The Eyes Have It

Who couldn't like a great facial expression? A damsels gets that pinched look when she's really going to exert herself. She looks dejected because no matter how much she struggles the restraints aren't loosening a bit. Her brow furrows and she squints as she tries to scream past that huge wad of rubber in her face. Her eyes open wider than wide as she works against the crotchrope. Her eyes plead and her brow furrows at the same time when she looks at her captor.

Each adds to the drama of the story involving a helpless heroine in the midst of a dire predicament. How many have thought about the drama behind the drama though? The story is one thing but strict restraint and a gag to match are a challenge in themselves. The model not only has to wiggle, moan, hit marks, remember dialog and sweat her ass off to get the scene done, but she always has the physical and mental challenge of dealing with tight rope and a face full of shut the hell up.

That pinched look isn't just about the exertion. It's because to flop over she needs to roll over her welded elbows. It isn't going to be comfortable at all, but she knows she needs to roll around to make the scene look good. The dejected look? That comes around when she's shot for hours. She's shooting a scene that involved 20 minutes of getting tied up and she's been rolling around under hot lights for another 15. She's exhausted but you signal that you need five more minutes. She doesn't know how she's going to do it, so she's digging down deep to get you the time on film that you need. The brow furrowing and squinting is because there's so much saliva backed up in her mouth that moving her tongue might let it flow into the back of her throat and choke her. She's trying to position her tongue so she can keep making noise without passing out. She opens her eyes wider than wide because that crotchrope is damn tight. It doesn't feel good and in pinches a very delicate area at times. She is not comfortable and is hoping that wiggling her hips shifts things enough to go back to just uncomfortable from, "ow ow ow ow ow." Her look pleads because she's totally exhausted, aching, hot, sweating and mentally worn out but the end of this scene means there's another one still to go. Release means only five minutes of rubbing sore muscles and mentally gearing up for that crazy suspension you keep talking about.

My point is that these women work DAMN hard to help producers provide material for everyone to enjoy. Strict bondage isn't about playing a part. It's about a real predicament. The model is working her ass off to struggle through exhaustion, choking gags, aching jaws, sore muscles and ropes so tight they feel like they are cutting. Imagine having a back-ache, a head-ache, a sunburn, an upset stomach, a dentist running that water spray into the back of your throat, rug burns everywhere and waking up with the circulation in both of your arms gone all at the same time. Now imagine with all that someone put 2000 watts of light on you, tells you to struggle and then gropes and spanks you at the same time. That is the drama behind the drama!

The image above is from the next-to-last set of my last shoot with Kendra James. She was run ragged all day but still never let up in her exertion and playing the part. If you don't mind a short clip showing someone who's worked 12 hours but is still giving it her everything, check out Black and White and Duct-Taped All Over.

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.

No wiggle room

I've always loved the expression "not a lot of wiggle room" because it rarely ever applies. You can use 800 feet of rope on somebody and they'll still wiggle around, quite a bit in fact. I've done so many things with so many people to get them to wiggle as little as possible. I hung someone from the back of a door with their hair tied back to welded elbows and the damsel still thrashed around. I've done strict hogtie after strict hogtie and the hogtied damsels still managed to roll onto their sides. I've welded people to chairs and they still get the chairs to spin. I've even completely mummified people in vet wrap, saran wrap and even duct tape and they still roll around. I'm firmly convinced that you could encase someone in plaster or foam and they'd still be able to wiggle more than enough to be more than "not a lot." I'm looking for volunteers to test that out though.

I've found that "not a lot of wiggle soon" to be so much more appropriate. By that I'm referring to what happens after you thrash, sway, swing, roll, spin and rock as much as they can. What happens after every muscle is exhausted and the restraint makes you feel like you've run a marathon? What happens when your skin is so sensitive from the pressure of tight ropes that you feel like you're tied with barbed wire and gagged with sand paper? What happens when staying still is preferable to discomfort of moving at all. That is a predicament. You're in no physical danger, but you are totally helpless. All you can do is wiggle your toes, moan a bit and just lie there and wait for release.

