So, which movie are we talking about today? We're dealing with the first movie from Stachel Studios. The director is Rachel Avro, a virgin in this particular role, but so vastly experienced in front of a camera as multiple time award winning actress and who already produced, assisted, wrote effectively co-directed several flicks in the past. This movie is a wonderful collaboration and labor of love between herself and her wife Stacey Lucciano, who we all know for her energy, passion and creativity.
I think it's already time to leave you to the interview I did with them, and to the massive credits of the movie: I can't stress enough in particular the excellent voice work done by Athena Mariposa, Moonie Mouse, Seddy Constantine and Vixxen Clowes, together with the narration of the legend that is Larry Vinaver. Enjoy!
- First question to a debutante always is: why did you decide to get into the filmaking business ?
Rachel: I decided to get into filmmaking as I though it was a natural progression for my photography; being the assistant of Mitzy Broadway I got to watch the process and was involved in it. The likes of Mitzy, Isa, Dillon and other film directors inspired me.
- The story of this movie...has an interesting story behind it, in itself! How did the major theme for this movie come about?
Stacey: Rachel originally wanted just to do a bunch of sex scenes with valley girls! I started then asking "Well why is this happening, and why is that happening?" So I kinda made her think about the scenes a bit more and write dialogue that flows as there is MUCH more of this story to unfurl over the next two movies if we find people like this one. We are both Subs. I sometimes swap for her but the S&M kink always caught my fancy so I think there is an attachment to that lifestyle a bit as we both live it in Second Life.
Rachel: I have been thinking about a D themed movie for a while. Having Stacey as my partner and wife and bouncing ideas off her it started to come together. We talked alot about it and slowly ideas came about and the movie started to take shape. The funny thing is the movie was a flowing process and was changing all the time.
Stacey: To sum it up for the audience, it's about two lesbian lovers that feel they need a little somthing else in their relationship as it was growing stale, so my character calls up her former Mistress and uses that crutch to fall back on to bring some life back to their sex life and they start to fall down that rabbit hole...
- What was the first step in order to begin the movie? Can you remember 'the first day of shooting' ? Which scene did you start with and how did it go?
Rachel: I remember the movie was going to be called "Sunset Lovers" and I filmed the start on the sim island with a sunset, filming myself walking out to masturbate on the beach. Was going to be 7 minutes long...the whole sunset shots ended up on the cutting room floor.
- Typical! As you mentioned, you have experience as both an actresss and as an assistant director, but getting to try and be behind the camera yourself is still a steep transition. Which parts did you find the hardest?
Rachel: The hardest for me is staying focused on a direction. Stacey was invalubale with keeping me on track as I ideas were all over the place.
Stacey: Well I tried! When she wanted to go off on tangents I reigned her back in to keep it simple and keep it on track, and to try to keep the movie flowing well. Made her move a few scenes to make it make more sense
Rache: If I was going to do this right I needed to learn editing, so i watched 100 hours of youtube videos about the editing tools, I watched scenes of movies i loved with the attention to detail on how they were cut...Also watched some of Mitzy movies over again so that started to become natural to me. And I started to incorporate my style of photography in it: you will see in the movie the closeup shots and intimacy I usually get on camera.
- Yes, for sure it shows. So let's get again more into the evolution of the idea. From the basic "Sunset Lovers" concept, how did we get to where the movie is?
Rachel: The story developed a lot because Stacey thought it should be more than just sex scenes. We developed the storyline together about Faith being her ex Mistress and it was her orgy, then we liked the idea of a neighbour involved, which was you. And we thought about Faith having a sub and that was Partee and.... I wanted things that joined the movie together that were sex scenes. One thing though I did want was to have pornstar voice overs in this film. It would nmake it something different. I started with Athena and was going to use her for all the voices but they would be too similar, so ended up with 4 of the girls and one male narator. You and Stacey were a big help in the voice scenes I did.
Stacey: Rachel was pretty instrumental in the concept and film direction. She did so much better than I ever thought she would being a first time director. When she said she wanted to do a movie I was like "ok!"... but had no real expectations of it being a serious project. She dove in head first and seeing her excitement over it made me realize "She is serious! We need to put real effort into it!".
Then it just grew and grew to 40 pornstars. Originally it was gonna be Rachel, me, you, Partee and faith. Then it went to.... "Ok we need extras for some shot..." to a full blown picture, and Rachel really did great. I helped more in the case of lines and story but the camera shots were all her. she had a vision and as the story progressed in our heads she took the ball and ran with our ideas. I think she killed it. In a good way obviously!
- You added scenes , such as the orgy shot at Maui's, to the original beach atmosphere....but also a very different change of pace and setting around the middle of the movie. Which still is coherent with the basic premise. Tell me more about these 'additions' that make the movie what it is now.
Rachel: Well, I did want a orgy scene in the movie and wasn't sure where I was going to shoot that. Maui came about because I asked Bandor to sponsor the movie with his furniture and he mentioned that Maui might be a nice place to film. I asked Renni, she was a friend. That was how the orgy scene developed at Maui.
- Do you want to tell us more about your collaboration with Aquilae in terms of locations, and working on a very special dance sequence there? It was an ambitious scene and i remember the actors being impressed as it was happening, even.
Rachel: The dance scenes and the dungeon scenes were to be part of a "coming soon" feature in kinda a take on the how the Marvel movies put scenes in the middle of the credits. After talking with Stacey about it, the flow was better placing them towards the end of the film. Heather was kind enough to let me use her dungeon and castle for those scenes. I had looked at several movies with masquerade balls in them and so that is how they were shot .
