By Kay Brandt (Guest Blogger)
An
award-winning pornographer dives into the world of erotic fiction.
Excerpt
from The World of Cherry available November 22nd via
eXcessica publishing:
CHAPTER 1 – The Lady and her
Club
Only a special and specific type of woman do I hire. I
look for women who have substance—a story to tell—and not just
with their beautiful bodies, but also with their intelligence. Women
desire women who can pleasure their minds as well as their pussies,
and the girls I recruit need to be the best at both. They must also
present themselves in a professional manner and be willing to do
whatever the job entails. I never try to hide my own desires either—I
let every new hire know they must service me first. Their skills have
to be assessed before I place them in my company and like any other
business owner would, I take it upon myself to be the judge of how
qualified they are. Some are utterly gifted, and they naturally
become the most requested items on the menu in my stable.
The Cherry
Club, a private oasis for the most discerning ladies who want their
affairs with other women to be totally discreet as well as deeply,
romantically, wonderfully sexy, is my namesake—my baby. For the
past three years I've run my operation from very secret locations.
Not one soul, outside of my dedicated personal assistant, Dusty, and
the paying members, know where the club will be located until the day
of their visits, as the venue moves and changes as needed, and that
is how it must stay, no exceptions. I've learned far too well how
dangerous it is to expose yourself, even to those you think you can
trust. Losing the Cherry Club would be devastating—it is my life's
blood, the reason I'm alive and without it I would lose my mind.
Within the club, my members are completely free to be who they truly
are.
And so am I.
My
entry into the world of explicit storytelling was a strange, and
totally unexpected event. I had sent my resume to a “small creative
company” that was seeking a writer/director for hire. The four
desperate years leading up to finding that job post were riddled with
writer's block and depression as a screenwriter. I liked the idea of
writing books, but it felt like a rather claustrophobic activity,
incomparable to the freedom of scripting the moving picture. When I
read the job post, I thought about how great it would be to become a
member of this unnamed boutique production company as their writer.
No mainstream studio egos to deal with, or star trips, and no bozo
executive assistants who could care less about a writer with multiple
scripts sitting in development hell for years without pay.
Working
with a small group of “creatives” who just want to make movies
and not waste time doing the perpetual script runaround seemed like a
welcome relief. Indie film-making always appealed to me. I was a big
fan of the art-house film movement in the 1980's and 1990's. Most of
my favorite directors during those two decades made their first
movies in film school with miniscule budgets and yet they succeeded
with limited theatrical releases. Their names became known for being
experimental and that turned me on. I wanted to follow in their
footsteps, and make my own great indie pieces. The road to artistic
gratification was as elusive as the dominant world of corporate
entertainment, though. My inspiration dwindled, trying to please the
moody fluctuations of a downsizing industry and was tired of the
games. I had sunk to an all-time low, and gone back to retail as a
store manager selling high-end luggage. At that point, it was clear I
was giving up, and gladly, as it meant striving for the impossible
was over, or so I convinced myself.
I
wasn't expecting the voice of a quirky man who sounded rather square
when the owner of the unnamed company called me. The first time I
spoke with Dan O'Connell, the sixty year-old owner of Girlfriends
Films, it was like talking to a relic from the '50's. He sort of
blurted out that this small production company I'd sent my resume to
was an all-girl x-rated film outfit. He was a pornographer,
essentially, wrapped in an unassuming exterior, who just, you know,
built a company that only made movies based on his fantasies. He had
placed that advertisement because he was seeking a mainstream
screenwriter/director to take his company to the next level of
success.
I
remember standing in my bathroom, listening to his explanation of why
he chose lesbian for the 'model' of his business, and thinking, is
this guy for real? He invited me to the office so he could show me
around, and introduce me to the 'family'. I agreed, and went to the
plain, no frills, office in an industrial center, smack in the armpit
of porn valley. I actually prayed before going in—not because I was
asking God for the job, but because I was very unsure about what I
was getting myself into.
Far
from the typical billionaire-screw bag porn company owner one might
imagine a guy like Dan to be, he wore earthy sandals and inexpensive
clothes. I met his burly VP who was warm and friendly, as well as the
rest of the quiet, harmless office staff. The colorful, butch dyke
camera girl with a jet black Elvis Presley hairdo was my favorite of
the bunch. I instantly saw myself working side by side with her. Dan
explained that his brand was growing rapidly and needed a second
director, besides him, to meet the five to six movie a month output.
I shared my experience working within the realms of erotica.
In
the 1990's I had scraped together every cent I had to launch an indie
theater company for the purpose of producing my own stage plays. The
first play I wrote and produced just happened to be about two lesbian
strippers who were in love with each other. The irony of that moment,
and how I suddenly felt this sense of bizarre destiny, still haunts
me.
I
tended to write about the complexities of love, sexual characters and
romantic entanglements. When I was writing erotic lesbian stage
plays, it wasn't abnormal, as porn-based theater in Los Angeles was
the trend at the time. I never imagined the plays were a
foreshadowing of my future career as a pornographer, but that's
precisely what they were. The journey I was about to embark on was
like nothing I ever would have imagined.
Dan
sent me home with a handshake, a hopeful sentiment and a box full of
lesbian XXX movies to watch as 'research'--to see if I was really the
one to hire. Having been given the assignment, I did my due
diligence. The stories and girls performing in his pervy films hit a
creative chord in my soul. I emailed Dan the next morning with
absolute conviction that I was the right candidate and I wanted to
start immediately. He responded positively, and told me to write a
short script, no longer than five pages, featuring two girls meeting
for the first time. One should be older, as fans of lesbian XXX loved
the older/younger combo.
