Consequently, we set about uncovering some of the less obvious aspects of the shoot. We learned, for example, that after a massive time span of (gosh) over five years in the business, Charlie Laine felt like the “old lady” on the set as she had recently returned to the Southern California area. I’ve said before that “Life After Nudity” can be a very tough transition for some people, and, always a favorite of ours, we got to spend some quality time with Charlie, hopefully assuring her that at some point brains count as much as beauty so she probably didn’t need to panic yet.
Lorraine Sisco filled her usual on set roll of Producer, and after being sure all were present and had properly filled out their paperwork, began to look fondly toward the new year when she’d be taking a vacation to Thailand and other parts Oriental to observe a two-week Sumo Convention. Clearly I have failed in any efforts to try and understand the spiritual aspects of Sumo. Two weeks? … Uh-Huh.
The day really belonged to Jana Jordan, though, as her unique comfort and genuine joy at working with Michael again were continually apparent. For her very first garb on the very first shot of the day, Jana had to be helped into a quite tight latex outfit. I don’t know if you’ve ever had latex clothing, but it requires no small amount of oiling, and powdering, and careful tugging to get it all situated properly. When everyone finally got Jana ready, she sought out the director, saying, “So. This is what a dick feels like in a condom?”
Michael’s humor does become contagious.
One of the other necessary skills to master, should you desire to become a movie director, lies in the ability to “see” a very narrow perspective in your environment. The camera will only capture its frame, obviously, but being able to see a picturesque potential amidst chaotic surroundings happens to be a remarkably difficult skill to master. True to the traditional nature of our own photographic efforts, we set about trying to build a collection of “environmental” shots that would hopefully convey a sense of the location as a whole. Let’s be honest: Michael hires the best camera operators in the business, and they have all the typical Beautiful Ninn Shots covered well. Still, it was difficult to avoid all instances of moments meant merely for beautiful pictures, so if you’d just try to ignore all the attractive women in the following photo sets and concentrate instead on the background of the images, you can see what we mean.
While you’re busy looking at the backgrounds, you might notice the impending darkness in the last series of our display. As sometimes happens, the earth’s rotation wasn’t really cooperating with the amount of time Michael needed to finish up the scene. Most of the time this creates a big problem. You either have to cut the scene really short, or (more often) you end up pulling a bunch of lights onto the set, thus making everything you’ve already shot essentially useless because it won’t match the new fake light setup. Well, Michael being Michael, after all, he was watching the sun set and came up with a different solution.
Now I’ve seen a whole lot of approaches to lighting over the years, and I’ve even teased Andrew Blake on a set because he actually turned on a light to shoot, Mr. Blake being famous for shooting with the “available light” on his sets. Michael just called a couple of crew guys over and had some of the cars on set turned so that they were pointing toward the back of his shot. I could be wrong, because we tend to forget things as we get older, but I think I’ve only seen a set lit by automobile headlights one other time. By the way, that set was Fade to Blue, also a Michael Ninn project. At the very least, the man understands light, and that happens to be a much more rare ability than you’d think. More importantly, he understands beauty.