Restraint in a damsel scenario is about making sure the damsel stays put for an amount of time. You can tie someone, chain someone or tape someone into helplessness but they will eventually get free or remove their gag. If the goal is to make sure the damsel stays put until you want them to get loose, the goal is to exhaust them until they stay put by choice. No threats, no violence ... just a pure physical and mental challenge. Just ask Ashley Graham after shooting He Tied Me So Tight I Had to Tell.

Bare feet is a rare feat!

After you shoot for a while you notice that a lot of the content you produce is based on an intersection between your own interests and those of the people viewing your work. I'd be a fool to claim otherwise since I got into the business because I wasn't seeing material that lined up with my personal likes. I put together a list of what I liked. I put together a list of what I felt was not being done to my tastes. Those two lists coalesced to help form the mission statement that has been my work for so long.

Something that has always been missing from that list is bare feet. It's not that I don't like bare feet or that I think high heels are so incredible they must always be worn. I shoot more around the moments right after everything goes to hell in a hand-basket for the heroine and those moments usually involve someone fully dressed. Even more I find high heels make someone more helpless. If you cross a girl's ankles barefoot she'll still hop around. The same treatment with high heels on makes for someone who's not hopping around and makes for a lot of wriggling on the floor.

Tastes evolve though and so does the work. Over the years I've started to find that shoes coming off implies drama and tension to me. It implies struggle, change and evolution of the scenario. It implies time passing and therefor adds length to the story. Feet are also expressive where shoes are more static. Don't get me wrong, I'm not moving away from a lot of high heels. I'm just saying that some clips benefit greatly from bare feet. The image above speaks to my point. The clip started with Kerri Taylor in high heels. She was sitting and standing and unable to do much until she got down on the floor. As she struggled her heels fell off and that's when things seemed the most fervent. Her position on the floor allowed for more control and more struggle. The loss of her shoes gave her an edge in her attempts to get free, but the ropes held fast and seemed even tighter at that point.

Kerri Taylor in Tightly Tied with Some Groping on the Side is available for fans of strict restraint, bit gags, bare feet, brunettes, groping, big boobs and drooling!

Time Out

I get into these periods where I feel ultra-creative. That sounds like a good thing, but it's usually a nightmare. I'm the type of person that isn't a bull in a china shop. When ideas pop into my head I get a lot of them. That's generally disruptive to moving forward on any idea. That's why I try to write down everything. It can take 30 seconds for something cool to be forgotten forever.

I'm in that period right now. I have a great idea for a photo campaign. I'm working on some interesting ideas for new videos. I've gotten back to 3D modeling and drawing again. On top of that I've been programming. You know what they say about trying to be a jack of all trades ... you end up being a master of nothing.

That means the goal is to simplify. I still want to do everything, I just can't do everything to the scale I'd like. That's the key to pulling off being a jack of all trades. I don't want to be the best comic artist in the world. I'd just like to have a comic. That means doing pages at a level I would consider terrible for a commissioned work but totally exceptionable for a comic page. Being a perfectionist and a jack of all trades never works.

I will not however accept sacrifices in my main areas of film and photo. Those are the areas where my ideas are the richest. I have a video series idea that is fresh for me and I feel compelling to fans of the genre. As with everything though my original scripts are technically complicated. That's why this week I'm continue to work on keeping the spirit of the idea but in a form that can actually be accomplished! While I do that, updates have begun again.

The other day was a sampling from a "lost" tape. Every so often I pull out a tape to file it away. Since I suck as cataloging up front I have a process where I run through all 63 minutes to make sure I ripped everything worth showing. Every so often I find some footage as I did the other day. It's of Kerri Taylor in a taught chair tie. We were having trouble with some dialog, so I said the hell with it. We started with her gagged and just showed things getting worse and worse. Finally she's tied with ankles up, elbows together and raised and her neck pulled down. Normally she'd have the chair moving all over the floor but the position made her feel like she'd fall on her face ... it's nice to have a little psychological restraint every so often. She knew she was in trouble, she was facing a corner ... she was in Time Out.

