Free Video: Proof of Innocence

Dear readers, it’s been a while since we’ve published a post, and I’m sorry to say that this will probably not change until the end of this year. As I already mentioned, we are currently buried with work, plus the stress of a family life within the pandemic.

But Pandora / Blake gave us a reason to write at least this one post: they have edited a video clip which we filmed more than a decade ago and released it for free on their site Dreams of Spanking. We made an agreement all those years ago that the clip would be a free treat for their and our followers.

 

So here it is: Proof of Innocence

I wrote about the experience of filming the video (plus a second one which will be published this year as well) in this post from 2010. I had written the plot, and Thomas Cameron, Pandora / Blake and Ludwig brought this very special fantasy of mine to life with their passion and dedication.

Seeing the finished product right now sends me on a trip down memory lane. Making that video was a very exciting experience, but the prospect was scary, too, and it brought me to my personal limits. Why? Because this was not only the first time I made a spanking video with someone else than Ludwig (and right away with the famous Pandora / Blake and Thomas Cameron!), it was also my very first spanking experience with someone else than Ludwig, and the whole dialogue was in a foreign language for me. Oh, and last but certainly not least, the scene featured a fairly severe cold caning as well!

Fortunately, it turned out to be a good experience, because everyone involved made me feel comfortable, safe and cared for. I remember how much time we put into preparing the shoot, with Pandora / Blake and me exchanging e-mails with my story ideas. I remember how nervous I felt and how exhausting the day was, but also how happy I was about the beautiful filming location and the shoot turning out so well. I love the resulting video, especially the chemistry between Rosemary and Adelheid (Pandora / Blake’s and my characters).

 

 

Looking at the video reminds me how well Thomas brought to life my fantasy schoolmaster, calm and caring, with a beautiful British accent. Having him as the second top I ever played with was great, because he was just as calming and supportive behind the scenes as his character is in the story. And Pandora / Blake were a wonderful co-bottom, very reassuring when they were behind the camera and easy to interact with in character. I love how they role their eyes, the shocked look on their face as they inspect my marks and how we finally start getting along. Not to forget Jimmy Holloway behind the camera, who made me feel comfortable as well. And of course Ludwig, who knew that the prospect of the shoot made me quite anxious, also did his best to make sure it would be a good experience.

The story itself is, in a way, a simple schoolgirl CP roleplay. And yet I think it is different to most schoolgirl scenes you will find – and it is still very much up my alley. Adelheid is a lot like I was back when I was in school: an eager beaver, a goody two-shoes and not exactly the most popular pupil among her peers. Even the story of the failed art project and Adelheid’s disappointment that her teacher didn’t give her a hint that she was heading in the wrong direction is something I experienced in real life. So I put a lot not only of my personal kink, but also of the real me into that scene. And I hope the viewers can feel this, despite my poor acting skills and the difficulties that come with making a film in a foreign language. The good thing is that the real nervousness I felt during filming actually fits Adelheid’s character very well, since she finds herself in a very new and scary situation as well.

Lots of things have changed in the lives of those involved in the clip since 2010. At the time of filming, we were two real-life couples for whom erotic kink played a very important role in their lives. Pandora / Blake was still in the process of planning their ethical porn site with Thomas Cameron. Ludwig and I had only become a couple a year-and-a-half earlier, and we had just started exploring our kink together. Ludwig’s Rohrstock-Palast had lots of readers and commenters, and we were writing frequently about our kinky experiences and thoughts.

And today? Pandora / Blake and Thomas Cameron are not a couple anymore, and Ludwig and I are a married old couple. Dreams of Spanking has become a successful site for ethical porn. Pandora / Blake is an actress, producer, writer and activist, plus a parent. Ludwig and I are parents, too. At the moment kink doesn’t play an important part in our lives anymore. Taking all that into account, watching the film makes me feel as if it not only comes from a time very long ago, but almost from an entirely different life. And yet, it is wonderful to take a look back and to realise how much I still like what we created back them. Thank you, Pandora / Blake, for turning it into a finished video!

So, I’m using this opportunity to say hi to your all and I hope that you enjoy the trip back in time like I did. Yes, the video quality wasn’t as good back than as it is today, but that was 2010, you know? Right now, in a world that faces a pandemic, war, environmental catastrophes and economic challenges, I think it is all the more important to share good things and to make sure we don’t lose our smile. If the clip brings a smile to your face, I think it was worth our passion and effort.

Chances are good that you won’t be hearing much from us during the next months (maybe until the second clip from our shoot is published), so please stay safe until then and have a wonderful spring time despite of what is going on in the world.

 

 

Guerilla Filmmaking

Today Ludwig and I shot my blogiversary clip. Thank you very much to all of you who participated in the vote! The final tally added up to the round number of 30 strokes. I hope you will enjoy the resulting clip (which might take a few weeks to edit, but I'll try to finish that task as quickly as possible).

In order to make the video, Ludwig and I stood up at 6 am. Ludwig said he couldn't remember the last time he had got up so early on a Sunday morning. Me neither. But special occasions require special measures.

Our first excursion - it was still completely dark - led us to a birch tree where we cut branches (you know what for). Then we went back home and packed all the things which we would need for the shoot. I had ordered a new dress especially for this video because I always wanted to make an outdoor clip in an elvish dress. Before we left, I freed the birch twigs from their leaves and bound them together in a nice, fresh birch.

The main task now was to find a spot that looked nice, held enough space to set up the cameras and was secluded enough to protect us from being seen by passersby. We didn't know such a space and hoped for good luck. Our second problem: It was raining quite heavily. But the weather forecast said that the weather was supposed to be better in a region nearby. The map told us that there were some small forests in that region, too. So we decided to try our luck.

When we arrived, the night had gone completely, but it was still raining a bit and there was no sunlight to see. We went on a little hiking trip and found a place that, while not being perfect, suited our purpose. In the meantime, the rain had indeed stopped so that we could set up our equipment. We had to hurry a bit, though, because we weren't sure that the area was as secluded as we would have liked it to be.

I had never been birched before, so I was very curious to find out how it feels like. That's why I chose this implement for the clip, despite of other good suggestions which had been made by some of the commenters.

