I think you are reading far more intention into the selection of recent sets than actually goes into choosing the sets! 🙂 🙂 🙂

There are VERY many variables to think about when choosing what sort of set to shoot next on shoot day or process next on an editing day.

On shoot days, the ones we think about are probably these, in vaguely this order (though not always, as often we start out with say a storyline idea):

1) Which of the various models who may be around is this set going to feature?
2) Which of the various crew who may be around are going to shoot it?
3) Where shall we shoot it?
4) What sort of storyline do we want?
5) What clothes(or lack thereof) and styling do we want?
6) Metal or rope? Gag or no gag? Or something different?
7) Pick a suitable set of metal bondage gear or rope colour or cuffs or scarves or yoke or fiddle or whatever which seems to suit the choices we’ve made so far for the set, from the selection we have. (Sometimes we don’t have it all- the Norway trip was very restricted on metal, because of the flight baggage weight restrictions for example). This is very much an artistic and spur of the moment choice, unless the storyline specifically calls for a particular bit of bondage gear.
8) What sort of lighting shall we set up?
9) How are we going to tie her up?
10) Shall we add anything else? (Baby oil to skin, clamps to nipples, etc. etc.) It is here that “we haven’t done xxxxx in ages” might well crop up)

Now there are many, many, many little decisions contained within each step, but that’s the basic thought process. After a day or two, I will take stock, and make sure we are shooting what I consider to be a reasonable mix of:

1) We’re making use of all the models properly.
2) We’re not overusing one room we happen to like shooting in.
3) We’ve got a good mix of nude and clothed sets.
4) We’ve got a good mix of rope and metal sets and the occasional set with other bondage gear.

… and that’s about as far as the “calculations” go.

When it comes time to prepare the sets for the site, I look though the list of 450+ sets we have waiting to be processed and choose one. This will be largely determined by what I fancy editing right then.

When I’m done, I choose another set… still largely determined by what I fancy editing and find inspiring to process. By the time I get to set three or four, I remember that I probably need to think a bit about variety. There are far, far too many variables to wonder about individually- we keyword the sets according to 100 or so keywords. With 25 sets in a month, I simply don’t think about whether hogties or frogties had more than their fair whack over the last few months. Look at enough variables, and you are statistically guaranteed to discover what look like extraordinary trends. “They haven’t done hot wax in over a year!” “The last red lingerie hemp rope bondage set was back in 2009!”

While a few things have been conscious decisions (All sets are barefoot unless we specifically decide otherwise, and we’ve decided not to shoot more sexually explicit sets with dildos or vibrators except as very rare experiments) mostly they are just the result of how the crew and models have been “feeling” the sets should be shot on the day.

The only variables I really think about to make the decision about which set to process next are:

1) Artistic choice- do I feel like editing that set for this month?
2) Who is the model? How long has it been since we featured her? How many of her sets do we have waiting to be processed? Do people seem to like her? This also automatically means selecting a few sets by Alexander Lightspear each month, as he shoots some very lovely girls for us!
3) Which shoot are the set from? (I won’t process too many from a single location shoot in a month)
4) There’s at least SOME clothed sets, and SOME nude sets
5) There’s at least SOME metal bondage sets, and SOME rope sets
6) There’s at least SOME gagged sets, and SOME ungagged sets

And that’s pretty much it. That’s all the variables I consider. Any variation in other choices is arbitrary, subject to whim and change, and probably semi-random given that it comes from choices made by many different people over what to shoot over the course of the last three or four years and my personal whims as to which ones I feel like editing this month.

I think we probably have sets fitting most of your requests in the pipeline already on disk, and we certainly do try to bear specific members’ requests in mind at shoots (we have index cards with us with requests we think might fit the location which we look through for inspiration when we get there) but we just don’t break down the content of sets in anything like as much detail as that when we plan them, shoot them, edit them or schedule them, and we will get around to shooting as much variety as we can, but make the decision on shoot days as to what seems a good “fit” to the model and location.

I could start compiling statistics, compare how well rated sets are with with the different keywords, cross-correlate with download statistics and the traffic rankings of other bondage sites which predominantly feature those keywords, and try to optimize Restrained Elegance’s market position accordingly. But it would lose the “soul” and the original artistic freedom which makes RE special to us and which I believe has attracted a lot of creative people to enjoy the site- both as members and as participants in creating the material. It is one area where I’m going to resist the urge to overanalyse, and let people go with their artistic urges… except in as far as maintaining a reasonable variety by considering the above variables. 😯 🙂 🙂 🙂

So the best way of making sure we shoot the sort of sets that you want to see is to put forward an evocative, interesting, engaging request for a set featuring the elements you most want to see (and leave the rest of the details for us to ad lib on the day). Worrying about whether we’ve got into a rut is less helpful for us than an inspiring list of good ideas we can think about and put on our index cards for the next shoot 🙂

Cheers, Hywel.

It is a good question as to how specific to be in requests. Enough to give us a general idea of what the set should be about, plus anything that you think is important to get across… but not so much that we’re snowed under with the weight of details which I can guarantee we won’t be able to follow to the letter on shoot day however hard we try.

The more specific requests are good. Anything which will inspire us to pick up that suggestion card on shoot day!

I think it helps to catch one’s imagination with a storyline. “Princess disguised as a scullery maid” starts bringing details to my mind, and is inspiring to work with, whereas “bondage that incorporates dowels and poles” is simple enough to do, but not as eye catching or as suggestive of the other details and ideas that might flow as a result of it.

So the princess one is likely to get picked up when we are at a suitable location, whereas the dowels may languish in the suggestion box because nothing about it says “yes, we absolutely must shoot something like that on the stone floor in this kitchen while we’re here!”

The optimum is probably a one sentence summary of the story, a one sentence summary of the bondage plus no more than two or three pointers to the staging: clothing, styling and/or mood. Concentrate on the details which are critical to your vision of the set (like the bondage, if that’s really what is behind your inspiration, or the fact that she’s in a ball gag) and don’t embellish with too much extraneous detail.

That matches what we write down for ourselves when developing an idea- we’d start with the “banner headline”.

“Trophy Girlfriend Shop!” says one of Ariel’s enthusiastic ones in the suggestions box (which we haven’t got around to shooting yet).

Bondage isn’t directly suggested by the storyline, but we might imagine that anyone buying a trophy girlfriend from a shop might want them to be very decorative indeed- so perhaps an elaborate and very neat rope web might be suitable. So sentence two could be “Elegant rope web bondage, maybe on her knees?”

Details- we’d want to stage this in somewhere that looks convincingly like a shop, so the details would be “set in somewhere that looks like a shop where you can buy tied up girls”, but we might also want to add the detail of the shop selling collars to lock on to your trophy girlfriend when you get her home, or (given that its Ariel’s fantasy…) maybe they demonstrate the three different levels of punishment and discipline they recommend to keep your new trophy girlfriend in order.

Note that we’ve not spelled out what the shop might look like- there’s no need, one can imagine that pretty directly. If we were shooting it in the studio, with just one model, the shop would probably be dressed with lots of bondage gear. If we were shooting on location, perhaps there’s more than one girl to choose from, and it might be a bit like stables. We’ve not said what she’ll be wearing- naked would be an obvious suggestion, but if we’re in a glam location, having her wearing elegant evening wear and a Tiara might be a better fit.

That’s sort of what we do when we’re planning and shooting ideas, so starting off with those sorts of things is probably the most useful and helpful for us 🙂

Cheers, Hywel.