Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Instant Replay

I recently downloaded the second Rural Chastisement video from Spanking Online.

In the first film, I arrive at the country house of my conservative relatives, and quickly find myself over Mr Cameron's knee as he demonstrates the consequences of breaking their overly strict household rules.

In the second part of the story, I've been caught using the internet - which is, of course, forbidden - and have been sent upstairs to wait for my punishment. Both these movies were made on the first SOL shoot Mr C and I did together. As the second was the last film of the day, we decided to take advantage of the deep trust of our D/s connection, and raise the CP level a few notches.

It had been a tough day; I was already bruised. I made the mistake of wearing lacy knickers under my skirt, and when he started caning me over my clothes, every stroke made the lace bite into my skin. He hadn't even started counting the strokes yet - he was just "warming me up" - but it hurt far more than I expected. Within a couple of minutes I was crying, and I couldn't bear the thought of the severe caning that was to come. In other circumstances, I might have cut the scene at that point, explained what was happening and asked the top to go easier on me. But Mr C is my Lord: he knows my reactions so well, and I know that I can trust him to read me, to not push me too far, to keep me safe. So I let myself sink deeper into the scenario.

By the time he had me kneeling on the sofa with my forehead pressed into the cushions, I was already in subspace. The 24 strokes that followed were some of the hardest I've ever received on camera. The cane was one of Chopper's which we won at Night of the Cane - thick, stiff, very heavy. I could feel each stroke bruising my already welted flesh. By the end of the scene I'd reached that point of acceptance and helplessness where I was completely in Mr C's hands. My makeup was ruined, my hands were trembling, and when the cameras turned off and he hugged me tightly, I felt that familiar rush of fragility and elation.

We were both looking forward to seeing the film. Of course, the caning doesn't look as hard as it felt - it never does. But watching the chemistry between us recorded on camera is very powerful for me. It makes me very proud of us both :)






The thing is that I'm not convinced by some of the editing choices made in the final cut. It's quite common in spanking films to repeat particularly good strokes from different angles. Say, one shot of the stroke hitting the bum, then an 'instant replay' showing the facial reaction. Many people find that re-showing a single stroke from other angles, sometimes in slow motion, enhances the pleasure of a particular moment.

In this film, though, it just doesn't work for me. For one thing, there aren't any facials in this scene, so the repeats aren't obviously repeats - it took me a while to realise that I wasn't just making uncannily identical noises after every stroke. For another, they repeat almost every stroke. Yes, most of the strokes are very hard. No, that doesn't mean it's okay to disrupt the film by re-showing every single one of them. Mr. C is an accomplished actor and Dominant - he puts a lot of thought into controlling the pace and flow of a scene, whether on camera or off it. And so do I - I may have felt helpless during the filming of this scene, but there's always a part of my brain on autopilot, varying my responses a little, drawing them out, creating a nice pause between each stroke, finding the balance point between kicking and struggling, and keeping my position.

It was already a long, intense scene - the editors didn't need to draw it out any more, they didn't need to 'add' intensity or impact. This film would be even more intense if the viewer was allowed to get lost in the fantasy in the same way I did during shooting. For me, the doubled shots break my suspension of disbelief - I become too aware that I'm watching a movie, it disrupts the power of the scene.

Or perhaps my dislike is pure pride: I did this scene without a single cut, without pausing for a rest or to catch my breath, without any break between strokes other than the ones you see. And once they've added replays from multiple angles, you can no longer tell.

What do you think? When you're watching a spanking fantasy, do you find repeats and instant replays effective, or distracting?

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:29 AM

    Mostly I find it distracting. Occasionally, it is good to see a really hot stroke from every conceivable angle (except from the inside (..what?). I really hate the slow motion replays though. I guess it had novelty value back in the early Eighties, but that's about all you could say for it, and even then perhaps "value" is the wrong word.

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  2. Anonymous3:53 AM

    I much prefer seeing a punishment session in real time from start to finish. Maybe with the sort of interludes that would show you in the corner, Pandora, rubbing your bum and waiting for your correction to resume. But a well-staged, well-performed, well-filmed spanking session doesn't need any gimmickry to be entertaining.

    An awful lot of things can take away from the effectiveness of a CP video. Too much off-camera noise, bumping and scuffling around; too much visual attention being paid to such activity by the spanker; either way too much or way too little reaction to the smacks...to mention just a few.

    I've seen two or three of your F/F videos, Pandora, and I've been tremendously impressed. I've seen your lovely bottom bared and spanked and fondled and strapped (I'm not big on caning), and my CP passion has been expertly satisfied without any reliance on gimmicks.

    Seems to me the people who really know what they're doing in this field, the people who share my addiction to spanking, don't need slow motion and facial replays and all that. They know what they're doing, and they go ahead and do it, yourself included.

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  3. Remus - I'm glad you agree! I've seen slow motion replays used effectively in promotional materials, but during a scene, I'd much rather experience on the build-up of emotional tension without disruption.

