Hello everybody! I am just back from an amazing week-long location shoot with Chloe Toy, Faye Taylor and Scarlett Foxett. We hired a cabin in the woods location to film some horror-inspired photosets. My idea for the shoot was that the photos should be like publicity photos from forgotten horror films that never were – the sort of lurid shots that were used on movie posters, box covers and magazine articles back in the day that would suggest the story of the horror film and make it look as sexy as possible.
Of course this wasn’t all we shot- we shot some regular RE sets as well. But the horror-inspired theme was the main
aim of the trip.
I’m absolutely thrilled by how well they came out. The best working pattern turned out to be lighting and photographic style decided by me and Faye in collaboration, Faye taking the photos with me as creative director, then me stepping onto set as the monster/shape/stalker/possessed person to menace the girls. That worked best when Faye figured out that we needed to use me like a prop for the models – so Scarlet and Chloe would tell the story, acting and posing themselves, then Faye would position me to enhance what they were doing and make sure I was in the right part of her shot. It was a really enjoyable collaboration, especially with models of that calibre so all we had to do was enhance the storytelling that they were doing and
make sure we tailored the lighting, props, costumes and the like to suit.
I have a dilemma now as to what to do with these sets. As with the Kitsune Battle set that’s just gone up, some of them have fake blood, prosthetics (thanks to Scarlett Foxett for all her hard work on those!) and they generally have a darker tone than regular RE sets. They are mostly of the 1970’s Hammer Horror film vibe rather than anything too realistic – not least because it’s HARD to do practical effects without dedicated crew. But it’s certainly a departure.
We decided the thing to do was to shoot an RE set within each storyline – so there’s a point in each story where one or both of the girls get tied up, but before anything bad happens to them. We shot at least 100 shots of the pure bondage part like that, so that if everyone hates the horror film aspects we still have a saleable RE set from each storyline. Similarly we have shot a few sets with the horror theme that might sit well on SilkSoles.com too.
I’ve decided as with some of the other RE side projects like Elegance Studios or the D&D film that I should spin off discussion and promotion into a little mini-site: BrideOfDarkness.com. All the sets we shot will be available in full from the usual RE/SilkSoles/ElegeanceStudios eStore in a new category, I will just be linking to them from BrideOfDarkness.com so they’re all accessible in one place for Horror fans to find.
But BrideOfDarkness.com is NOT going to be a membership site, just a store window for the eStore individual photosets. If you want to see these sets as part of a membership, they are going have to go up on RE/SS. I will be putting up the “cut down” versions of the sets for sure, maybe with some setup shots for storytelling as well.
What I don’t know is whether I should put the sets up on RE or SilkSoles in JUST their cut-down form, the 100-ish bondage/foot fetish shots (maybe with a few of the set-up storytelling shots as well). Or should I put up the whole set, horror aspects and all? We promise that the cut-down sets look very much in keeping with regular RE sets, albeit on the more stalker/darker end, but nothing that you’d not expect to see in a regular set.
So the question really is – if you’re NOT a fan of the horror elements, is it going to freak you out to have the whole set including those later shots in the storyline on RE? Or should we just put the cut-down RE friendly sets on the RE members’ area and leave the full set to BrideOfDarkness only? You can always download and throw away the parts of the set you don’t like – and that way is less work for me on several levels. (I won’t have to maintain partial sets on the eStore or keep explaining it). But I don’t want to freak out existing members!
What are your thoughts? You can comment on the blog post here to let me know:
https://www.elegancestudios.com/wordpress/?p=29377
Hywel
The description of the collaboration in how the shots were made was very interesting. While I am a fan of horror, and also the darker themes in your photographs, I prefer to see beautiful faces unbloodied, and also fear that imagery with blood on your popular site will draw increased, unwelcome attention of conservatives anxious to characterize kink as dangerous and needing of censorship. My preference is that as much as possible, the blood-letting wouldn’t happen until the brides have made their way down into the crypts and dungeons on the lower level of the castle, behind a clearly-marked door.
I usually love anything with Scarlett Foxett or Chloe Toy in it, but I must confess I am not a fan of the horror elements. Seeing one of these lovely ladies covered in [even fake] blood makes me uncomfortable. But I know you guys like to stretch yourselves and experiment – and I applaud you for that. I am not offended by this kind of video (it certainly wouldn’t cause me to cancel my subscription); it is just not my thing. Keep pushing the outside of that envelope, by all means. That kind of craziness brought us the birthday party video with Ariel and Penny – which is funny, erotic, insane and wonderful!
I love the variance, as an RE member, would enjoy it as part of the membership!
As always with any new idea or feature or the site, I should reassure people that we’re not talking a radical change of direction here, just broadening the site remit to include a wider range of subjects with models who express an interest shooting it. Scarlett and Faye are huge horror fans, and Chloe wanted to give it a go for something different. Some models will be interested; other models will not and we’ll not shoot this with them.
Of around 500 photosets I have on disk waiting to be processed, only 20 are Horror! Even if I do a few more shoots, it’s still only going to be a small fraction of sets. Likewise, the “visiting Hywel the Pro Dom” sessions are only a small fraction of the videos I have on disk to edit. These may become staples of the site (in the way “blah to sex slave” videos or nude in metal sets have) or may be a feature I do for a while like GameOfSlaves was.
Nonetheless, I’m was aware that the fake blood stuff in particular might hit people’s “ick” hence the consultation. Thus far they’ve been pretty clearly in favour of putting up the whole sets. A twitter poll running right now is over 70% in favour, and that broadly matches the more detailed comments people have sent too.
Since doing it that way is *significantly* less work for me, that’s what I’m proposing to do unless the numbers change.
The sets will be clearly labelled going forward.
Horror and fantasy were the means through which I discovered my kink for barefoot damsels in distress. I cannot wait to see more of what you have cooked up. (PS: your slasher mask is spot on for the genre!)
Me too, hence the obvious influences on my work! 😉
Personally, I’ve never been a fan of most horror / slasher movies. I’ll watch one from time to time, but they just don’t do anything for me. As far as adding them into routine RE rotation, so long as they are clearly labeled as horror format, I have no issue with it. It’s not my thing, as neither is the harder BD/SM stuff, but so long as there is a decent amount of the “Classic” RE style photo sets and videos (read that as the more non-threatening or the more “Love Bondage” style) but if the bulk of the members are in favor of it, so be it. We’re all entitled to our own kink. I’ve been a site member far too long to be put off by about .04% of unedited photo sets being horror as opposed to “classic” RE sets.