Hi Everyone
Here’s a taste of great things to come for you in February! Brand new updates of Chloe Toy, Anita, Ariel, Delta, Czech Beauty, new models Agnes and Deann, Faye Taylor and more…
And returning in the members’ archives:
Hi Everyone,
Forums have gone out of fashion. We still have a vibrant community of RE friends, models, fans and followers but it has moved to our social media. Come and join us on our twitter feeds (@RElegance and @ArielAnderssen), or if you don’t like Twitter, you can join our Mastodon instance at KinkyElephant.com to see previews, latest news and general chat and gossip. For behind-the-scenes, we’ve been doing more and more on Ariel’s OnlyFans page.
Since a dead forum is worse than no forum, I will be retiring the RE forums very soon.
The one regular feature we will miss is the monthly previews, so I’m going to provide those here instead.
So check out more of what’s coming your way in January 2021 here!
And returning for your pleasure in the archives:
Hi Everyone and Happy New Year! Let’s hope 2021 is a bit brighter than 2020!
Like many creative enterprises big and small, for most of 2020 I’ve been in “survival mode”. I don’t mind admitting it- we’ve not been able to shoot with external models since March 2020, I’ve had to take most of the remaining jobs I’d outsourced back in-house, and we’ve had to adjust our lives and our businesses to Ariel not travelling and not modelling for other people, too.
As our friend and long-standing member and contributor Merlin said in an email to me yesterday, the result is that RE is looking a bit forlorn. Not in terms of content! We’ve never missed an update, we’ve got a very exciting batch of new models to showcase from Alexander Lightspear and I’m about to commission a new batch of Lockdown Selfie shoots from our best models, too.
The bit that needs attention is the interface and site design. Behind the scenes it needs https: secure mode and the latest version of PHP. But what it needs most is a refresh of things like the members’ home page and the CSS layout so it works better with mobiles and on large screens.
This is my major technical project for 2021. I’m aiming to get the redesign and revamp done in time for the site’s 20th birthday. I’ll be rolling stuff out in waves over the next few months and asking for your feedback and suggestions as we go.
Artistically I’ve got four big projects in the works (and a lot of little ones too).
The first is to master my new video camera: I’ve invested in a new Sony FX9 camcorder now that we’ve moved to Sony E mount for the majority of our lenses. I’ve shot a couple of test videos with it and it has some really lovely features like continuously variable ND filters which nicely complement the cameras we’re currently using. For example we can now do smooth indoors-outdoors transitions, something we’ve never really had a good way to shoot before. I’m excited to start using it on bondage shoots.
The second is to experiment with shooting with Anamorphic lenses for an even more cinematic feel. I loved the experiments I’ve done so far but my composition and (especially) set and production design needs work, and the best way to learn is by making more bondage videos that way. I’ve now completed my line-up of lenses so I have a wide-angle, a normal and a telephoto, and I’ve got hold of a second-hand Panasonic GH5 which has a proper anamorphic shooting mode which will make focussing and composition much easier as you can view the de-squeezed image as you shoot.
The third is to revisit old shoot plans. I’ve got a folder full of emails dating back 20 years with ideas to shoot. I want to go back and find the ideas I wrote but didn’t shoot on the day for one reason or another. It will be a lot of fun to bring them to life with 20 years more experience and the resources of the modern RE bondage storeroom and photographic kit. Ariel and I are going to be working on this a lot for the next few months!
The fourth is to write a big long list of ideas for models to shoot for us for the Lockdown Selfies project. It’s weird writing shoot plans for stuff where I am not going to be present. I’m going to have to relearn how to do it. It’s a throwback to 25 years ago before I’d shot anything myself and was commissioning a lot more customs, in a way, which is quite nostalgic.
Oh and fifth I just remembered I bought a new camera gimbal just before the first lockdown which I’ve not experimented with much yet, too. I want to get back into doing planned camera moves with it, scripted in more like the way Slave Auction and Day in the Life were. Having a camera permanently mounted on the gimbal should make setting those shots up a lot easier than laying track and using a dolly. Especially as we’ll be shooting in our house, which has lots of rooms but not all that much space to lay track. The gimbal should be much more agile. I’m watching the Hollywood Camerawork course again to remind myself how to block these elaborate shots efficiently and creatively.