That my friends is the face of someone who realizes they are in it deep. Lydia Lael is everything you want in a damsel: feisty, vocal and just sassy enough get herself into trouble.

The first thing she said to me before shooting was not to be shocked if a knot came undone or she got loose. She boasted about being a bit of an escape artist and a fervent struggler. Um, she didn't get out of anything. She tried like hell though that's for sure.

The expression on her face is half play-acting and half realizing that none of the ropes were going to come loose. She wriggled, wiggled, tossed and thrashed until she had nothing left in the tank and it got her nowhere. She is non-stop motion, and I can see why she'd boast of her abilities. Ropes can only hold up to movement for so long before a knot pops loose; however, she started on a couch and ended on a couch, with all ropes in tact. In the post-interview she was even a bit sheepish about her failure to come through on an escape. I will however admit that I cheated just a little bit. You see, naked ties are harder to slip out of that clothed ones. Poor Lydia didn't know that though. And such it was that the ropes dug into her skin and stayed on snugly.
Houdini no more, she had met her match when she faced the Barenaked and Boxtied Hogtie.

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.

Hogtied and Hurting

You know that you put a lot of rope on someone when you keep extra rope on hand just in case but you still have to go get even more. The last time I had to do that was when I had about 600 feet on Angelique Kitos for her version of the hogtie challenge! I used 200 feet alone for her arms on that one.

That happened with this hogtie as well. It was supposed to be a 300-foot hogtie challenge for a custom video request, something I've done a number of times. As such, I had 400 feet handy just in case. After I had her arms almost completely encased in rope, I knew I was going to run short so I had to break out 100 feet more to finish the tie!

It sounds like a lot of rope, but that thin cord goes fast. I like a lot of coverage on these ties, so it takes at least twice as much of the cord as it does the nylon rope I normally use. Thirty bucks in cotton cord doesn't sound like much but for one position that's a lot of rope! I can get 1000 feet of nylon rope for that much. It's worth it though. The challenges are fun ... correction, fun for me. They also seem to be popular with people.

So, what's notable about this sequence. Oh yeah, 500 feet of rope and a jacked hogtie! Kerri Taylor did a wonderful job on this one aptly dubbed 500 Feet Equals Hogtied and Hurting.

HeavenLee

I had the pleasure of working with HeavenLee a number of times, but I've never released any footage of her. She passed on several years back, and I just didn't have the heart to publish material of someone I liked as a person, enjoyed working with and was no longer with us. I guess it felt a bit morbid and made me a little sad. I mean when she was at her worst I sent her a bunch of free XBox games and would get emails about how it was great of me because she couldn't get out of bed.

I was going through some of the material recently, and it changed my mind. Something that happens when you shoot is that the camera stays on sometimes when you're untying someone and you're just chatting. There were conversations where she talked about how much she loved bondage, relished the challenge of tight restraint and wanted to become one of the best bondage models in the business. She'd have a huge smile and laugh and then tease me about how I tied too loose. It made me realize that I hadn't been focusing on the HeavenLee full of life.

That's when I came across this tape. She had been sick for several months and I was the the first person she'd shot with in almost 4 months. She came in and told me that she wanted to be tested, she needed to know she could still hold up. I was a bit apprehensive, but she assured me it was alright. I tied her tight, cocooned her in a black sheet and did a scene where she was carried upstairs and put through her paces. She grunted and writhed cocooned, then dressed, then topless and then hogtied. She was non-stop motion for over 30 minutes where her elbows were welded bone-to-bone and the hogtie was merciless. She definitely still had it! She kept wriggling until she had nothing left. That's the HeavenLee I'm going to remember now. She wanted to be one of the best and goddammit she is.