As I already mentioned in my blogiversary post, it wasn't my intention to do an extremely severe scene this time, since Ludwig and I already have another severe caning video in line (I will tell you more about that one soon). A birch seemed to be the right implement for the purpose of a medium severe scene, since the German Wikipedia article says that the birch was replaced by the cane in schools because canes were more severe and didn't need to be applied to the bare bottom in order to make an impression. I should have looked at the English article of course, which explains how much the birch was dreaded, for instance, amongst prisoners!

The only time I had tried how a birch feels like was when I had made one for my Santa Claus pictures. This birch was made of branches from some bush, though, which were quite dry. Twigs were flying around everywhere when I tried it on myself. The strokes didn't hurt all that much, although the tips easily caused little bloody spots.

I expected that the experience with our new, real birch would be similar. How completely wrong I was! That f***ing little b**ch¹ hurt like hell. There was no shredding at all since the twigs were still completely fresh and bendable. There were no extreme marks and no blood-drawing, either. There was only pain. Lots of pain. I guess the fact that it wasn't exactly warm outside didn't help, either.

Ludwig was so worried that we might get caught that he dished out the first eight strokes  at a fairly high speed until I cut because the pain became overwhelming. There was no chance that I could take 30 strokes like that without being a complete mess afterwards. I told Ludwig and he continued with a slightly lower speed and less impact. It still hurt, but it was bearable.

When it was over, I took a short look at the footage. I realised that the position I had been in wasn't the most favourable one given the shape of my bottom and the fact that I suffer from cellulite as many women do. In addition to that, I was of the opinion that the later strokes looked too tame on video (important insight: birches aren't good implements for spanking videos – while they sting like hell, they don't easily leave strong marks and don't really look severe). I told Ludwig, who was already taking down the cameras, about my observations.

"I want to repeat at least the last strokes", I said to him. "Why didn't you make up your mind right away?" he asked, "Then I wouldn't have taken down all the equipment already..." As you can imagine, Ludwig wasn't too happy about the prospect of setting everything up again, spending significantly more time on the site and risking being caught. But he obliged. He knows me well enough to be aware of how grumpy I am when I am not happy with the result of something I have put lots of effort into.

So, we set the cameras up again and started a second time, beginning at stroke eleven. At first, I accidentally started counting in German instead of English, so we had to start over a second time. The strokes were severe again this time and I had to struggle through them, crying out and hissing the whole time. But when we were done and I took a short look at the footage, I was content.

Of course, the footage isn't perfect, but that's the drawback of guerilla filmmaking. There is no time to set the cameras up for a perfect angle, there is no time to wait for the perfect light (there was no sunlight at all during the shoot, in fact it started raining again at the end) and the the sound is far from perfect, too, unless you have an external microphone.

We will try to make the best out of the footage and I am positive that we will find a way to enhance the sound a bit, too. I hope I will be happy with the resulting clip (still not content with the looks of the first ten strokes) and I hope you will like it, too.

By the way, I later tried the birch on Ludwig as well. After all, my sadistic side needs some attention, too! The test proved that I hadn't been wimpy. In fact, Ludwig said that in his opinion, the birch we made is worse than a cane. I'll tell you more about that little scene in my next post. For now, I hope you enjoy the preview pictures from our outdoor blogiversary clip.

 ¹ fascinating little branch

A Creative Valentine's Weekend

Hope all those of you who enjoy this holiday had a great Valentine's Day and those of you who don't celebrate it had a nice weekend nonetheless. Ludwig and I did none of the typical things couples do on Valentine's Day. No overpriced flowers, no chocolate (we've been working on getting rid of the one or other pound and becoming fitter during the last weeks and don't want to spoil the results) and no Valentine's dinner in an overcrowded restaurant.

Instead, we stayed at home and worked on a new kinky clip the whole weekend. We had toyed around with a certain storyline for a few weeks and decided that this was something we wanted to bring to life before closing down our blog. It actually took us about twenty hours of preparation and filming because we wanted to get it perfectly right.

I guess one could say that this is far too much effort for an erotic clip. It's much more than professional producers can invest, because for them time is money. But then again, they have people working behind the camera, which means they are much faster than the two of us. We set the scene, position the cameras, do the acting, and then check the footage to see if everything looked okay. Then we repeat the whole process for the next scene, then again for the scene after that... I suppose most viewers won't even notice all the details, like a character wearing two different ties in two scenes which are supposed to take place on different days. Or the little quotes we put in as homages to spanking and mainstream films we like. But, these little things matter to us, so in my opinion it was a good thing to invest that much time.

It's the first time we used two full HD cameras, so the footage will be much sharper than our older clips. Since the action was proper enough as well and left some dark red cane stripes and welts on my rarely spanked bottom, I suppose this will also satisfy the "I don't care for storylines, I am here for the action only" faction. I have to admit that I am very happy with the resulting footage (which happens rather rarely) and I am looking forward to editing and publishing the clip. Which will surely take some time, given that we have about seven or eight hours of raw material.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the first brand new screenshots and a short introduction of the scenario: Edward Tillinghast leads a very traditional all-male university. When the board makes the decision to experiment with new ways and appoint the first female professor, he is surprised and delighted to discover that the new member of staff is none other than his old university friend Patrizia Hartmann. But what about the students and the “old boy's club”? Will they accept the new professor as well? And how about the regulations for CP which is still administered at this university? Should a female professor hand out CP as well? Will Patrizia decide to learn how to wield a cane? Quite a few questions which the board hasn't really thought through. Questions that will soon be answered after Miss Hartmann's arrival, though!

The Final Test: Shoot Report

 
So, it has finally happened! The first-ever video I shot for a professional producer is online. And it's the most severe scene you have seen of me so far. I've just taken a (nervous) look and I like the final version Pandora has edited very much. You can watch a preview clip at the beginning of this post. In my opinion, the music is fantastic and the editing is great as well! I was a bit confused at first, though, because the action scene is interrupted by tai chi sequences. But those sequences appear as a kind of meditation which my character creates in her head in order to remain calm and deal with the pain. So, the interruptions are a bit unusual, but they give the scene another special touch. And maybe Pandora releases the pure action scene as a special bonus one day if many viewers would prefer that? I am even content with my own performance (even the spoken parts), despite of being very critical about that generally. I've no idea whether the scene will be to the viewers' liking as well, though. No scolding, no punishment, no screaming, no tears. Just tai chi and a very severe consensual caning between a master and his student. And fond memories of a great shoot.