So there’s a lot in store for 2021! Email me at webmaster@restrainedelegance.com if you’ve got suggestions for the site redesign or ideas for the bondage and artistic projects. I’ll be emailing the mailing list and posting here for feedback on specific things over the coming weeks and months.
Cheers, Hywel
Hi BDSM Community and Adult Industry folks!
UPDATE
As is always the way, the devil is in the details. Scheduling a normal-sized D&D group with adult industry folks looks like it is going to be a nightmare. Plan B: I’m going to run this as a series of one-off games for one or two people at a time.
On the plus side, many thanks to artists Devin Night and AAW Games for giving us permission to use their wonderful products during these games. Check out Devin’s token for VTT’s and AAW’s awesome maps – you’ll see them in action soon!
ORIGINAL POST
I’m Hywel Phillips, the photographer and webmaster of RestrainedElegance.com. I’ve been running D&D and other tabletop roleplaying games for almost 40 years. I’m going to be running a D&D game for people in the adult industry and kinky/BDSM community.
It will be online via the Fantasy Grounds virtual table-top program for character sheets, maps and tokens plus Discord for video conferencing and streaming. Having got permission to use their system, I’m putting the game together now. It’ll take me a couple of weeks minimum.
LINKS:
I’m looking for players from the adult and BDSM/kink industry and community to join in.
I need a group of three or four players to get started. Email me or DM me on Twitter if you are interested, but please read the rest of this post so you know what’s involved.
Start off small. Run a private “session zero” to get us to the point where everyone can log in, see their character sheet, join the video and voice chat. I help people figure out their settings for Fantasy Grounds and Discord. If we get that done with time to spare, we start a short adventure.
If that goes well I will run a few sessions, each of two to three hours, same time same day for a couple of weeks ideally. After that we’ll decide whether to keeping playing and how often to do it.
You will need to be happy to appear on camera via video chat and voice.
Apart from the private “session zero”, I propose that any of the participants have the right to record, stream or do anything else they like with the game sessions. I propose to stream it myself via Discord and publicise to my members, and maybe record the screen and put that on Restrained Elegance afterwards. If you want to record your screen or point a camcorder at yourself and stream to a webcam service or record for your OnlyFans or whatever, please go ahead. It is up to you to decide how to stream, who to give access to, whether to just use the discord feed or whether you’re pointing a second camera at yourself and recording that, etc..
None of us will be paid, but any of us can package up and distribute, sell or give away the footage of the games via our own channels as we like.
So all participants will need to consent to the other people in the game streaming or recording it and selling it.
I propose to allow fans to watch the sessions on discord, maybe write messages via the discord text chat channel, but not to participate via video or voice. I have (hopefully) set Discord up so than any of you as official players can block or mute or kick off anyone who is being annoying. If you have any concerns at any point tell me. There will be a zero tolerance policy – if someone harasses or upsets any of us that person gets blocked.
We will be playing D&D 5th edition because more people are familiar with it, and I’m comfortable with running it. I know there are currently some problems with WOTC, the company who own D&D, but I think bringing excluded adult industry voices in to the conversation can only be a good thing. We might branch out into other game systems in due course but D&D is the simplest way to get started.
The game setting is a stock high-fantasy elves-and-dragons-and-dwarves-and-wizards place called the Duchy of Falcondale, which I created for my Cosplay Dungeon video series.
If you’ve played D&D or fantasy computer games, you know the stock characters – fighters and rangers, sorcerers and thieves, bards and barbarians, orcs and ogres. You shouldn’t have much trouble coming up with a character idea that’ll fit. We’ll discuss by email in advance of session zero and I will generate your character for you inside Fantasy Grounds ready to roll. We’ll start the characters at third level, not too much to master but not as fragile as first level newbies.
A few things that are different:
The reason that I put these in place was as a framing device in the Cosplay Dungeon films to have both player and GM be comfortable roleplaying kinky and sexy situations, and to make more or less any intelligent creature a potential source of romance or a sex scene. I will do my utmost to ensure that the setting is free of trans- and homo-phobia. Sexism and racism are not going to be a thing in the game setting.