Check out HeavenLee in Bagged Beauty Tested and Bested to get a glimpse of one of the best bondage models anyone could have had the pleasure to work with!

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!

I can see your face ... at least half of it

The interesting thing about bondage video is that everyone's hair gets in their face. It used to drive me nuts. You spend all this time finding cute gals and coaching them to make sure their face can be seen by the camera and the damn hair is always blocking the gag and their eyes. I suppose it's my fault for liking long hair and preferring positions where the girls are on the ground but even sitting positions have hair issues. The girl will throw their head around and push their chin into their chest. Sixty seconds later you have a tightly tied body with a clump of messy hair sitting on top of it.

My solution has always been to grab the hair, pull it back and do the gag over the hair. It holds the hair in place with the exception of maybe a tuft or two that dangle and look great. This gets into a great debate I've had with people over the years. I get emails and chat messages, "please put the gag strap under their hair." Everyone has a preference, and I respect that some folks like hair over the gag. My preference is born of personal like and professional need though.

Professionally I want to see the girl's face. The most important thing to me is expression, and I need to see those eyes. It's also much easier for the model to breath when their hair isn't tickling their face. Last but not least hair in the eyes is the number one reason I have to stop filming and help a model out. There is nothing worse than a active sequence that is rolling along and the model stopping and mumbling something about hair in the eyes. Tied up people are on a clock. Two minutes adjusting damn hair is two minutes of lost video.

Personally I just plain like it better. My icon is Sally Roberts. She defined the damsel in distress for me and the many images of her hair tucked into the gag strap is something I can never get out of my mind. Add my rampant use of tight gauze and tape wraps and you have hair under the gag almost every time. I do make exceptions: tape strips over wadding for example; but you're almost always going to have that hair tucked with my shots.

That comes to another thing I just adore. I call it half face. It's when the model has her mouth packed full with a rubber ball, a ballgag or wadding and then gauze or tape is wrapped widely over her lower face. All you see is the top of her face and you can tell she is dealing with a lot in her mouth. To me a great gag is as important as a great tie. Coincidentally half-face only happens with the gag over the hair.

A great half-face scene is with Amaya Solice above. We frogtied her, ballgagged her and then wrapped a whole roll of black gauze over the lower part of her face. It kept her quiet and lets you see those beautiful eyes. You can check it out at Amaya Solace in Feisty Frogtie Leads to Naked Hogtie if you like ... or not, it's a free world :)

Nyxon wearing a double-sided nylon thong

I wrote a thank you letter to the folks at Fetishcon yesterday. Angelique had already thanked them, but they allowed us to have a suite and as I go through more and more video from the shooting I realize more and more how fucking awesome it was that they did that. I don't just drop the f-bomb lightly. They did me a solid, and I can't thank them enough. Mike and Vesta ... you both rock! The funny thing is I've only seen Mike in a hot tub and never met Vesta ... although I remember role-playing with her on yahoo chat a long time ago. I'm looking forward to getting to chat with them more!

I've already put up a clip that I shot with Nyxon in that suite, and today I put up the second clip we shot. She wore kick-ass vintage lingerie but with no panties. I made a double-sided thong for her which is what I call a crotchrope lol. Man that thing was tight, she probably hated me ... or loved me. I'm not sure how she swings on crotchropes. I brought her into the room in a tight reverse prayer, tied her legs and then left for a bit. She tried to hop away, but I carried her back into the room and made sure she stayed put by balltying her. I'd never done a balltie with a reverse prayer and it looked mighty uncomfortable. Of course the tape wrapping over her ballgag probably didn't help. Check out Nyxon in She Wore Nylon Stockings and Nylon Rope if your into vintage clothing, hot brunettes and rope that is rock-hard tight.