After having told you about the preparations for the shoot in our last post, Ludwig and I are going to share our memories of that special shoot with you this time. As in our last post, you are going to find Ludwig's thoughts in brackets and bold letters and mine in standard letters. It's a long post, so make yourself comfortable. Here we go:

On the morning of the shoot, Ludwig and I got up early and I prepared myself in the bathroom. Then we went to the shooting location. I was quite nervous and hoped not to lose my grip. I'm not so sure about the exact sequence of events, but I think the first thing I did was warm myself up for the tai chi demonstration. Pandora shot a bit of behind-the-scenes material and prepared the set, including a beautiful mirror. As some of you might know, I have a thing for mirrors in spanking scenes, so I loved that!

[Indeed, Kaelah has a thing for mirrors. We used one in our Kaelah's Introduction video which is available for free on this blog as well. The effect in a corporal punishment video can be quite nice - you get to watch two perspectives at once. Mirrors are tricky to set up, though, because you have to avoid filming the camera in the mirror while still getting the angle you want for the desired perspectives. That can take a long while to get right when you are doing a video with a static camera. But in this case, we had Pandora as a camerawoman, so the mirror did not pose as big a challenge.]

Then Pandora asked me for an interview. I just hoped that my English would be good enough that morning to answer her questions spontaneously and fluently, despite of my nervousness. To my surprise, it all went well and my self-confidence increased. The behind-the-scenes report is almost as important for me as the scene itself. It sets the scene into the bigger context of kinky fantasies and kinky exploration, and I think that's great and gives the scene an even more personal and therefore also erotic touch. The report also shows the safety measures such as the disinfection of the cane, and we talked about the agreements we had made beforehand in order to make this a good experience for me. I was very happy when I had the feeling that I managed to express myself well. For the second part of the interview Ludwig joined us and shared his view, too.

[As a viewer, I love behind-the-scenes reports and interviews. I often find them as interesting as the films themselves, because they give you a glimpse at the real people behind a CP video, their thoughts and feelings. I think Kaelah and I give a pretty interesting glimpse with the stuff we filmed there.] 

Afterwards, we started shooting the indoor tai chi sequences. Pandora's partner Thomas Cameron, who is experienced with martial arts, joined me for one demonstration (which is not in the final video). I only practice tai chi for relaxation and don't have a martial arts background. I admired Tom's skills and flexibility. He hadn't practiced the moves for a long time, though, and so I led the demonstration by announcing the figures. I was proud that someone so experienced as Tom felt comfortable with me leading the demonstration. Then I performed two more sequences on my own, using a wooden training sword and a fan. The daylight flooded the room and filled the scenery with beautiful colours.

The interviews and the shoot of the tai chi sequences calmed down my anxiety and prevented me from panicking in anticipation of the action scene. It was a combination of conditions, some of them incidental, which made me so calm. Of course Ludwig knows me well enough to deliberately support me with his behaviour. He let me do my thing and therefore gave me the feeling of being in control, while remaining in the background, helping with the preparations for the scene and making sure that I was okay and that all safety measures were taken. The tai chi itself made me relax, too.

[I quite like staying in the background for the most part during a shoot. In a way, it is a natural extension of your task as a top. In most CP videos, and very evidently in this particular scenario, the spankee is the real star of the story, while the top is more of a supporting character. The paradoxical thing about it all is that, even though the attention is focused somewhere else, you as the top actually have a more active role during the CP scenes, and more things you can potentially, actively do wrong, like mishit a stroke.]

And finally the demonstration with Tom gave me lots of strength as well. The reason for this is as follows: When I am anxious, telling me that everything will be okay doesn't help all that much. Holding me can be helpful, but only in the context of helping me to let go and cry, which wasn't what I wanted at that time. The best help against anxiety for me is thinking about or doing something that gives me the feeling of being in control. And leading the demonstration with Tom did exactly that.

When Pandora asked me whether we should film some more tai chi sequences outdoors or directly move on to the action scene, though, I felt that I really wanted to get over the caning and not build up any more anticipation. And so the dreaded part suddenly was very close ahead of me. Pandora suggested to film the little introductory conversation, the bending over and the first three strokes in one take. And that's what we did. The dialogue wasn't scripted and I was too nervous to think of any spectacular lines. The conversation turned out to be very short. The main part for me was to confirm that I wanted to take the final test of my own free will and that I felt ready. At Ludwig's command I turned around, pulled down my trousers and assumed the position as we had planned it the evening before.

[The position we had found during our experimenting the evening before was the best one aesthetically. Kaelah bent over the table with an arched back, her hands grabbing the far edge of the table and her knees and upper legs thrust slightly forward underneath it. It made for an elegant position overall, and Kaelah's bottom looked even sexier than usual. From a practical point of view for me as the top, however, it was quite a difficult position. Kaelah's bottom was positioned rather low, and its lower part angled away from me under the table, which made it hard to hit. I had to bend down quite a bit myself in order to be able to hit Kaelah's backside the way I wanted. Moreover, we had pulled up Kaelah's pants right to the edge of her bottom. Again, it looked great, but it left no room whatsoever for a low mishit.]

Now, I have already written about several general aspects of the caning in my post Healthy Severity, but I want to tell you a bit about my thoughts throughout here. Ludwig took aim and suddenly the first stroke landed. He started almost full force right from the beginning, as we had agreed. It hurt so much, I could hardly believe it. I managed to count the stroke, though, and to struggle through the next two as well, gripping the edge of the table with my hands, pressing myself against the table, throwing my head back and gritting my teeth, but not making a sound other than some suppressed hissing. If I hadn't known that there would be a break after that, though, I guess I would have panicked, at least a few strokes later. We took a little break so that Pandora could rearrange the camera (we had only one camera, so it had to be rearranged several times to get different shots). I was still amazed how much the strokes had hurt.

We agreed to do a batch of six strokes next. As I assumed the position again, I hoped that the break had already helped my body to adapt to the pain and that the next strokes wouldn't be as horrible as the first three. How wrong I was! The strokes came hard and fast. After the third or fourth stroke I was about to safeword and the only thing that kept me from doing it was the knowledge that there weren't many more strokes to go. When the caning stopped, I suddenly felt a rush of heat going through my body and I started feeling dizzy. Fortunately, I was wise enough not to try to toughen it out and to pretend that everything was fine. Instead, I asked Ludwig whether he had already drawn any blood (which he hadn't) and lay down on the cold ground for a moment to cool down and to stabilize my blood pressure. Pandora opened a window and asked whether I was fine. Thanks to the quick reaction I was and I soon felt better again.