    Bruce - Mm, cutaways are something entirely different. In this particular video, the strokes are re-shown after a pause, with full sound. So you get the awkward effect of hearing my cry repeated, making it sound more like an electronic music sample than the soundtrack of a movie.

    I hope that most of the films I've been involved in have avoided the dangers of your second paragraph. And I know a lot of people "addicted to spanking" who appreciate replays and slow-mo in the right context. Sometimes it's more appropriate, other times less so. It has to be handled well, though: merely including footage of every stroke from both angles without any clever editing, music, or variation is just a waste of a scene which the actors put a lot of energy and care into producing.

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  4. Anonymous5:23 PM

    Conservative. Mr Cameron. Is this a side to the Leader of Her Majesties Loyal Opposition that we ought to know about?

    Rather more seriously, it does tend to annoy me when strokes are replayed or slowed down. It makes it more "unreal", I would say. You notice the artifice, which you don't when you see different strokes from different angles, or the facial reaction after the stroke (particularly when it takes a while for the impact to be fully felt).

    It means that I notice the artificiality rather more. Which ruins the whole thing for me. And the sort of slow moving sonic boom sound which sometimes seems to accompany these things just makes it worse.

    I do have, in contrast, a nomber of videos on my computer which show the same scene from two or three different angles. The whole scene at once. That way we can get the different views, rear, side and face, say, but yet get a complete spanking in one go, and not all chopped up.

    David

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  5. Anonymous11:39 PM

    I prefer the Realspankings approach where they film the punishment from two or three different angles and provide both views.
    You see the uninterrupted facial view as well as the bottom reddening.

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  6. Anonymous12:55 PM

    Pandora et al.
    I shall pass on your comments to our editor.
    However, the reason we often do this is because so many of our "actresses" are truly appalling at receiving the rod or suchlike.
    They may not even moan when it is glaringly obvious it hurts like hell as we see them grit their teeth.
    So we cut and ask them for a little bit of verbals etc...
    I know what you mean with the repeats, and it does make me laugh sometimes when I hear your squeal repeated again, however, all I can do is pass on your comments.

    Personally I would show as much variation as poss.

    As for Real Spankings,I really HATE the way they show 2 camera angls like that one after the other, it's an old ruse to get more footage out of a short scene. Not impressed with that at all.

    Offer it as an extra on top of an edited script and then I'd go for that!

    Regards,
    Chief. (for SpankingDigital)

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  7. David - Exactly. I agree with you entirely that it makes a scene seem more artificial/unreal. It's fantastic fun sometimes to see individual hard strokes of the cane or paddle in slow motion, but as an "optional extra" - not as part of a continual narrative.

    Anon - I can understand it more easily in the case of facial reactions, although I'd still rather have some strokes shown from one angle and some from another, rather than reshowing strokes.

    Chief - I can understand why it's an appropriate technique for some films, but not for every film you make! It did seem to have been used unnecessarily and somewhat indiscriminately in the case of this film - someone following habit or procedure rather than actually thinking about what this particularly movie requires.

    If you have a long caning, and you want a variety of angles, you can always show some strokes from one angle and some from a different one. Showing every stroke from every angle available just seems redundant!

    If you like variation, then great: have some films which have all the gimmicks, and others which are straight footage of a very real, very intense punishment :) That way everyone will get something they enjoy :)

    Thanks for passing on my comments, I hope they'll be taken in the spirit they're intended! I'm normally very proud of the product SOL releases and I know your technical staff put a lot of work into the editing process. I really appreciated that they let Mr C and I indulge ourselves with this scene as well - the director just let us get on with it, which was great as far as we were concerned! I don't want to be petty in my criticisms, and I know that people will always differ in terms of their preferences. As I said in my entry, I am possibly just being too proud ;)

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  8. Anonymous4:13 PM

    I'm with David and Bruce on this one. Cheap tricks detract from the actual film. Just don't get me started on artificial, otherwise I will rant about Battlestar Galactica, which I know you like :-)

    That said, I definitely don't mind changes in the camera position mid-scene (often used to hide cuts, one suspects). So long as the continuity is preserved, then there is no problem. We all know that in film and TV multiple takes are edited together to form the finished product.

    At the end of the day, the cameras are there to allow the viewer into the scene, be it film, TV or Internet download. If the camera work is clunky (ala BSG... oh yeah, oops) or the editing is sloppy, it interferes with the viewer's enjoyment.

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  9. Anonymous3:22 PM

    I agree with you Pandora and I think that it would be better if the leading ladies had more of a say on production. I think that Rosaleen Young showed the way and I hope that with experience you will make your voice heard with the producers. Just because a girl is submissive doesn't mean that she can't be assertive most - when her art/se is at stake:)

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  10. David: I can tell you with some certainty that my politics and those of the Conservative party can't see each other on a clear day with telescopes. Also, I have better hair ;)

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  11. Anonymous12:18 PM

    Its much better to see the whole thing in a linear and real fashion IMHO, with cuts to the face to see the models reactions form time to time.

    Its great to see a model who can take so much punishment and come out the other end smiling through the tears :D

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