rope sinks in around the base and the two combine to make something very different than before. In many cases it completes the visual. In the same way that a restraint looks more visually appealing with a crotchrope, some restraints just beg for bound breasts.

Additionally I love the added helplessness that a tightly bound breast adds. It illustrates the control a captor has which is always a great way to show helplessness, but it also limits the ability of the heroine to escape. A girl will think twice before rolling onto her chest or hopping around with those things bouncing all tied up. It's a psychological thing. She has the ability to do it, but the choice isn't as simple anymore. Further, it wears someone out faster. The goal of keeping someone put in a storyline is to either weld them in place or make sure the restraint wears them out before then can do anything to help their situation.

One of the first set of breasts I tied up on video was those of Sammie Sparks. She had a great way of struggling in breast bondage, always making sure they wiggled and jiggled. Today's update is from one of those sets. He Tied My Tits So Tight with Sammy Sparks is and older video, but the quality of rigging and those breasts wound tightly are something to see!

Bikinis and Belts

Back in April somebody suggested the idea of shooting girls in bikinis, straps and ballgags. It was a simple request for a girl in a bikini, ballgagged and struggling on a couch. Don't get me wrong, I love all three of those elements, but the way I shoot doesn't just allow me to pick things I like and throw them into a video. The idea sat around for months until I could figure out how to shoot it in the way that worked in my mind.

How the hell hard can it be Ted? Well, I used to write methodical scripts. This was huge fail shooting fetish material because you have such limited time with the models. The shooting is fast and furious and gives limited time for coaching on dialog and character. Detailed scripts slow down shooting. I learned very quickly that you needed to set up a scenario that was easy to grasp and could be explained while the model was getting dressed. The story, however simple, needed to make sense to me as well because we're shooting on-the-fly. The girl rolls off the couch? No problem, just stop, change the angle and start filming again. A strap falls down? No problem, just say something like, "that's why I should always go an extra notch and put it back on."

I'm also big on "whys" Why was this girl in a bikini and high heels? Why would she get tied up? The visual works but the "whys" always bothers me until they can all be answered. The task then was to let the idea percolate in my head for a couple months until I could justify the desired elements with a plausible story that could be shot on-the-fly. A favorite model of mine was coming by to shoot, and I asked her if she had a bikini. When she said yes, the entire idea just popped into my head. She had a body similar to girls in bikini contests and she had a sassy attitude on video. Everything just fell into place. She'd be a bitchy winner of many a bikini contest. Her rival wanted her out of the way for the next contest and hires someone to come by and take care of the problem. Anyone who's ever seen a girl's closet knows that there are a bazillion belts, and there you have it.

Kerri Taylor in Tight Straps Keep the Bikini Contestant Under Wraps is born!

She wore red and I made her ass cheeks match!

I sat down a bit back and decided on some themes I'd wanted to be consistent in all of my work. Spanking was one of those things. Am I a huge fan of spanking? I'd say not particularly, but I do so love to make a girl squirm. Spanking certainly does the trick. That's when I began experimenting with crops, floggers and mild spanking.

It's an element that works for me on a couple levels. The obvious is that in a damsel in distress video you can guarantee a lot of distress! Equally as important you now have a way to extract compliance or information from a damsel. "I'll never tell you where the key is!" WHACK!!! "The key is in that drawer over there!" Finally, man-handling has always been on my list and having your hand on someones cheeks is a great way to get that element.

I will fully admit that I'm not the greatest spanker. I will also admit that a favorite girl of mine is not the best at setting limits for me. We warmed her up, and I told her I'd spank until she said it was too intense. We set the limit and then away we went for the video. I told her to take as much as she could but say enough when it was too much. And so ten minutes later she said enough. The next day she emailed me about the bruising, the trouble sitting and some canceled shoots. Now before you think I just beat people's asses raw I need to say this was a test between two people that trusted each other and wanted to see how far the spanking could be taken. She wanted to know her limits as much as I wanted to push them. However, I have pulled back the level of intensity I use slightly since this :)

If you want to see a very pretty gal getting groped, mauled and her ass reddened like you'll never see anywhere, check out Angelique in Spanked and Mauled.

She Drooled All Over Herself

One of the things I notice about some models is that they drool .. a lot. Almost every one of them apologize for drooling and say something like, "I can't help it, the gag makes me drool and I try to keep it in but it leaks out." I then says something like, "no, let it flow and the video will be awesome!" They look at me like I'm a weirdo, and I can't blame them; it's an odd request.

Angelique did that the first time we shot. She kept swallowing the drool. A little while back she asked what people liked in clips, and I mentioned big gags as one of those things. She made a comment about not being able to hold back the drool with big gags, and the little guy on my shoulder who twists his mustache while a damsel is on the railroad tracks whispered, "jackpot" into my ear. I whispered back, "no crap!" Angelique said, "who are you talking to?" We have a lot of conversations similar to that.

The other day she got all dolled up and looked unbelievable. She asked for the big, blue ballgag purposely, and the second the camera rolled she started drooling. In the video you can see it streaming out of her face, glistening on her bosom and strewn across her thighs. It was everywhere, and it looked sweet. That gag is going to make plenty of appearances from now on, and poor Angelique is going to be drooling ... a lot!

Oh, and if you care to see proof check out Angelique in She Drooled All Over Herself.