I do have a request though. I'm thinking of doing some webcam shows with Ms. Kithos. If anyone would be interested in that, please let me know at tedmichaelsdamsels@gmail.com and we'll schedule a showing sometime in the next week or so. I was thinking of doing 30 minutes where I show how our typical play sessions go ... 3 or so positions with a lot of roping and groping :)

Some gals will do anything to stay out of a closet

I started doing this series that was based on girls afraid of the dark or being claustrophobic who would do anything to not be locked in a closet. Add a burglar needing a clean get away and these gals would beg to be tied up and gagged rather than be shoved in a closet.

Things start out like a normal tie-em up until the burglar decides he wants to be extra sure and gets a bit frisky. Before you know it electrical tape is going over the rope and the ballgag gets a hefty wrapping of gauze or tape. All the while he's he's grabbing the goodies because, well, why the hell not! At this point the gal is going nowhere, and this in some intense crap! The first version I did of this was with Kendra James and it was sweet. The next attempt was with JJ Plush and talk about upping the ante. I'll let the picture speak for itself.

JJ got thin rope, electrical tape over the rope and her tits bared. When she complains she is gagged with a 3" ballgag and has tape wrapped over that completely around her head. I'm talking stretchy tape pulled to max tightness. Then he ties up her tits and fondles them, adds duct tape over her bonds for extra security and completely wraps her arms in duct tape before wrapping it around her chest and waist. A bit drunk with the control he now has he pulls a stocking over her head, wraps more duct tape around her gag, wraps it over her eyes and then wraps it around her chin and head to crunch everything in place.

JJ flips, flops, sweats and groans in obvious distress in a position that she absolutely loved. Check out JJ Plush in Tie Me Gag Me Just Don't Put Me in A Dark Closet and you won't be disappointed!

Angelique Kitos, JJ Plush, Kerri Taylor, Savannah Costello ... Oh My!

I am in the middle of a satisfying week. Why is that Ted you may ask? Hell, even if you didn't ask we're going to invent a fake person named, um, Bob. Again I say that I am in the middle of a satisfying week. "Why is that Ted?" asked Bob. Why thank you for asking Bob, I'll let you know!

The very lovely Ms. Kithos was having a conversation with the very lovely Stacie Snow and suggested she come by to shoot with me. Before you know it we've settled on a weekend in February and are almost done hammering out the details. For those of you that do not know, Stacie and I share the same birthday and get along like peas in a pod. The shoots are always fun and she never fails to deliver on the type of content that I do. If that's not enough, Ms. Kithos also set up a shoot for me with Kerri Taylor. Kerri is incredible to work with, and we have this odd working dynamic. I can get her into just about any bind without issue or without her needing pain-killers for the next week. It always brings a smile to my face getting a model into a predicament that others cannot seem to convince her to do!

On the equipment front, I tested out my new lighting and love it. The easiest way to light is to use shop lights. They're cheap and pump out a lot of light which is great for video. They also pump out a lot of heat and roast the model like a turkey! The new lights are cool lights (no pun intended); they generate next to no heat. That means the models will last longer in the ties, I won't sweat like a pig and I'll be doing less color corrections in the post-processing. On top of that, I finally did some test video with my main camera. Yes, a couple years ago I bought the first SLR digital camera that also shot HDV 1080 video. Holy crap does it shoot great video! We'll be putting that baby on a tripod for extra angles and footage in the future. Ms. Taylor will be the first to be filmed with it.

On the health front, not many people know that I severely sprained my ankle and had a minor sprain with the other ankle. The short version is for a week I couldn't walk. I had to cancel two shoots that broke my heart. Well, I can walk again, have no more bruising and the swelling is down enough to allow full mobility which means I'll be doing on-screen rigging by Friday.

Last but by far not least, I just finished the most successful online month of my very short career. My sales hit an all-time high, my C4S store has quadruple-digit hits each day, my website is almost up to the amount of hits where I will start updating it bi-weekly, I finished my store-front revamps (that almost killed me) and I released my first DVD video.

