Zoey Winsmore's 'The Business of Women'

From Thorgal McGillivary's breakthrough project 'So You Wanna Be A Pornstar' to the current blockbuster Intergalactic SLUTS, series are a wonderful addition to the adult entertainment scene. Just like in the real world, series add a different layer of complexity and offer immense possibilities from a narrative standpoint. And with the 'porn' machinima being a creative outlet atypical when compared to the RL pornography, with a strong, collaborative and personality-driven scene, the series format seems to bring out the best from directors ambitious enough to undertake this task.

It is the case also with Zoey Winsmore's 'The Business of Women - A Lesbian Porn Noir', from Naughty Pixel Productions and featuring some of the finest talent on the scene, starting from the main character wonderfully ported to SL by Stacia Reinoir, and including Adele Simondsen, Sandy Miggins, Miss Emily. The general plot of the series is as follows...

"A lonely escort is recruited by a powerful business woman to leave the call girl life behind and join her Empire. After a rival business woman discovers a woman who can bring the rival’s Empire down, it’s up to the new recruited escort to use all her training to save the business. This tension-filled erotic feature from Naughty Pixel Productions will leave you questioning till the very end: Who is the ultimate boss babe?"

A series about power in many ways, very intriguing....and full of intrigue indeed!
Zoey has been so kind to answer my silly fangirl questions about it, so here you have it ! Enjoy!

- When did you get the crazy idea to make a series, and why a series?

" The crazy idea that got me to make a series comes from that I just love them. Emily did some in the past and I really was excited about them. There is not much when it comes to series and I wanted to do series also as it is for me like watching things develop storywise. My current series, 'The Business Of Women' of course shows that in every detail such as the personality each cast member has.

A series has a much better story line and I just like my movies to have that. I don't do just a movie that just has two or more have a bit of sex in a movie. Doing a series is like a big movie and ofcourse I can give more then just two Pornstars a role. "

 - How many episodes are in the series and how far are you into the filming and editing, currently ? 
It's a complex project and we have seen just 3 episodes, but you can start telling us already what a director has to deal with planning something with that structure. Not as simple as filming the plot from A to B, i imagine, just managing the sets must be difficult! 

" The Business Of Women series has a total of six episodes. At the moment three episodes have been released on my studio blog and I am now halfway for this series. Currently I am shooting Episode 4, it is about a third filmed and this episode is the only one where all castmembers have an appearance in a episode. The last episode will ofcourse unfold who is going to be the ultimate boss babe... hehe.

Yes, It is complex cause of the details in the story line that I want to keep intact and for everything to make sense, as I only cover half of the time of what the original real vids are.
As a director making movies, a lot comes to me dealing with set building, the placements of decorations to make the rooms look good. Selecting poses I need to use, and ofcourse scheduling with my cast to do the movieshoots. It definetly is a more complexed project then just with photography or a short five minute movie for sure. And I also only do a two to three hours per day as a maximum for a film shooting."

- What was the best part dealing with inspiring source material such as the Girlsway series, and what are the most challenging parts to try and bring in SL? Something in particular that was in the original series but would not translate well in SL and you left it ouf for that reason? Is there anything you didn't like and wanted to change?

" The best part is that their vids have amazing stories to them. For me that is the main goal dealing with inspiring material. I love that they do series, Girlsway really became my top site for sure. :) Unfortunately not everything is able to fully recreate in SecondLife, I wish it was hehe. The poses are not always similar and for that, I have to find replacing animations and that can be challenging if I want to have those as close so the dialogs and sounds are also making sense being used.

For my current series, I mostly leave out the walking scenes. And in episode two, I decided not to cover the part where the Characters, Samantha and Charlotte walked to two different spots of pools at the house to finally finding out, my character wasn't even there. It was like back and forth walking through the house and it wouldn't translate very well to do this in SL in just about 15 minutes. I also try my best to have a balance in only dialogs and the sex scenes, having that at a 50/50 rate.

Everyone might think walking scenes are easy, but they aren't as those are the scenes that have to be very well timed by pornstars. They also take alot of time as they might have to be redone a couple times to get a decent good looking scene. Not saying I can't cover those, I can and have done that lots of times in previous released movies. But for Business Of Women, I decided not to do them and focus more on keeping the dialogs/storyline in a half reduced playtime intact. That is the thing I changed. "

- Give our readers an idea of the work that went into making the first 3 episodes a reality. How long did it take to build the sets, actually film it, and then edit it in its entirety? What did it take the longest and were there hiccups, too?

" Because of keeping storyline intact and making sense, making the first three episodes took me 24 hours to only film scenes, spreading shooting days over a few days. I don't really need alot of hours for setting up the sets, that I do in about an hour for each scene I need. Editing is the part that takes the longest of all, episode 1 and 2 both took about 50 hours each spread over a week. There were some hiccups for Episode 2, mostly with scheduling and a limited time to film the scenes. I only had about an hour per day, and there were sometimes a week when I couldn't work filming."

- You obviously are focused now on this project, with the rest of the filming going on, the editing etc. But what's next for Naughty Pixel in 2015? 

" Yes, this series is my first and biggest focus now. Currently filming Episode 4 and I want to have this episode finished and released this year. But with the upcoming holiday season, it looks like Episode 5 and 6 will be released in the new year. It has to do mostly with availability and scheduling and I just know this will be very difficult in December. I wanted to have this series finished in 2015, again hiccups.

I also have filmed a movie that I decided to do to help with an auction for a friend in need, and this movie will also be released soon. Since we are almost in December, I am going to enjoy the holidays and pick up with the last two episodes of The Business Of Women in the new year. And I will start selecting movie ideas for 2016. And most likely do a new series, but will pick projects that are not so intense and more easier to film. A few ideas I have already decided and chosen. "

- Do you have any tips for aspiring actors/actresses who want to maybe work with you in the future, and to people who would like to try their luck at directing? 

" Any aspiring actors and actresses that would love to work with me in the future should take a look at my studio blog, Naughty Pixel Productions at http://www.naughtypixelproductions.nl and fill out the application so I have something on file that I use for castings. I also might cast if I see someone at parties but the best tip I can give is to be around, be at parties, so we directors know you can be available. Unfortunatly, too many times it still happens someone new comes to groupchat or IMing a director asking to make them a pornstar, and then we don't see them anymore at anything.

Another tip of course is, to do some little homework and get to know who is who in our slporn industry. To inspiring new directors, to what we really can use more in slporn scene so more new aspiring actors and actresses can be in movie productions is to know this job requires much more. Making sure to have the time put into something. When I started, I got the tip to learn filming and moving camera. Learning the applications you want to use. Experiment with your skills and find what you like most. It's not easy to say tips for this, cause everyone will have their own style.

The only tip I guess I can give is to have fun when wanting to become a director. Keeping in mind, making movies will require more hours investing then doing a single photo. "

- That'd be all i think! lol. Thank you SO much for your time! 

" It totally was my pleasure. Thank you for covering the "The Business Of Women" series with this interview. I hope everyone will enjoy watching as well. "

The talking points about this series were plenty, and I really think its relation to the source material is a testament to the ability and creativity of Zoey. Nobody better than Naughty Pixel Production, if anyone, could handle this type of material, and the 'mood' of this series is truly special. Enjoy the episodes after the jump, here, or just pay a visit to Zoey's website for the best quality and the screenshots.

Talk to me about your movies, magazines, exhibits, series, all sorts of projects! I love to get in detail about what you love doing!!

Episode 1 - The Date 

Episode 2 - Homecoming 

Episode 3 - The Secret