It was already over 80 degrees by the time I rolled up to the shoot location for Body Slam in South Los Angeles, and it wasn’t even 9:00 in the morning. Septembers in L.A. can be rough, and this was shaping up to be just a bit south of ‘tolerable.’ We were shooting in a boxing gym. The concrete walls were all painted black, because the universe just seemed to want to make this shoot as hot as possible.
The rest of the crew and I began unloading gear, and I made great use of the little toddler wagon I cart ‘Lil Jeffton around in. We were given a tour of the gym and the spaces we had available to us by the proprietor… who also told us that the air conditioning in the building was broken, but that there were a few fans scattered about. Great.
The gym itself was nice: a full-on ring set to one side of the large, open building. Exercise equipment sat next to it along with a large metal rig housing about nine punching bags of different sizes and materials (something I learned really quickly is that it’s virtually impossible to pass by nine punching bags without taking a swing at one of them). Lockers, a bench, and a mini steam room sat on the other side of the ring.
A wall with a door separated the gym area from the back area. This became our staging area for the shoot: a place for all the equipment and somewhere to put the backdrop for the stills. The office became the makeup room and green room for the performers.
The day began with three performers on-set: the fantastic Nathan Bronson, an enchanting newcomer with an adorable Southern twang in Kay Carter, and the thoroughly intoxicating Victoria Voxxx. Everyone was super friendly. Even with over ten years of adult experience, I’ve yet to come across a truly sour performer. And in my short time working on sets, I haven’t met any performer that wasn’t a pleasure to be around. The worst of it so far has been a bit of distracted standoffish-ness.
Once the girls were made up, they were shot for the glamour stills. I never get tired of seeing those photo sessions. And being the BTS director, it is a really good thing to capture on video. Some “inside baseball” for you: the footage can be used to break up segments or can be put to music because it’s usually just a beautiful woman posing and voguing… but it can also be a great time to catch some hilarious candid conversations!
When it came time to start shooting, it was already well over 100 degrees in the gym. Filming had to be done with all the fans off and the doors closed. Between the heat baking the building, all the bodies inside, and the filming lights, it was… unpleasant to say the least. Prep for this scene began with director Kay Brandt doing a bit of stretching and fighting instruction with the women. Kay has a history of being a fitness instructor for some kind of fighting/exercise practice whose name escapes me. The scene began to roll. Nathan’s character is an instructor inside the MMA gym. Body Slam is about the estranged daughter of an MMA gym owner coming back from Thailand upon her father’s death to reconcile with the grief, sort out affairs, and confront the men of her past.
Nathan’s character gives Kay Carter and Victoria some instruction. Nathan has a background in martial arts (and as a stunt-show performer), which helped with the authenticity of the scene. They then did stills of Nathan stretching the two of them out (alongside some sex stills)… and then it was on. It didn’t take much for the three fit and fine performers to heat up. They made use of some yoga mats and a bench to great effect. But my little contribution to the scene, the suggestion that they climb up on a weight rack for more variety, pushed this scene to over-the-top levels of hot. You can see that here in Episode 1.
And speaking of hot, it was so gnarly in the gym by the time the scene was over that everyone took to the fans in turns—bathing their face in an industrial shop-force gale. By the time the threesome had wrapped up, the star of the movie, Febby Twigs got out of makeup and was doing her “pretty girl” stills. And as Nathan, Victoria, and Kay said their goodbyes, Michael Swayze (all 6’5″ or so of him) showed up. Michael plays Evan: Josie’s (aka Febby’s) ex. The two characters have much unresolved and when they meet in the film there is an immediate romantic and sexual tension.
There was a fair bit of dialogue filmed before it came time for Michael and Febby to square off in the ring. Both had a bit of martial arts experience, so it wasn’t too tough to choreograph a sexually charged little sparring match. Wrestling on the mat leads to a romantic entanglement just outside the ring for the sex in Episode 2. It was also the close of filming for the first day—a day filled with everyone drinking tons of water, wiping themselves down with towels, and going out into 90-degree weather in order to cool down.
Day 2 began weather-wise just like Day 1. It was a relief not to have to lug all the equipment in and set up again. Febby was back on set early, and so was the new trio of cast members in Derrick Pierce, Will Pounder, and the formidable Krissy Lynn (I say formidable because I seldom get starstruck, but Krissy had been someone I’d admired for so long that it was absolutely intimidating to meet her. Luckily she proved to be a complete sweetheart).
Derrick and I knew each other from the set of The Lustful Wife, where, without knowing we’d be working together on a fighting movie months later, we talked about his passion for boxing and working out. Will (who hadn’t yet won his Best Male Newcomer AVN award) did a good job on social media discussing his professional fighting past.
I split my time focusing on the guys practicing their moves, talking to Febby in the green room, and watching Krissy’s photoshoot. Krissy seemed the most natural and best-prepared for a shoot of all the stars I’d seen. It was incredible seeing her go through poses and oozing pinup eroticism for the camera. The fight was pretty awesome, and the capable cameramen David Lord and Sal Genoa came up with really creative ways of filming it without getting clobbered in the process.
The fight finished, and with everyone sweating their balls off (even the women), it was time to shoot the final sex scene of the three episodes we were filming. A threesome between Krissy, Derrick, and Will was moved over to the lockers just opposite the gym from the Victoria Voxx, Kay Carter, Nathan Bronson scene. The sex was difficult to film. The gym was a cauldron, and shooting had to be halted multiple times for the performers to catch their breath and hydrate. You’d never be able to tell from the final version (watch Episode 3 for a gander). It was brutal, but everyone was in a good mood, and we got through it with a great production of smut for your pleasure.
More exposition was filmed after that. And during the filming, production assistants set to task transforming a corner of the gym on the other side of the wall into Josie’s Thai meditation space. Several props had been brought in in order to make a ‘room’ that looked Asian-inspired and spiritual; it looked awesome. We were all completely gassed by then: tired, sore, and caked in dried sweat… but Febby really came through. She delivered an awesome and emotional bit of acting as we were butting up against curfew for the filming location.
The literal moment “cut” was yelled, we were in high gear collapsing the set and carting all the gear back to the trucks and vans. Much of the crew stuck around in the parking lot to have a moment of peace (and smoke) together. And completely stiff and sore and sticky, I headed back home with another wonderful Kay Brandt creation under my belt.
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