Wow. It's finally June? May was out of control. Simply out of control. I lost track of how many things I filmed in May. I feel like I just kept stamping "May 2013" on so many video title cards.
We later got Candy and Sircee together to also get them on VeVe. The ladies came in for a wrestling match, but I was still so fixated on the 2-on-1 bondage match idea, as we tried to set up on the first attempt. So, after the ladies fought in the wrestling match, I asked them to stick around and do a second match in rope-tie style. Sircee and Candy readily agreed, both having been tied up by VeVe before.
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And I don't even feel like I can talk too much about May because the new release queue is still quite full of unreleased May videos. So, you know, I'm here thinking I need to get back to work at selecting preview pictures, selecting cover images (always the greatest challenge), and writing descriptions.
But here in this blog entry, I will talk a little bit about May. And then I will talk a little bit about cover images.
May 2013
May 2013 kicked off with a barrage of 2-on-1 videos. Various fans had recently been asking for 2-on-1s and other multi-person matches, so we got to work on putting one out.
Well, actually, hold that thought. Our FIRST release for May, which was filmed in late April, was supposed to be a 2-on-1 video that ended up as a 1-on-1. That was the incredibly popular "Bondage Wrestling: VeVe vs Candy Pain." Originally slated to be a double team of Candy + Sircee vs VeVe, but winding up as Candy getting wound-up and bound-up from going solo against rope expert VeVe. This was released into our clips store on May 1, and it proved to be a remarkably loved video, hitting the #1 spot in all Bondage category at clips4sale.
We next filmed a Karate video with Indra and Adrian. When that shoot was wrapped up, we decided that we just couldn't wait to get that first May 2-on-1 to happen, so we asked Indra and Adrian to put aside their differences and take on VeVe, who had been acting as the production director for the karate video. So, our FIRST 2-on-1 of May was also our first mixed team competitive 2-on-1 (one male + one female vs one female).
We later got Candy and Sircee together to also get them on VeVe. The ladies came in for a wrestling match, but I was still so fixated on the 2-on-1 bondage match idea, as we tried to set up on the first attempt. So, after the ladies fought in the wrestling match, I asked them to stick around and do a second match in rope-tie style. Sircee and Candy readily agreed, both having been tied up by VeVe before.
So by mid-month, we already had three 2-on-1 competitive matches: mixed, FvF, and bondage wrestling. And we rounded out the total with a mixed domination 2-on-1 with VeVe, Shauna Ryanne, and me in "Bondage Punishment in Leather," which we just released today. That's 4 2-on-1s for May 2013. How's that for a lot of numericals?!
May also saw the creation of the 4-way Female Bondage Wrestling video I mentioned in my previous entry. It also saw VeVe and Indra filming a karate "Iron Palm" striking video together, plus VeVe & Hanz in an intense Bondage Wrestling Rematch, as well as a new pro-style video a la "Diablo Dominates" (super shiny), VeVe's Boston Crab Domination short-video, and Sircee's first mixed domination video, titled "Sircee's Facesitting Smothers and Scissors."
Whew.
Some have been released, and others are still calling to me... even now... to come and create their preview pages.
Cover Images
Now a small discussion of cover images.
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. And when it comes to selecting a cover image for a new video, you want to be sure those are one-thousand very good words that say exactly what you need them to say. The cover is the icon for the product, and it is the loudest, strongest statement you can make about a production.
So, sometimes it is stressful to select a cover image. Sometimes, if a video is pretty diverse, we need to consider 4-way or 2-way cover images - images which are a combination of images. However, as colleagues and I have discussed, a multi-way image just doesn't have the same power as a good single image. That aside, the single image is bigger.
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Selecting the best cover image is indeed a task. Sometimes I wind up looking at several images that are only a few frames different and then deciding between those. Little glitches can "ruin" a good potential cover: bodies are great but face is blurred or hidden; faces look great, but too much motion blur; hand placement here looks awkward or inappropriate (!); everything is perfect, except that she/he is making a horrid face... for several frames. Big frown.
When I'm filming, I do actively try to look for the cover image as the action is going on. If I can mark in my mind "this moment is a perfect cover," it makes the cover search a lot easier. No need to tease the video frame by frame for the selection; I'm right there in the moment, and I can get the exact framing I need to tell the story in one shot. That is, of course, provided I'm not foiled by motion blur in post-production image-capturing.
When I appear in a video, I try to remember to tell my stand-in camera-operators: "Try to think of every frame as the cover image." Sometimes they get it, sometimes they don't. Sometimes I forget to give that cue. But I do think it is a good cue, and I do think it is a good way of working the framing.
In any case, that's my short statement on video cover images. And speaking of cover images, yes, I do need to get to work at selecting some for these unreleased May videos!
Thanks for reading. Until next time!