Believability,
heavy seductions and underhanded manipulation—the three key
ingredients for powerful lesbian porn. I proceeded to write a sweet
little story about a woman with a home-based cosmetic business
interviewing a new girl to do sales for her. Of course, the products
must be tried during the interview, starting with a sensual hand
massage.
Dan
was clear that dialogue and story setup were very important and that
his brand was associated with a popular catch phrase in the adult
biz, “story porn.” Apparently, after a decade of lackluster
'gonzo' flicks, which often times didn't offer good quality
material—the sex sucked as well the production value—the buyers
of porn were desperate for a change. Dan's 'accidental' style of
B-movie amateurish, fly-on-the-wall type of jerk-off film was a hit
and beginning to take over larger portions of market share.
He
invited me to jump in to the film-making, after buying the first
five-pager I wrote for him, and the next one and the next, until I
was writing/directing four to five movies a month. All the scripts
were original, convincing yet fantasy setups that almost entirely
took place in a house, as I had no other choice for locations. And
when he said low budget, he meant much lower than my lowest guess,
and I usually had two days to complete a release, which had to
include four lesbian sex scenes, dialogue, story setup and
conclusion. My dream of making low budget indie films had arrived in
an unfamiliar and shocking package. The dry spell was over and I was
happily back in my element.
My
creativity soared during the ten months I worked for Dan. I wrote
like a wildfire of inspiration, tapping into an old well of passion
for erotic storytelling that had long dried up since my stage plays
closed. I admit to running in fear my first few times on set,
terrified at the mere suggestion of being in the same room with naked
women having sex at my command. The typical excuse I used was
traffic—had to leave before traffic got bad—until Dan put his
foot down. It was a surreal experience, that beautiful women were
engaging in all aspects of my scripts—from dialogue to the first
kiss, and then whatever else I wanted them to do—willingly.
Pornstars
were surprisingly easy to work with, many of them actresses
previously, and I developed a core group of performers that were my
favorites to hire. The results of my directorial works was better
than expected, considering how nervous I was to take the helm with
the lovely nude ladies doing the deed often and repeatedly in front
of me—making love until I was good and ready to call 'cut'!
The
fans wanted longer, more luscious sex scenes and I was thrilled to
oblige, and gave the buying audience what they wanted. The longest
sex scene I filmed was more than one hour long, start to finish.
There was no stopping me—I had been sucked into the forbidden side
of movie-making and rediscovered an affinity for explicit content.
Soon, I had a loyal following of fans, each with their own set of
demands for what turned them on. Churning out unique, sexy stories
and making them happen on a shoestring budget became a daunting task
eventually. I didn't just want more—I had a hunger to strive and
achieve more—wanting to create what no one else had ever done in
porn. My movies had won awards for Dan, and I knew I could win them
on my own. Clearly, it was time to move on.
I
announced publicly my plan for Jewelbox Films—a high-end line of
all-girl content—and it quickly came to fruition. There were
articles in AVN written about me and my new endeavor, and I reached
out to an old friend—a filmmaker I dealt with when I was working
for a post production house during my last, broke years producing for
stage—who was the owner of one of the biggest and most successful
adult film companies in the business. He took a meeting with me right
away, and partnered with me to launch Jewelbox Films with two
groundbreaking films, “Cherry 1 and Cherry 2”. While writing
those two scripts, I also wrote fourteen X-rated boy/girl features
for his in-house director which were shot, produced and went on to
win awards and critical acclaim.
Making
my two babies, the Cherry films, was a challenge of sheer dedication
and belief. I was given a large sum of funds, much more than the
standard porn budget, and five days to complete production of both
films, back to back. It just so happened that during those five days
the worst storm of 2010 hit L.A., which caused numerous issues to
work around while we filmed, but the results were extraordinary. I
had a nearly 90 person crew working 17 hours a day until we shot the
last scene. For five incredible days, I was surrounded and supported
by gifted and talented people both in front and behind the camera and
the results were awe-inspiring.
The
Cherry films went on to be not only pornographic hits, but worldwide
successes. Both films swept the prominent adult industry awards in
2012 across AVN and XBIZ and received mainstream acclaim as well. I'd
followed in the footsteps of the filmmakers I most admired in my
youth, but in an entirely different field—one in which I found
fame—but more importantly, where I found my soul. My goal had been
accomplished.
Sadly,
in the afterglow of my proud achievement, the industry as a whole
took a drastic turn. Downsizing due to piracy, and other insidious
issues corrupted the adult sector at its core, and the company that
funded the films was sold. I went on to make several more
award-winning films after the Cherry movies and then ultimately came
upon the crossroads of fate once again. The stories living within me
needed a broader range of expression, and film-making could no longer
capture what I needed to express. It was time to venture out and
thrust myself into the challenge I'd been running from for too long.
It
was another one of those strange and unexpected events—the moment I
realized my stories, the entire story, not simply the setup leading
to sex, but the deeper world where the characters exist—was what I
truly write. The world of books, of writing erotic fiction, is where
I wanted to be. The inspirations had already been born on screen. The
elusive freedom of writing for film had lost it's power over the
endless and boundless expression of writing for the page. My stories
have come to life once again, but this time, nothing is held back.
From my imagination to yours, the next journey begins.
About Kay
For
two decades, Kay Brandt has been a theatrical writer of both stage
and screen. Best known for her cinematic work as the writer/director
of forty-five erotic films, including two of the biggest budget
all-girl films ever made, “Cherry 1” and “Cherry 2” which won
AVN and XBIZ awards and were distributed worldwide. Ms. Brandt
specializes in the all-girl/lesbian art of storytelling, and her
company, Jewelbox Films, develops high-quality erotic films for
broadcast. She has written many films for award-winning companies,
such as Digital Playground, New Sensations, and Girlfriends Films.
