Page 64 - AVN November 2017

FEATURE
What does the handheld shot convey that
the long static shot doesn’t?
It creates a feeling of intimacy because you’re
sort of in there in the action. It’s not perfect and
that’s one of the things that I try in an effort to
up the realism factor. The fact that everything
is so free-flowing and natural means it’s not
going to be perfect. If somebody stumbles over
their line or they don’t pick something I would
rather leave it in because it feels like it would
happen in real life where usually things aren’t
so proper. Same thing with the camera. The
camera gets right in there and can even kind
of move and adjust as the scene is unfolding
and it doesn’t have to be perfectly framed. It
doesn’t have to be completely smooth and
seamless. I actually like the grittiness of it. It’s
also, especially given the tone that we take to
present them, having that sort of intimate, right
in the room, adds to the overall emotional effect
that we’re trying to get out of it. And I take
that into the sex, too. So we have, in effect, a
gonzo camera throughout the entire sex scene
that is supported by the long lens, static on-
tripod shots. But we still are able to mix the
two together which is another taboo in itself
that we’re breaking in adult production, where
you’re either gonzo or you’re feature and you’re
not having this weird mix of both. We said,
“Fuck it, let’s break all the rules.”
“I WANTED TO TRY
TO BRING IN
CINEMATOGRAPHY
TECHNIQUES THAT
YOU SEE IN CRIME
DRAMAS.”
—BREE MILLS
And you get the good angles of gonzo within
the cinematic, three-camera structure, which
is always one of the challenges and I guess
frustrations that I felt from shooting in that
kind of classic, multi-cam static setup. You can’t
get in there; you can zoom in to a point but you
can’t get in there the way you can with gonzo.
But with gonzo you’re limiting yourself being
able to capture multiple angles and that sort of
thing. So it’s an interesting marry of both I’ve
found of what we do.
FEATURE | By Dan Miller
64 | AVN.com | 11.17
ACTING OUT Derrick Pierce and Elena Koshka bring intensity to “The Allowance.”
Many porn performers have little or no previous
acting experience. How do you navigate that and
how are you able to inspire them to go someplace
that perhaps no one ever asked them to go?
I’m pretty selective on who we cast and I try to do
my homework before we bring somebody on set for
the first time to get a sense of where … not just what I
see in terms of are they trending, but also what is their
personality like, what else have I seen them do? Do I
think I could extract something else out of them? So I’m
pretty picky about who we bring on and I won’t ever pair
two new people together. I’ll keep somebody from my
cast who I know has drunk the Kool-Aid, so to speak—
my favorite saying—and I will work with that newbie
and nine out of 10 times so far we’ve actually had great
success.
The first thing somebody does when they come on
set—and we’re starting to get to the point where people
are aware enough about the product that usually they’ve
done their homework, too—they’re kind of excited to
be there. My first thing is I make them watch an episode
because there’s no way to explain what we’re doing unless
you see it.
So I’ll have them usually watch one or two intros to
give them an understanding of the tone and the style of
the episode mostly because we really try to structure it
like a television episode. So it’s got an opening hook,
it’s got all these different elements. So I’ll use that as
a springboard to explain to them about the vision of
the product and how we make it. Then the first thing
that we do is talk about the characters and then we talk
about the backstory of all these characters. So who is
Elena Koshka’s character in “The Allowance”? How long
have her and Manny been dating? What’s the backstory
on all of that—and we’ll just create histories for all the
characters. So everybody knows before we start anything
what everybody’s backstory is. And I find that that’s
something that helps because a lot of performers, let’s
face it, they’re coming from something.
There’s some aspect of their personal experience that
nine out of 10 times they can relate to some aspect of one
of these stories, or they know somebody. Just to give you
an example I had a performer on set and we were going
through her character and the backstory and throughout
the course of the episode she’s explaining her story and
she said, “I relate to this perfectly, I’m going to just tell
my story.” And in the episode when she’s talking about—
in this case her character was a runaway—but when she
was talking about how that all happened she just told her
story. And I find that happens a lot with the actors we
bring on set because we first start talking about who are
these people? Who are these characters? It doesn’t matter
if you’re a villain or you’re a hero, everyone’s going to
have a story. That automatically gets everyone to start
padding their characters with their own life experiences,
which is that sort of method acting approach. So that by
the time they start to act they’ve just kind of created this
version or variation of themselves or somebody they know
so they can pull from it.
What I try to focus on with them during rehearsals is
just let’s not spoon-feed the audience. Let’s forget that
this is a porn production. Let’s try to put this in how you
would say it naturally. And the results are amazing. It’s I
think maybe the setting up the emphasis we take on the
characters and the fact that I’m kind of counting on a lot
of them to pull something from their own lives to bring
into the character that have allowed these performances
to come out.
But you know I don’t do anything but give these people
the stage and backstory. I think really if this project can
be a testament to anything it’s that the talent exists.
It doesn’t take very much to tap into it. It’s just never
tapped into. And of course people don’t recognize, man
that girl can actually act. She did do theater all through
high school; she has been very interested in that. But
it’s just never cared about. I think another great example
would be—I’ve shot Piper Perri several times and, man,
that girl can act. She’s one of the top performers in the
industry right now and she’s on all the ads and she’s
obviously got her look and her performing, but, man, that
girl can act.
But nobody ever gives her the showcase. It’s just giving
performers both male and female the opportunity to show
what they already have.
(Continued from page 104)