Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Super Busy December of Wrestling and Filming

Well, I must say that today - Christmas Day - I have enforced a strict "no work" policy for myself.  Sadly, I have already broken this policy by re-posting some video announcements just minutes ago.  I was pretty good all day, but with so much in the queue right now, I can't help but be antsy.

And what is the reason that I had to enforce this No Work policy today?

The reason is because I've been running on the video-making hamster wheel all month!

I blame myself.  But I also blame VeVe.  And I blame all the visitors who came into New York City one after the other after the other.  We set up a bunch of shoots with visitors such as Bad Bad Bettie, her protege Page, Toned Tommi, MariQueen, ShortFuse Mark, and hometown lady Orlandoe.  And, of course, VeVe.

I had a little surgery at the end of November, and that put me out of commission just as the first shoot of our Whirlwind of a month was coming upon us.  So, I left the camera in the capable hands of Hanz and VeVe, who traded off filming duties.

That first shoot involved VeVe, Hanz, and visitors Bad Bad Bettie and Page.  VeVe took on Page in a submission wrestling bout.  VeVe then took on Bettie in a rope-tie style wrestling match, since VeVe and Bettie had already had a straight-up wrestling match about a year ago for Robin.  Hanz also took on Bettie and Page, one after the other.  And everyone arm wrestled each other at some point.

I was sorry to have missed seeing Bettie again on her trip here and meeting Page, but...

The next thing I know, VeVe dropped a ton of video footage at my studio doorstep.  And the heavy December began...

Once December came on, I was back on my feet and working the camera again.

As I was preparing, processing, and exporting all of this footage, the calendar landed on our shoot day with Toned Tommi, who arrived in NYC in the very first days of December.  We had set Tommi up for a competitive match against male wrestler Adrian.  When the shoot day arrived, though, Adrian had a family emergency and had to postpone the match until the following day.

No sweat.

However, that following day also happened to be when we had scheduled to shoot with other visiting wrestler MariQueen, a newcomer from New England.  So, we just set the Tommi vs Adrian shoot to take place later in the day, after the filming with MariQueen.

MariQueen was scheduled for a match against Clobberetta bright and early at 10 am in the morning.  VeVe also wanted to do a 2-on-1 match of MariQueen + Clobberetta vs her.  And that was the plan.  But upon arriving at the studio, we had a last minute idea to call in Adrian to see if he'd be able to come and film with these two ladies as well.  Luckily, he responded to the last-minute call and hopped on the train to join us.

As we were filming Clobberetta vs MariQueen, Adrian arrived.  And it was great that he did, because following the ladies' match, Clobberetta had to leave.  So, no 2-on-1 match as VeVe wanted.  But MariQueen was feeling really good and energized, so we decided to match her up with Adrian for a competitive mixed match.  And after that match, MQ was still raring to go - and VeVe was getting antsy from sitting and watching - so we gave MariQueen yet another match within that 1-hour time block in that studio.  So, after fighting Adrian, MariQueen then went on to wrestle VeVe.

That was a lot of wrestling for MariQueen, and I was impressed with not only her stamina and tenacity, but also with her highly professional and pleasant attitude.

Following this shoot, we had a bit of downtime before we had to head back to the studio again that day to film with Toned Tommi, Adrian, and Hanz.

We filmed a competitive match of Toned Tommi vs Adrian, which Tommi totally rocked.  She had a lot of fun with this match, kicking up some great taunting and trash talking as she spun circles around her opponent.  We then filmed a competitive match of Tommi against Hanz for Hanz's video store.  And Tommi took on Adrian and then Hanz in arm wrestling matches.  It was a great shoot, and everyone was in really good spirits.  Long shoot day!

Ok, speaking of long, this entry is getting long.  But at that point in time, so was my work queue.  And it was only single-digits December.  Oh boy.

Two days after that shoot day, we had a shoot with Orlandoe and Jason.  I call this "Orlandoe + Jason, Take #1."  The studio was lovely, the colors of Orlandoe's attire were splendid, the to-do list was doable.  And it was all going well until... this piano cut in.  I was right there in the middle of filming a moody spy episode for the Lethal Leotards series (more info on that later), and then in comes a jazzy piano from the blackbox theatre next door.  I thought I would jump out the window.

So, from that shoot, we got a lot of footage to start up Orlandoe's personal clips4sale store, called Orlandoe Supreme.  However, I wasn't satisfied with the femme fatale footage that I was going after.  So, I pursued Orlandoe and Jason for the following week, trying to get their schedules to line up for a re-shoot.

And I'm glad I did.  Because we did meet for a reshoot (Orlandoe + Jason, Take #2), but I changed the location of the shoot and I slightly changed the premise.  And I also made some drastic changes to the lighting.  The result was a very lovely piece called "Agent Orlandoe: Lethal Leotards Syndicate" - a spy domination piece - you know, jump you in your own home, I've been following you, and all the related loveliness.  And, of course, leotard and tights for the femme fatale.

Oh goodness, this is so long.  I will cut to the quick!

As all of this was going on, a fan suggested and sponsored a Bondage Wrestling rematch between VeVe and Keri Spectrum.  We were able to contact Keri and set up the shoot.  And this new bondage wrestling shoot took place, chronologically, between Orlandoe+Jason #1 and Orlandoe+Jason #2.  A splendid shoot-night that generated "Bondage Wrestling REMATCH: VeVe vs Keri", which proved to be very popular and held the #1 spot in the overall Bondage category on clips4sale for a week at least.  We also filmed a second bondage + wrestling video with Keri that evening ("Bondage Wrestling Race").  Even though I have that 2nd video processed and complete, I cannot even begin to think about preparing it for the store right now!  Talk to me in 2013.  ;)



What else?  Whew, I'm exhausted.

Oh yes.  So, less than a week after the filming with Keri, ShortFuse Mark came into town, and VeVe snagged him for a custom video.  VeVe and Mark did a secret agent themed video which I've dubbed Squeezing Seduction.  It's not a leotard & tights video; in this one, VeVe is a leather mini-skirted spy-assassin.  They also had a little belly punching wrestling match, and Mark proved to be pretty bad at punching... so, he ended up getting punched quite a lot.  A lot.  And, of course, VeVe and Mark arm wrestled as well.


Then moving closer into Christmas week, we made a nice little push to get out some holiday-themed material.  This, however, meant that the regular materials in the queue got put on hold.  But what resulted was VeVe performing Holiday Flexing (see excerpt on youtube), Holiday Balloon Squeeze-Popping (see excerpt on youtube), and Holiday green+red duct tape bondage escaping.  All this in addition to a ton of balloon-related videos and a very lovely duct tape mummification escape attempt.



And this brings me to here and now: Christmas Day at 10:40 pm.  I've been working the New-Release-O-Meter really hard this month, so I am trying to give everything some breathing room.

But there you have it, my update for December.  All of December.  I think.  Enjoy, and Happy Holidays to all!