Since I've blathered on a lot today, I'll make the rest short and sweet:

Best of the Breast: Big Titters in Bondage is available at http://www.videos4sale.com/38048 if you happen to be a fan of Angelique Kitos, JJ Plush, Kerri Taylor or Savannah Costello. It features lots of drooling, breast bondage, crotch rubbing, groping, welded elbows, on-screen tying and pure hotness! It was shot in 1080 HDV and the quality is stellar!

How to know a gag is tight

I've been waiting on resolution of an issue with my C4S store for a couple days. It seems that the previews are breaking left and right, and I'm having issues when I update the store. They're working diligently on it, but I need to find something to do when C4S slows down. Luckily for me I keep a list of things longer than I'll ever be able to complete.

Something that's been hanging heavily on me for a while is that the Hogtie from Hell series seems to be very popular. The reason it hangs heavily is that the most popular clip of all with Angelique Kitos only has the ending portion where the hogtie is final. Imagine 20 plus minutes of binding and gagging something so delectable as Angelique sitting on a HDV tape gathering dust. When the store issues cropped up I decided it was great time to resolve that issue.

The clip was originally a custom request that for some reason fell through. The request was to show the tying, gagging, interaction between model and rigger and finally the completed position. The two things I noticed in reviewing the footage were just how long she had to deal with something so tight. This wasn't a case of quickly tying someone up and getting the footage. It was long and languishing. Her arms were red, and her face was red.

That's how you know a gag is tight. The ballgag was bad enough but a full roll of co-flex was stretched out and wrapped tightly over her face. That stuff is like rubber, and it squeezes when it's stretched out. After six or so layers your face is in a vice, and that ballgag is in the back of your throat. The worst part is the strain of not choking. The saliva builds up with nowhere to escape making it a true physical and mental challenge. Face red, veins popping out, eyes closed and dimples not only between the eyebrows but over them. Than my friends is how you know a gag is tight. I quite frankly don't know why the gal still gives me the time of day! Regardless check out Angelique in Hogtie from Hell - Full over at C4S ... if things are functional enough to let you :/

Don't Go Anywhere

I pulled out the big kitten eyes yesterday and suggested a tie-em-up. Angelique had an outfit on that just said to me that she should get grabbed and tied up. It wasn't like it was a vampy outfit or anything; she just looks hot in anything and it made me want to do an impromptu clips. Imagine my surprise when she told me that the big, pleading eyes worked and I should try it more often. After shooting the clip I plan on just that. It wasn't long before she was tied up on camera, had a vibrator jammed against her most protected areas and was hogtied to struggle, drool and, well, do things that vibrators help make happen. I'll have it up on the store soon.

A big thing off of my list was getting an iPod clips store up. It only has five of my best-selling clips so far, but I'll let you know that they look wonderful on my iPhone. It's great to have portable, um, entertainment! I plan on updating this store just as regularly as my regular store! I also want to thank everyone who has visited my regular C4S store and most importantly purchased clips. This has been my best month so far, and I'm encouraged enough to continue putting up content :)

I managed to shoot a custom with Angelique and will go into the editing phase soon. I keep mentioning customs, but this was one that was really fun to shoot. Nothing against anyone, but the communication aspect of shooting customs is the most difficult aspect. The customer always has a very real image in mind and my translating that image properly is a challenge. This last custom was a case of me and another person thinking in the same way ... we communicate visually and through storyboards I was able to nail it. I'm sure he'll be overwhelmed with the results. I'll put up a sneak peek of it as I get time to work on things.

Last but not least, my top-selling slip is still Angelique Kitos in Hogtie From Hell. Others are coming close, but she reigns supreme as the overall clip champion and the champion in total sales!

Still champion ...

Today has been a cluster of odds-n-ends. After being sick for 3 days with some sort of crud, I've still been muddling through on a dozen projects at once, all high priority. I got the site up and live only to discover that the way it was being handled sucked big and hard and needs to be reworked. I have a work-around and have my fingers crossed it goes into place before the site actually gets crawled ... otherwise the search engines will see two duplicate sites and I'll look like a spammer (and I hate spammers).