Pandora rearranged the camera and we took some time until I had fully recovered. Then we started with the next set of strokes. The batches were all between four and eight strokes long. Usually, we did six strokes. One of my biggest fears was to miscount, so every new batch started with me asking: "The next stroke is number x, right?" The strokes didn't become much easier to bear and I didn't go into any kind of subspace, either. But my self-confidence increased every time and I didn't worry about whether I would be able to make it through the next set any more.

Ludwig's aiming was great! At first, two strokes had gone a tiny little bit too far to the right for my taste, so I asked Ludwig to stand a bit more to the left. After that the strokes were perfect and no softer flesh on the outer side of my bum cheeks was hit. My special position was very difficult for Ludwig, though, as were the many breaks which didn't allow him to get into a flow. There weren't any mishits, but Ludwig involuntarily managed to hit the crease between my bottom and my legs much more often than he wanted. Which, as those among you who have experienced these kinds of strokes know, meant some additional challenge for me.

[I am more critical of my aim myself - which is normal, given that one always tends to be most critical about one's own performance. Kaelah's position turned out to be as tricky from a practical perspective as I had foreseen, and I accidentally placed a few of the strokes low so that the cane partly hit Kaelah's bottom and partly her pants. One or two strokes even went completely on the pants, and of course, that always happened when they were in full view, never when the camera was on Kaelah's face! Dreadful. Granted, it was a much more accurate caning than the "all over the place" strayfests you see in some Eastern European productions, where tops who have no business being in a film manage to hit the lower back or the hollow of the knees. But it could have been better for sure.] 

[With a 50 stroke caning, what you obviously want to do from an aesthetic point of view is cover the whole bottom with a nice, parallel set of welts, from the upper edge of the "target zone" to the lower. I usually do this in three steps. First, I hit with full force until I am at around stroke 20, always aiming for the middle of the bottom. With the full-force strokes, some will go right on target, some a bit higher, some a bit lower. But all will be within the acceptable zone, and through the scattering effect, I elicit a decently spread out set of striples already. Next, I try to fill out the "blanks" with some softer, more accurate strokes, which usually takes until around stroke 30. Once I have covered the full bottom this way and hardly any blanks remain, I administer the remainder of the strokes at full force again.]
 

As I already wrote in my Healthy Severity post, the original number of strokes we had agreed upon was 30, with the option to increase the number spontaneously, should I feel good enough to take more. I actually wanted to do 50 strokes, but I didn't want to put myself under too much pressure. Ludwig was quite sure that I would use the option to increase the number of strokes, but he was wise enough not to tell me about his thoughts. Because he knew that for me this wouldn't come over as reassurance but as an expectation that could be disappointed and therefore as additional pressure.

Ludwig's assumption was of course right. Even before the 30 strokes were over, I signalled that I wanted to do more. I was feeling good (as good as one can feel given the amount of pain created by those cane strokes) and strong enough to take it one step further. I knew that I had to take this chance, since it might be a once-in-a-lifetime situation. So we went on after 30 strokes and after 40 strokes as well.

And then it was over. We shot a very short final sequence with me being sent on my way and the action scene was in the can. After having inspected my marks, which I loved, I lay down on the table which we had used for the shoot. I think I also had little bruises on the front of my hips from pressing myself into the table during the caning. Pandora had asked me whether I wanted a cushion, but I had refused to take one because I thought that it looked better without. Pandora brought me an icepack which she and Ludwig had prepared beforehand on my request, and Ludwig helped me to cool my rear end to reduce the bruising right from the beginning. I was happy and buzzing. And then I enjoyed my reward – a big muffin! I hadn't eaten any sweets in the days before the shoot to be in good shape, and now it was time for some sugar.
 
[It felt good to have done it, to know that everything had gone well, and to see how happy Kaelah was. I had never felt real comfortable with Kaelah's position during the caning, and I had once again placed two strokes a tad too low, partially hitting her pants, right during the last five-stroke sequence when the camera was fully zoomed in on the bottom and the marks. But from my recollection during the filming, most of the footage would be pretty good, and I did not feel like griping about a few imperfect strokes forever. Overall, we were both elated to have the scene in the bag. When we filmed the final conversation between the master and his student, I snuck in the line: "Pain does not have to be an enemy to be feared. It can be a friend and ally of yours." It was a variation on what Colonel Kurtz says about "horror" in his big monologue in Apocalypse Now.]

As expected, it didn't take me long to recover. We made another short interview and I demonstratively sat down on the hard wooden table for it. Despite of all the breaks during the action scene, we were ahead of time. So we decided to do some more tai chi scenes before lunch (this time outdoors, as suggested by Pandora). I was in a calm and happy state by this point and very glad that everything had turned out so incredibly well. Then the shoot for my first professional spanking clip was done. We ate lunch and prepared ourselves for the next scenes to come.

The Final Test: Preparations

Now it's bound to happen very soon. The first scene I have ever shot for a professional producer will be released on Dreams of Spanking. And what a scene! It's a fifty strokes severe caning and a scenario based on one of my very personal favourite fantasies. I've already written a bit about the caning itself and the reason why I wanted to do such a severe scene again after my very first try in private. In this post and the second part which will follow soon, Ludwig and I want to tell you more about the fantasy on which this scenario was based and the day of the shoot. We thought it would be interesting to integrate both of our perspectives into one (two-part) post, so you are going to find Ludwig's thoughts in brackets and bold letters and mine in standard letters.

The caning scene which we did for Dreams of Spanking in March 2011 was my second severe caning. I am not so much into extreme severity in private play, but like Ludwig I am of the opinion that it can be worth to "go the extra mile" in order to create a memorable spanking clip. When we filmed our first private severe caning experiment (which will be published for free very soon) in December 2009, I was quite convinced that this would be a "once in a lifetime" experience for me. The level of severity seemed so much on the edge of / outside my usual comfort zone that I didn't expect to ever have the desire to do something like that again. Actually, the main reason why I did that first severe scene wasn't that I desired the experience in the first place, it was the desire to have done such a scene as a special, bonding experience with Ludwig and to have an informed opinion about the severe scenes which he had done as a top for Mood Pictures and for Lupus Pictures with which I didn't really feel comfortable.

