Pace Yourself
Pace is important in any scene. Dominants control pace, and a good Dominant will use it to manipulate the submissive's state of mind, to exert control over their ability to take punishment, and so on. Stage work is very similar to a scene being played in private, though with modifications: things move slower on stage, but while the rate of progress is less the rhythm (or the shape) of the scene remains fairly similar.
I'm discovering that video work is totally different. I've come across some of these differences between stage and screen work before, but this kind of work is a completely new experience. I now have three distinct skill sets each trying to influence me to work a certain way, and none of them are appropriate for this purpose.
1) Pace for the screen
The on-screen experience I have had before has been all about the reduction of everything I do to minimalism. This is largely because
I've done a lot of stage-acting, where the key is subtle exaggerations. So, when playing to a camera I'm used to speaking slightly faster than on stage, to moving my head and body much less, to holding slightly unnatural positions for long periods of time while trying to make my face look normal. For a spanking video shoot, the requirements are completely different. Physically, I need to slow down: vocally, I need to slow down much more and both of those comments are just about while the camera is rolling. The way that cuts are used is completely different, because there's more than one agenda. Dialogue and action need to be sequential, rather than simultaneous (or at least, they certainly do when you're not working with particularly good microphones). There are a few other details as well.
2) Pace for the scene
Maintaining the required working chemistry with the model is also very different in a video shoot scenario. Where pacing would, in a private scene, be an integral part of that from the point of view of exerting control, in a video shoot it's the opposite. The use of shooting breaks to intersperse the actual CP such that a model remains (well, moderately!) comfortable, and the use of conversation or cigarette breaks or whatever to keep an easy atmosphere is so very different from my personal experience that I suspect it will take me a few attempts to get it right.
Another distinction is that, in a well-engineered private scene, there are no interruptions. Movies are all interruption, which I already knew; what I hadn't realised was how that would interact with my role-playing a Dominant on camera.
3) Beads on a string
My personal practice leans towards elaborate scene play. That tends to mean extended sessions over several hours, where everything I'm doing is designed to facilitate a uniform goal. One of the elements of pacing a spanking movie that I need to learn is that there is no 'scene' from beginning to end of my narrative. I need to get the trick of working a scene in a very short space of time, stepping away from it, and then working a second scene in an equally short space of time. That is, as much as anything else, inside my head: the trick is to work that change while making each 'mini-scene' flow internally, and connect with the others such that a narrative emerges organically.
Working with Pandora professionally is, as anticipated, enormously fun. The experience presented expected (and some unexpected!) challenges, for both of us; but as I become more accustomed to the adjustments one has to make on screen, it should become less challenging and more of a pleasure.
I'm discovering that video work is totally different. I've come across some of these differences between stage and screen work before, but this kind of work is a completely new experience. I now have three distinct skill sets each trying to influence me to work a certain way, and none of them are appropriate for this purpose.
1) Pace for the screen
The on-screen experience I have had before has been all about the reduction of everything I do to minimalism. This is largely because
I've done a lot of stage-acting, where the key is subtle exaggerations. So, when playing to a camera I'm used to speaking slightly faster than on stage, to moving my head and body much less, to holding slightly unnatural positions for long periods of time while trying to make my face look normal. For a spanking video shoot, the requirements are completely different. Physically, I need to slow down: vocally, I need to slow down much more and both of those comments are just about while the camera is rolling. The way that cuts are used is completely different, because there's more than one agenda. Dialogue and action need to be sequential, rather than simultaneous (or at least, they certainly do when you're not working with particularly good microphones). There are a few other details as well.2) Pace for the scene
Maintaining the required working chemistry with the model is also very different in a video shoot scenario. Where pacing would, in a private scene, be an integral part of that from the point of view of exerting control, in a video shoot it's the opposite. The use of shooting breaks to intersperse the actual CP such that a model remains (well, moderately!) comfortable, and the use of conversation or cigarette breaks or whatever to keep an easy atmosphere is so very different from my personal experience that I suspect it will take me a few attempts to get it right.
Another distinction is that, in a well-engineered private scene, there are no interruptions. Movies are all interruption, which I already knew; what I hadn't realised was how that would interact with my role-playing a Dominant on camera.
3) Beads on a string
My personal practice leans towards elaborate scene play. That tends to mean extended sessions over several hours, where everything I'm doing is designed to facilitate a uniform goal. One of the elements of pacing a spanking movie that I need to learn is that there is no 'scene' from beginning to end of my narrative. I need to get the trick of working a scene in a very short space of time, stepping away from it, and then working a second scene in an equally short space of time. That is, as much as anything else, inside my head: the trick is to work that change while making each 'mini-scene' flow internally, and connect with the others such that a narrative emerges organically.
Working with Pandora professionally is, as anticipated, enormously fun. The experience presented expected (and some unexpected!) challenges, for both of us; but as I become more accustomed to the adjustments one has to make on screen, it should become less challenging and more of a pleasure.
posted by Mr. Cameron | 10:55 am
|
0 comments