I did manage to finish the pole tie rig or more specifically the mechanism to attach it without marring the walls. That baby is gonna get some use! I also took some pics of it for the custom requester along with the outfit he'd like to see. I dropped the ball on contacting him about things this weekend, so I hope he'll still want to proceed. I'll shoot it one way or another, either for him or for a video and some C4s ... I'm hoping it's for the customer though. I hate when things fall through because I get away from my checklist.

As usual I did some stats checking and my #1 clip from week one of the store and every week following is still Angelique in Hogtie from Hell. I don't see how anything is going to dethrone it because it sells once a day.

Chop saws and powerdrills

Custom videos get done on weekends around these parts. Since yesterday was date night (Barbecue following Paranormal Activity 2) that makes Sunday get 'er done day. Angelique is dealing with mutant activity in Fallout while I'm prepping for a super-heroine request that came our way.

I've already ordered the missing materials for the outfit but still need to hit the party store for a harlequin mask. Earlier I had the fun of bringing out the miter saw and the drill press to put together a post rig. Now I don't know about most of you but I like to keep my home, well, a home. As such I don't bolt poles into the floor for the sake of cinching damsels up to them. That requires making rigs. The new place has the perfect door way that only required making a brace for the top of the door jamb, a brace for the bottom and a pole to go between them. The sawdust flew, the whir of the drill driver echoed in the garage and 20 minutes later we have a post for a tasty pole tie that is rock-solid and damages nothing in the house. Even better I got to use some old two-by-fours that came on a shipping pallet for our treadmill ... I hate wasting good wood (pun intended) and was glad to get the entire rig done for free!

With permission from the requester I'll put up some peeks at how things went later. Until then I'll put up something from a clip that went up last night. It stars the wonderful Kendra James. It's notable in that it is the very first clip I ever shot of her and that it contains more dialog from myself than any clip I've ever done. I'm the strong, silent type when it comes to "bad guys" but it was necessary to be a loud-mouth to make this clip work. All the rigging was done on-screen which is always a bit tighter than when it's done before the camera rolls, and Kendra had to deal with a gag consisting of a large ball, duct tape, a gauze head wrap and then electrical tape over that. Again, those in-the-moment gags tend to end up with a full stretch on the gauze, so she really had to deal with some discomfort. Notable as well for the longest title I've ever used, Kendra James in I Can't Get Away If You Tie Me Up Tight! is available now.

I love coffee

I woke up today feeling like I got hit in the face with a sledge hammer. I guess the change in weather has finally caught up with my sinuses. And that's why I love coffee. I'm not even finished with the first cup, and I already feel almost normal. I don't know how that works, but I'm not arguing.

Sitting over the steaming cup of miracle elixir, I'm doing my usual list of odds and ends. I had fun with some yahoo group posting. Knowing HTML is fun because you can always post messages that have links, pictures and formatting. It's all about the presentation. I put in an update from my last shoot with JJ Plush at her Yahoo group. I loved her blurb about me, "This guy doesn't fool around." It goes on the wall of quotes, with gems like "Nice guy, ties REALLY tight!" and "I'm glad I took my muscle relaxer."

Then I meandered on over to Stacie Snow's group to check things out. She was nice enough to put up a link for me and comment on the recent clip of her that went into my store. I always get a kick out of her group because she hates spammers more than I do ... and I hate spammers. I fully support her use of a tomahawk in solving the problem. The clips is from a series that I call "Hogtie from Hell" because it is basically just that, a hogtie that pushes people to their physical and mental limits. The "hell" challenges are all about the 3-minutes of video after the model is spent. I don't know why people agree to it, but I'm glad they do.

Oh, and the image of that hogtie agony is called Stacie Snow in Hogtied and Hurting available at my C4S Store.