[When Kaelah and I did that first, private severe caning back in 2009, I had urged her to wait a bit longer with it - it was less than a year after her first practical experience with spanking, I argued, let us take a little more time and maybe get there in stages. But Kaelah said that waiting would not make it easier and that she just wanted to do that severe caning and get it over with. I respected her reasoning and her decision. Before I ever topped someone in spanking play, I had taken a harsh, Mood-style caning from a pro domme myself, an experience I found invaluable as a top and when discussing the sometimes controversial subject of severe caning videos. I could understand that Kaelah wanted to be able to participate in those discussions with an informed opinion, and that she also wanted to do the scene as a gift to me. However, I made a point of assuring Kaelah that she should not feel pressured in any way by me to do the scene, and she assured me that she didn't, that she wanted to do it out of her own initiative.]

That first scene really brought me to my limit (and beyond) and I wasn't very happy with the first batch of 25 strokes because I went into panic mode and hyperventilation. But, to my surprise, the second batch of strokes went much better and I even enjoyed watching the resulting scene on video. With that in mind, I suddenly developed the fantasy about a year later to do another severe scene for a professional producer, using the experience which I had gained during my first try in order to make this a good experience all around.

[I thought that the first, private scene went very well under the circumstances, and I love the resulting video footage. I  hope to be able to finally edit it over the New Year holidays so we can publish the video for you (it is going to be a monumental editing job). But no matter how much I lauded it, Kaelah was never fully happy with the scene and what she considered to be her "unsexy" reactions during the first 25 strokes. Still, it came as a bit of a surprise to me when she told me one day that she wanted to do another severe caning, for a professional producer this time.]

For that, I needed a producer who wouldn't set me under pressure and who would give me the time and the breaks in between strokes which I needed in order not to panic. I also needed a producer who wouldn't insist on frontal nudity, because that's outside my personal comfort zone. And I only wanted to do such a special scene embedded into a scenario which fit my personal fantasies. Given all these preconditions, our lovely friend Pandora and her actor-driven site Dreams of Spanking seemed like the right person and place to do this. And that turned out to be true.

[Indeed, Pandora was the ideal choice. Kaelah and I had shot videos with her the year before, and enjoyed the collaboration a great deal. Dreams of Spanking also promised to offer an intimate, almost family-like shoot atmosphere, where Kaelah could take as many breaks during the caning scene as she needed, without feeling like she was holding up an entire armada of technicians as would have been the case at, say, a large-scale Lupus Pictures production.]

Pandora liked the idea of doing a severe scene and she was also happy with the consensual scenario which I had worked out and gave Ludwig and me lots of creative freedom. The idea for the scene was very simple and loosely based on a scenario which I had fancied very much on Spanking Central. They had shot some caning scenes between a martial arts trainer and his students which were right up my alley.

I wanted an explicitly consensual and not punishment-related scenario, though. And so our scene is about a martial arts trainer and his student who is about to leave for a not specified journey which is going to be a great challenge. We left it to the viewers' imagination to decide where the student is going and why. I had the picture in my mind that she was leaving for China in order to practise with other students in a renowned and strict martial arts school. In order to prepare her for the challenges to come and to give her the self-confidence that she can make it through, the trainer and the student have agreed on one final endurance test which will require all her willpower to accomplish. The trainer completely left the decision whether to do that painful test or not to his student. She even has to confirm her decision directly prior to the test again and to take and keep her position voluntarily without any restraints or any external pressure to comply.

[I liked the consensual nature of the story a lot myself. I'm a fan of "brave girl" scenarios where a spankee seeks out such a caning, for whatever reason, out of her own initiative. Consensual scenarios like that are done much too rarely in spanking videos, so ours would stand out nicely among the myriad of formulaic, standardized schoolgirl / secretary / housewife punishment videos out there.]

The scene is not so much to the taste of punishment enthusiasts, but the consensual setting and the idea of a martial arts inurement practice are at the very core of my kink. And they are scenarios which are less common, so I hope that some fellow kinksters who have a similar taste are going to enjoy them as well. Pandora, Ludwig and I agreed to keep the spoken parts very short and rudimentary. Instead, we decided to embed the caning into an almost meditative composition of pictures and music, showing me practising Tai Chi. Given that I don't like my German accent, anyway, that I wasn't sure whether I would be able to talk coherently in anticipation of the scene and that I have a thing for the mixture of colours, music and fluent moves, I loved that idea. With all these details clarified beforehand, Ludwig and I went to England for my very first professional shoot.

I have to admit that I was a bit scared, though, fearing that the experience might become too overwhelming for me. Ludwig and I had already filmed two clips with Pandora before (which are also still to be published) which had been great but at the same time already very challenging for me. I am an INTJ and a control freak. Furthermore, spanking is something very personal for me, especially when I am on the receiving end. While filming amateur clips with Ludwig doesn't cause me lots of stress, making amateur clips that involve other people as well definitely is a challenge already. Regarding the action itself, medium severe scenes aren't problematic, either, but my first very severe scene absolutely brought me to my limit. Having made that scene in private, though, meant that I had all the time in the world and could have delayed or even cancelled the scene any time if necessary. I could also decide not to publish it if I didn't like the result and I could take it down any time (even thought that wouldn't delete the copies which would already have been made). But, a shoot for a professional site which of course meant that I wouldn't have any influence on the editing and the publishing, and then a very severe caning, too? I just hoped that I would be fine and not already a crying mess before the action scene even began.

[Kaelah and I talked about these insecurities in detail in the weeks before the shoot, which I think helped both of us be more at ease by simply getting everything out in the open and analysing it. I understood the challenges and had Kaelah's well-being on my mind more than anything else, but I was pretty optimistic and upbeat about the prospect of the shoot myself. We had done a severe caning scene in private, and we had done videos with Pandora before. Combining the two would be new, and a somewhat more daunting task, but overall we would not be doing anything fundamentally unlike what we had done before.]

We already met with Pandora on the evening before the shoot to talk through the plan for the next day. After all, we didn't plan to shoot only one scene. A geeky science-fiction scenario featuring Pandora, her partner Tom, Ludwig and me and a sweet little scene between Pandora and me only were supposed to follow the martial arts scenario. I definitely wanted to do the severe caning first in order to clear my mind for the next two scenes. From my first-ever severe caning experience I knew that I wouldn't need a very long time to recover, so I was sure that the caning wouldn't cause any physical or mental restrictions other than the need to rest some minutes afterwards.