How you look, what you can do and your moral character are in no way connected in this world and “race” isn’t really a thing in the usual D&D sense. If you want to play a talking unicorn or a winged fairy, a halfling with the stats that a half-orc would usually have or a goblin with the stats a high elf usually has, you can. There are no “evil” or “inferior” races; the orcs in this barony might indulge in banditry because they are poor and the people travelling past have nice stuff. The orcs in the next-door barony are refined merchant prices who live the high life in tastefully decorated mansions.
Your mother might well have been a polymorphed talking lizard in dwarf form and your “father” her lesbian sex-demon lover suitably shape-changed. You can change almost everything about your physical body, including sex, gender and race, with a second-level spell. LOTS of people in the game world can cast that spell and do so enthusiastically every time they have sex.
While I think there would be some value in showing adult industry folks playing a purely-vanilla game where we fade to black the moment any sort of sex scene happens, I don’t think we should have to censor ourselves. I don’t expect every encounter to turn into a sex scene but I’m hoping for a much higher level of libido in this game world than I’d dare to do running a game for strangers at my local games club!
We will be using consent tools for the game. Similar to shoot and BDSM scene safewords, there’s a red/amber/green safety card system in place which I will explain in session zero.
Basically press the red “X” card if you are uncomfortable with the content at any point. The group will rewind or change the content. That’s like a red safeword. Use the amber “N” card if you think we might be heading for an “X” card and you’d like to change the content or fade to black and skip to the next scene. The green “O” card is for me to poll everyone to see if everyone is good to continue with a scene.
Are you OK to have non-consensual stuff happen to your character (as it would playing a damsel-in-distress character in a BDSM video?) Are characters going to get tied up by the evil baron, spanked by the head of their magical order, grappled and groped by tentacle porn monsters? Or you want to be able to romantically ravish the princess if the tone seems right, or turn the wicked baron into your boot-licking slave?
I don’t HAVE to run the game like that, but I think it would be kinda cool to include BDSM, kinky and sexual elements if the group is happy with it.
If you ARE happy with that, please tell me what kinks and BDSM roles you would like your character to be involved in. I’ll be delighted to make sure you character gets into lots sub/bottom/non-consensual (for the character) situations if you would enjoy that as a player. Likewise I’ll be delighted to have plenty of feisty but submissive-at-heart NPCs around for your character to dominate if that is something you as a player would enjoy.
Or I can restrict it to situations where that character gives explicit consent in-game (as well as the player obviously) if you prefer.
All of those things can happen if you’d enjoy switchy situations too and I can work in other kinky themes or fetishes if you’d like me to include them.
I’ll call for a show of green cards before describing any of this in detail in the game, particularly for the first few sessions where we won’t know each other’s limits and preferences yet.
Many of the NPCs will be poly, pansexual, kinky switches who might put up some “oh no sir” resistance but will fall in lust/love after you give them a bit of a spanking, in the light-hearted way we often see in BDSM kink erotica (Like “and then she has a forced orgasm after the whipping” in a BDSM film). And just as many will try to take the lead and dominate your character if you’ve expressed interest in that, too. The ogre is as likely to have a foot fetish and try to get a foot job from a character he fancies as to try to eat you.
If you’re not OK with any of that, this game is not for you. If at least some of it sounds cool, go for it.
If I can’t find any players who are OK with that well then I’ll just have to run the vanilla D&D for porn stars version instead.
As GM I will say a hard no: no sex scenes between player characters initially, because I don’t yet know how to handle it as a GM. (Not least how to handle the lack of spotlight time for characters who aren’t involved). I would be happy to figure out how to handle that once we’ve done a few games if people want to but it seems much more fraught with potential for upset than dealing with NPCs.
Religion won’t be a big topic. There’s a not-very-defined high fantasy set of polytheistic gods. If you want to worship the goddess of the moon, there is one. It’s not intended to have real-world religious overtones nor is it likely to come up much in play.
If any of the themes in the above checklist are of concern please let me know.
Tonally, I’m after pretty light-hearted. Lots of bad stuff can happen, but it’ll all have a happy ending.
I don’t do overly gory descriptions so while you might fight giant spiders or experience an earthquake or a corrupt city guard, we’re not going to linger over the horrible implications for hours. Zap them into slime and move on.
If this game were a movie it would probably be PG-13 rated for violence but 18-rated for romance and kinky sex.