So I asked Sasha Johansen to make a scene with couples walking down the stairs and dancing. I then added in the masks of several of the actors: they were all so creative. I got some other dance sequences and filmed several couple around the castle. It really made the film so much better as a movie. I remeber you watching it and saying it also flowed better when we changed the end.
- You chose to do not many have done before, real voice acting. How was it working with Athena, Vixx, Seddy, Moonie and Larry, and how difficult was it to make it all work? Did it require many different takes on their part? And also, you did in fact a lot of work on sound editing which was also a big part of the revisions this movie went through. It's often a forgotten part of the craft. I know you may want to talk some about your music choices.
Rachel: They were all so great to work with and they were very accomodating with their time. I didnt need to ask them to do it other and they did that themselves. I something got three takes as they thought they could do better. Yes, sound editing was very important and I got advice for Mitzy and Hailey on that I actually improved the voice overs and was able to make all of them stereo .
The sound selection took a lot of time for one, they are all royalty free and common music to be used for no commercial projects. So went you are watching the movie listen to the music each song has a direct impact on the scene i shot. I also needed to learn sound editing as well and I am still in the learning process for that.
An interesting story: when I asked Larry to be the narrator of the film he sent me his voice and voices he could do: Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Alec Guinness and after Stacey and I listened, we both picked Larry's own voice for the movie.
- You have several 'Technical advisors' listed in the credits, from miss Kiki to Brunella, Laura, etcetera. Do you want to tell me more about their role and involvement?
Rachel: They are all people that helped with dialogue and I bounced thing off of to make it a better experience. I am not they greastest in writing dialogue so it flows properly I know they direction and what I want and they would help with the proper grammar and saying what i meant.
Mitzy was a wonderful mentor to me in so many ways.
One thing I waned to stress, is that that we used 43 actors in this movie 4 voiceovers, 1 narator and 15 songs so what started as a small first time movie as a director, morphed into something very large.
- So, the last obligatory question: you already gave us a hint but, what's next for your studio? Tell me your plans for your next movie if there are any already, you in general, etc.
Rache: We are in development of a sequel to this movie . We are going to explore the couples sinking deeper into submission and flesh out some of the characters we had in the movie and maybe add a new character involved with more voice overs and Larry contiuned narration.
Stacey: I will save the future story as I don't wanna spoil where it is going, but there is going to be more of how deep that rabbit hole goes, and what it does to the lovers and people around them.
And that's it for the interview!
Needless to say, I am really looking forward to it! I urge you to come over at 7:30 PM Friday to get to the premiere, with party to follow at 8 PM with Hailey as DJ! It's gonna be a really memorable event for a movie unlike any other in this feeling of being crowning of a career as a student of the game, a force behind the scenes and an universally loved person who brought together so many individuals to assist and be part of her vision. This movie showcases a lof of the good that there is in this community, and if you were not part of it, you'll still want to come over and take part to this celebration and perhaps being able to be part of the evolution of this project.
Sensual Desires
A Rachel Avro Film
From Stachel Studios
Directed by Rachel Avro
Screenplay by Rachel Avro & Stacey Lucciano
Starring
Rachel Avro
Stacey Lucciano
Katina Cazalet
Partee Mytili
Faith Darrow
Mitzy Broadway
Renni
Anyka Aiseiri
Sasha Johansen
Kaylai Cucco
Vicki Concertina
Hailey Redrose
Zuby Gloom Redrose
Tricia Danielson
Vixxen Clowes
Monique LeFry
Moonie Mouse
Seddy Constantine
Whimsical Aristocrat
Heather Ashford
Isa Cheviot
Debi Whitfield
Escy Asadar
Kara Hawk
Kiki CC Blackwood
Alexandria Topaz
Ali Lancrae
Ayara Illios
Nakuru Bergamasco
Larry Vinaver
Candy Kane
Tour Diddy
Arienne Evangeline
Athena Mariposa
Daimaju Clowes
Scottie Leigh
Enki
Daxie
Lesley Aristocrat
Maximus Morningstar
Kelli Kristan
Grim Skall
Cream Release
Executive Producers
Stacey Lucciano
Sound mixing by
Rachel Avro
Coreographer
Sasha Johansen
Music
Break Through
Keeping our love alive
Art of love making
Curious
Only You
Break free the stranglehold
I'm trouble
Tied up
Be your slave
Don't hate me
Ofeliasdream from Bensound.com
Skyabin etude Op8 No12
Evolution from Bensound.com
Sexy from Bensound.com
Like we did before-
Voice over
Athena Mariposa
Vixxen Clowes
Moonie Mouse
Seddy Constantine
Narrator
Larry Vinaver
Filmed on location at
Maui Resort
StachelLands
Aquilae
Lust
Props provided by
Debauchery Adult Furniture
Set design
Rachel Avro
Stacey Lucciano
Partee Mytili
Thanks to Renni for all the help on location
Shot, Cropped and Scored by
Rachel Avro
Technical Advisors
Kiki CC Blackwood
Brunella Voelisa
Laura Richards
Stacey Lucciano
Katina Cazalet
Hailey Redrose
With Special Thanks to Mitzy Broadway
A Dirty Girl Production
Wanna watch the movie? Here it is, after the jump!