Ludwig and I also had the chance to visit the location where we would be shooting the next day. We used this opportunity in order to try out different positions for the caning. As you know, I am not so happy with my waist-to-hip ratio which can make my bottom look very huge when I take an unfavourable position or choose the wrong angle. I definitely wanted to bend over a table for the scene, because I needed a place to rest my upper body upon and an edge which I could grab with my hands in order to cope with the pain. With Ludwig's help (I am lucky to have a boyfriend who is very honest with me concerning my look without making me feel ugly) we found the best possible position. That meant that I would have to put my feet beneath the table, though, and stand on tiptoes, which wouldn't make keeping the position any easier. But, hey, who cares about being comfortable as long as the result looks good?

[I could not help but notice the irony that Kaelah's fretting over how big her bottom looked from which exact camera angle seemed, on the face of it, a tad out of touch with the "Body positive! Hooray for non-conventional beauty!" philosophy of Pandora's site. Chuckle, chuckle... But seriously, I don't think there is a contradiction at all between being body positive, appreciating oneself with all of one's real or imagined "flaws", and simply wanting to look as good as is reasonably attainable when filming a sexy CP video. There is a legitimate difference between unhealthy obsession and healthy pefectionism-for-the-special-occasion. I do the same mild, unobsessive fretting before an F/M scene. In the weeks before filming the Ludwig's Comeuppance clip with Niki Flynn, I rode a stationary bicycle and did all kinds of other exercise I had not done in years... There is no better incentive for finally doing something good for one's health than making a spanking clip!]

And so we went to bed to get some rest and catch some sleep before the great adventure would start on the morning of the following day. I was excited and I am sure I slept a bit more fitfully than usual in anticipation of what was about to come.

To be continued...

At the Circus (Part 3): Naughty Petgirl Attack

This is the third and final part of my trilogy about our adventures at the SM Circus Sands. And this one is actually accompanied by a preview clip which you can find at the bottom of this post. After having seen a live show at the Circus for the very first time at their fifth anniversary, Ludwig and I were back at the Circus to accompany Pandora Blake for a shoot with them in August last year. I already wrote about the unexpected wonderful opportunity I was offered that day – to operate one of the cameras for the shoot!

But that wasn't all. Ludwig had already done two cameos for the Circus. In the first one he lost Amelia-Jane Rutherford in a game of gambling. In the second one he brought Pandora to the Circus as his petgirl whom he wanted to be trained by Direktor Sands. Since I liked the relaxed and friendly atmosphere at the Circus, I offered to be part of a little scene myself this time. My idea was that Ludwig and I could bring Pandora back to be trained at the Circus again, and that I could ask Direktor Sands for a little demonstration of his training methods on myself, in order to know whether our petgirl was in capable hands.

Herr Direktor Sands liked the idea of including me in a scene, but he came up with a completely different scenario. How about if I looked after the petgirls for a while, but they went riot on me and escaped and I was spanked by the Direktor for not paying enough attention? Now, everyone who knows my kink a bit is surely aware that this wasn't exactly my dream scenario. Being overpowered by someone isn't really my cup of tea, and being punished for incompetence afterwards wasn't a thrilling prospect, either. I openly told Herr Direktor Sands, and of course he accepted my limits.

But there was one picture that stuck in my mind and which I somehow found very intriguing and hilarious. It was the idea of Ludwig and Herr Direktor Sands leaving the scene with the two petgirls being inside their cage and me looking after them and then the two of them coming back later only to find me trapped in the cage and the petgirls gone. So I thought of a way to change the scenario a bit, so that it would be within my boundaries.

Now, I have a thing for playing nice but slightly naïve characters. People who don't expect others to be a menace. And so I came up with a modified idea which we finally used for the scene:

Ludwig and I came to meet Direktor Sands and to look after our Petgirl Pandora. The two men decided to have a beer at the local pub. Since I'm (almost) a tea totaler, I agreed to stay behind and look after the petgirls, since the lock of their cage was defect. After Direktor Sands and Ludwig had left, I went over to the cage to pet Pandora, being convinced that both she and Jane were sweet and harmless.

But suddenly Pandora grabbed my scarf which was hanging into the cage and held me down while Jane escaped. And then the naughty petgirls tied me down with my own scarf, spanked me, threw their pet toys around and tried to make me bite into their dog play bone, with me cursing all the while and telling them to stop and behave decently. I was especially annoyed with Pandora, my own petgirl, for being so ungrateful. It basically all came down to the pet-owner's equivalent of the parental "As long as you put your feet under my table and live from my money..." talk. Finally, the two petgirls stuffed me into the cage and ran away.

When Direktor Sands and Ludwig came back, instead of the petgirls they found me in the cage, looking a bit dishevelled. They released me and caught Jane and Pandora. I told them what had happened and Direktor Sands was very embarrassed that such a riot had taken place at his Circus. And so, the two naughty petgirls were punished with the glove and the flogger while Ludwig and I were watching.

As you can imagine, being forced to submit to others still is a scenario that doesn't fit to my normal fantasies. But with Pandora and Jane and in the innocent petplay environment of the SM Circus, I felt so safe that I didn't want to miss out on the chance to create such a funny action clip. We actually had to ask Jane first whether she was okay with topping me because she is much more comfortable as a bottom. Pandora offered to do the spanking (selfless as she is), but in the end it showed that there was no need to worry. Indeed, Pandora and Jane made for a very sadistic and vicious yet playful couple of petgirls. And Jane didn't seem to be cautious or uncomfortable as a top at all, once she had gotten into the scene!

Like I had expected, the whole scene was very light-hearted and fun, although Pandora and Jane didn't hold back when it came to the action. I think this might be the first time in the history of spanking videos that someone got a spanking because of NOT drinking alcohol! The punishments dished out by Direktor Sands were administered with verve, too. In fact he had to take smaller breaks to wipe off the sweat from his forehead, so much did he get into swinging the flogger.

For a moment, I thought about offering to lend a helping hand, but I was reluctant because I wasn't sure whether it would have been okay for the Direktor, for Pandora and for Jane. And I hadn't practised with the kind of flogger that was used, so I had not idea whether I could administer it elegantly and accurately. Later it turned out that Pandora had indeed expected me to take over and that Direktor Sands would have been fine with it, too. Well, there is always a next time...