Hello lovely models! It has been fantastic having so many of you send in “Lockdown selfie” photosets and videos!
The only thing that has been stressing me out is having to decide whether a set merits the “pro” level of payment or just the “selfie” one. As a result I’ve decided to just pay a flat rate of £125 per set or video rather than different rates for the two. I hope that’s OK. I’ve modified the post below accordingly. For the moment I’ve probably got enough of the selfie-style sets so am primarily looking for sets with full bondage.
Cheers, Hywel
Dear Models! This message is for you!
We have a year or more’s content for RestrainedElegance.com, so we’re doing OK: we can get by without shooting until mid-2021 if need be.
Nonetheless, it feels like a good thing to keep content coming in and so I’d love to commission some self-shot videos and photosets from you whilst we are all in lockdown if it sounds interesting and fun to you.
Ariel and I are locked down together as model and rigger/camera-operator team and a house full of bondage gear and pro cinema cameras. We know that few of you are fortunate enough to be in that situation. So we understand that what you can shoot for us will be limited by what (and who) you have around.
I’m looking to commission the following: (UPDATE 02/06/2020 – rates are the same for both)
10-15 minute video clip or 75-100 still photos. I understand that this might have to be very bondage-light. See below for ideas, although I have quite a lot of these now so I am primarily looking for sets with full bondage.
10-15 minute video clip or 75-100 still photos.
You staying safe is the most important thing, especially if you are shooting on your own. Make sure your phone is to hand, turn on Siri (or whatever the Android equivalent is) so you call for help if you get stuck. It’s only a fun BDSM porn clip, don’t put yourself at any risk.
If you are confident to self-rig a big old bondage set by all means go ahead. But for the self-shot sets it would be fine to…
If you prefer to work from a script let me know what sort of bondage items you have around to play with (including “none”, if we have to we’ll get really inventive). I will write a script accordingly.
If you’re up for it I’d also LOVE to see what you can come up with taking the above as inspiration and knowing the RE shooting style.
If you’ve shot for RE before, you’ll know that the aim is very elegant stuff, as pretty as you can make it. I’m not expecting Hollywood: the ring-light is your friend. Just make it as glam as you can.
Nude is always welcome, but silk and satin or cocktail dresses or maid outfits or secretaries or fantasy princess or anything you like to support a story as long as it is glam and elegant. Stripping off part way through is great.
You must be barefoot and show off soles of feet to camera for at least some of the clip. If you start wearing stockings or shoes they need to come off in the first minute or two. No opaques or ghastly socks (that means YOU, Sophia! 🙂 )
I’d like to avoid long clips all shot at the same camera angle- however compelling the content it doesn’t look as interesting without something changing visually. So please change angle a few times during the video if at all possible.
Closeups are great – details of bondage, details of gags and some shots of soles of feet. A few 30 second closeups go a long way to breaking up selfie-shot stuff. You don’t even have to move the camera, just come close and show off the bondage or the gag (especially if your camera can focus really close).
Please shoot in 4K if available. If you can send me the video files straight out of camera that would be best, but if the files are too big I can take them as eg 4K resolution 10 Mbps bitrate MP4 (which is what the final output for the site will be).
I’m happy to edit and grade the clips or you can edit before sending if you prefer.
If shooting stills, send me RAW files if available, otherwise the highest resolution JPGs you can produce.
“But my camera isn’t up to it!” – as long as it shoots at least 1080p HD or preferably 4K, it is. The photo at the top of this page was taken on my iPhone. I’m after your hot ideas, I know that it is not going to look like a regular RE clip.
For the payment you are granting me the exclusive rights to sell the sets/clips for RestrainedElegance.com. These clips are for my site, not for your Clips4Sale or OnlyFans, which is why I am paying for them.
It’s fine to shoot OnlyFans as a behind the scenes of you shooting it, of course, especially if you’d be kind enough to let your fans know that the final video will be up on RestrainedElegance.com.
I’ll send you a sale of rights agreement via DocuSign for you to sign and return with the exact wording. (I won’t put it all up here – it’s the same stuff as the RE model release).
If this sounds fun and suggests an idea to you, I’d love to see you film it for us!
As I said we have plenty of content so only shoot if you have a cool idea and can fit it in.