I got another interesting feedback from Direktor Sands: During Pandora's spanking I had encouraged him much more to be strict than when it was Jane's turn. Herr Direktor's explanation for that was that I know Pandora better and probably felt more comfortable to set her up for a harsher punishment. Jane is tough, though, and I had seen her taking hard spankings during her interrogation at the anniversary show. So I knew there was no need to be soft on her. While there might be some truth in that I know Pandora better, I realized that there was another reason for the difference I made. In my mindset, Pandora was our pet. So of course I had to make sure that she wouldn't ever do anything like that to me again! Jane on the other hand was Direktor Sand's petgirl. And therefore, in my eyes she was his responsibility.

The most shocking (in a hilarious, funny way) feedback came from Ludwig, though. Like Direktor Sands, who very much enjoyed the wild action during our scene and the contrast it made compared to their usual routine, Ludwig liked the fighting scenario between the petgirls and me. Afterwards he told me: "It was so funny that you went into dachshund mode as well." - "Huh?" - "Yes, all the dachshund sounds you made during the fight, that was hilarious!" - "The what???" - "You made your typical dachshund grunts during the fight", Ludwig explained to me, "I really thought you did that on purpose." No, I hadn't done it on purpose. I simply start growling like a dachshund every time I fight! You can hear it for yourselves. There is one of the grunts (unfortunately a rather quiet one, they got more and louder over time) in the preview clip, at about 1:23.

Have fun watching! You can get a full screen view by clicking on the symbol with the four arrows on the bottom of the frame. Many thanks to Direktor Sands for providing the preview clip.

Psychic Interrogation

The second clip from Ludwig's and my shoot with Pandora Blake has been released on Dreams of Spanking! In time with it, here is our behind-the-scenes report on the shoot of that particular scene which is called Psychic Weapon 'C'. Ludwig and I decided to both present our memories in one single post. Ludwig's comments are printed in bold letters.

Pandora had come up with the storyline for this dark interrogation scenario which didn't only feature the three of us but Thomas Cameron as well: Pandora played an investigator by the name of Officer Julia Danby who works for a special governmental agency and is on a hot trail of an international conspiracy led by terrorists with psychic powers. One of them is a dangerous man called "The Cuckoo" (played by Thomas Cameron). She is just looking through his file in her office when she is suddenly attacked from behind, blindfolded and thrown to her knees. Once the blindfold is lifted, the shocked Officer finds out that her captor is none other than "The Cuckoo" himself and that the ones holding her down are his two taciturn and ruthless goons. When she is restrained and beaten by the Cuckoo's cruel minions, Officer Danby tries to remain stoic and in control at first. But she has no idea how strong the Cuckoo's psychic powers really are and what it is he is after...

[If you are a geek like me, with a love for science fiction / mystery series, you probably already noticed that the scene is inspired by Fringe. I don't usually pay attention to what is on TV, but Fringe is one of the very few TV series I have ever followed. Actually, I had just recently discovered it when Pandora, Kaelah and I were exchanging brainstorming emails about what to do at our upcoming shoot together. So it was kind of funny when Pandora brought up the idea of doing a Fringe-themed clip. Do I know the series, she asked? Absolutely, and I was all excited about the prospect. Kaelah did not know Fringe, but she liked the idea of playing a goon-type character, and she had other, no less fitting associations in mind...]

When Pandora told us about the storyline, the first thing that came to my mind were some pictures inspired by Men in Black. Three dark figures, appearing from nowhere, doing their job swiftly and without any mercy, before finally disappearing into the shadows as quickly as they had turned up. The only possible problem which I told Ludwig the evening before the shoot was: "Don't you think it's a bit weird that the two of us as Germans are supposed to play cruel goons who assault a British investigator?" - "We are not Germans, we are just some goons", Ludwig answered, "and this is not an idea to make fun of."

The next day, Tom came up with a suggestion: "How about you two guys speaking German? Different languages make the scene more interesting and edgy, because this way Pandora's character won't be able to understand what her captivators are talking about." I laid back and waited for Ludwig to reply. And he did: "Great idea! It also looks much more like a big international conspiracy then." As you can imagine, I was mildly irritated by this reply, okay, actually I was completely stunned. Ludwig grinned and told me that he found the idea much better now, since it had been Tom's suggestion this time. With a boyfriend like that you really don't need any enemies. Joking aside, actually I think that Ludwig was really attracted by this international thing, especially because Tom as our leader was supposed to be a native speaker of English who nonetheless instructed his goons in German.

[The main reason why I had been hesitant about making Kaelah's and my character explicitly German was a worry that doing so, and having two German-speaking henchmen attack the fair English maiden, might elicit too much of an "ugly German" stereotype with the more xenophobic viewers. The British tabloids are already printing enough nonsense about how the bloody Germans are still planning to conquer Europe, I thought, so let's just leave the characters nationality non-descript. With hindsight, it was an exaggerated worry. I mean, who takes the tabloids seriously, anyway? Probably not the people who subscribe to Pandora's site...]

[When Tom came up with his suggestion, I liked the idea that the three of us - Tom, Kaelah and me - would be communicating in German.  Not only would it add to the confusion for Pandora's character, it also instantly, and in a simple yet effective way, created the notion of a menacing, international conspiracy. Here is Pandora's character, getting assaulted by three figures. The leader is obviously an Englishman, but he has two German henchmen with him. In the context of a Fringe-inspired scene, I find that a lot more interesting than three assailants with the same background.]

We did some rehearsals of the scene beforehand, so that everyone would know where to stand and what to do during the actual shoot. Pandora, who had just directed my severe caning which we had filmed earlier that day, found out that it was really challenging to switch from director mode into bottom mode, especially given the edginess of the scene. She asked for a short break after a little misunderstanding between Ludwig and her, in order to get into the right mindset for the scene. When we continued, we decided that it was better to do the scene a bit less rough than we had initially planned to make sure that Pandora had a chance to get into the scene step by step. Since this was the first time for me to top anyone else than Ludwig, I probably was a bit over-cautious from that point on. I definitely didn't want to give Pandora any negative experience, so I was always a bit hesitant and only shifted up a gear when I felt that Pandora was ready for it.

[Before we started, Pandora told me that she wanted the initial struggle with Kaelah and me to be "really physical". What I missed, however, was her request to merely simulate the struggle while we were practicing the scene ahead of the filming. Among all the other stuff we were talking about, that detail escaped my attention. So, during the practice run, I already handled Pandora in a rather physical way, at a time when she was not expecting it yet. I felt sorry for the misunderstanding and apologised to Pandora, but she said no hard feelings, these things can happen. The downside of it all was that, once we got around to actually filming the scene, Kaelah and I were probably a bit over-cautious. It is difficult to find exactly the right spot between being too brutal and too fake in a physical struggle, especially when playing / filming with someone for only the second or third time.] 

I assume that I look a bit comical in the role of the evil goon, anyway, given my stature, but I think my slightly cautious behaviour might probably have added some comical effect as well. The same goes for the implements Ludwig and I were wielding. That huge paddle and the big cane are really frightening, but at the same time they are so huge that in my eyes they almost have a parodying touch to them, especially in the hands of a small female goon with high heels. And last but not least, there was another little aspect which isn't visible in the clip, but which made it a bit hard for me to take my own character dead seriously. Since my face is so small, I can't wear adults' glasses. So, the pair of sun glasses I wore was made for kids and had a cute Pirates of the Caribbean emblem on its side. All that gave me the feeling of being a comic villain rather than a real goon. Which I think isn't a bad thing, though, because I like the mixture of edginess and comic.

My headspace during the filming itself was ambiguous as well, in a very fascinating way. One part of me was focussed on getting everything right for the camera and making sure that Pandora was safe and feeling okay. The other part, though, very much enjoyed the freedom of being someone who obeyed orders without scruple, not bothered with any hindering emotions. I was just doing my job, swiftly and efficiently. Hey, I didn't even have a name! When we had discussed about the languages, I had already realised that I didn't have much intention to talk at all. And that's exactly how it was during the scene. The mindset of silently following orders proved to be a very peaceful one. Maybe because it was so different from my normal being (and definitely something I wouldn't want to do for real). But knowing that in reality this was Pandora's fantasy and that there was another part of me which constantly watched for her well-being, experimenting with silence and lack of emotion was indeed a very fascinating and strangely liberating experience.

In my opinion, the result is a rather edgy and cool clip. For me, Pandora's storyline is definitely much more interesting and creative than most of the scenarios which you find in other spanking clips. But you can see for yourself. Here is the preview clip for you to watch. Enjoy!

For those of you who want to read even more about the shoot, Pandora has published a post on her site as well, which you can find here.

At the Circus (Part 2): The Dachshund Perspective

(The sponge contest. Pandora and Jane put on a hard fight.)

After having visited the SM Circus Sands for the first time for their anniversary show in 2010, I was back together with Ludwig in August last year. Pandora Blake had come to Germany for a shoot with the Circus and an interview at the BDSM Tag (BDSM Day) hosted by the German non-profit organisation Bundesvereinigung Sadomasochismus e.V. BVSM (Federal Association Sadomasochism). Ludwig was Pandora's interviewer (you can watch the interview here), and we both accompanied her to the shoot as well.

Pandora was not the only petgirl for the show, though. Her partner in crime was Petgirl Jane, the creative, tough and naughty spirit whom I already introduced in my post about the anniversary show. I expected to be sitting somewhere in the background and watching the shoot in silence for most of the time, except for maybe a little cameo.

(Petgirl Jane doing the limbo.)

I was wrong. Before we started, Direktor Sands suddenly asked me whether I would like to operate one of the cameras. And I'm not talking about one of these small camcorders which Ludwig and I use for our private shoots. This was a big professional camera! I told him that I would love to do it but that I wasn't sure whether I was good enough because I'm not a trained camerawoman. Direktor Sands told me not to worry, my camera was just an extra one in addition to the two static cameras which had already been put up and the camera that was operated by their professional cameraman.

I got a short introduction to the handling of the camera and was told in which area I could move freely without getting into the shots of the other cameras. And so "Camera Kid Kaelah" was born! We have a childrens' quiz show in Germany called "1, 2 oder 3" (1, 2 or 3). In every show a kid is allowed to run one of the cameras. If pictures from that camera are shown they are highlighted with a coloured frame and the name of the indeed so called "camera kid" shows up. That's exactly how I felt, even though I doubted that the footage from my camera would be highlighted, should some of it become part of the final clips.

(Pandora reading aloud - in German!)

And so I watched the whole action through the camera. I tried to find interesting angles, to work with the zoom and with smooth movements and to avoid any shaking of the camera. The latter proved to be quite difficult after a while. The first game Jane and Pandora engaged in was the sponge contest. It was a hard fight and the scene lasted for about twenty minutes. Towards the end I suddenly realised that my arms started shaking. The camera was quite heavy and I surely was a bit too tense for the fear of shaking it or moving it too abruptly.

I had to find a solution for my problem and so I did. I went on my knees, stabilized the camera with them and started filming the scene at eye level with the pets. During the pause between the scenes I managed to recover a bit, but a few minutes into the next scene my arms started shaking again. And so I decided that the best thing to do was to go into the dachshund perspective like I did before. It proved to be an interesting perspective, at least from my point of view. The other two cameras were set up about hip high and the professional cameraman often shot close-ups from above. So my perspective definitely added a different angle. I followed Jane and Pandora at eye level as they did the limbo, read texts in foreign languages, were fed (which they used to make a big mess and lick each other clean afterwards) and of course spanked for their misdeeds.

(Pandora being spanked on the hands by Direktor Sands.)

One scene which was psychologically very intense stuck in my mind. During the limbo session the number of boxes which hold the stick are constantly reduced, until there is only very little space left under the stick. Except for someone who is extremely slim and has a rather small bosom, it is physically not possible to crawl from one side to the other without throwing the stick from the boxes. Both petgirls tried it once and of course failed. I'm not sure whether they had already tried it a second time when I felt that Pandora was getting reluctant when Herr Direktor Sands told them to do it again and try harder this time. She informed him: "This is not about how hard we try."

I could relate to Pandora's frustration and was curious how Direktor Sands was going to solve that situation. It was clear that Pandora's complaint was serious and not just in character. Herr Direktor convinced her to try it one more time. Reluctantly, Pandora did as she was told. It made me smile when I realised what Direktor Sands was doing. He put one foot on the stick, so that it simply couldn't fall down. That way both, Pandora and Jane, passed the test and were rewarded afterwards.

(Jane and Pandora being fed.)

My reward for being at the shoot wasn't a pet biscuit, it was the joy of being allowed to run such a fantastic camera. On that day I really wished I could change my profession and do that more often. I don't know whether any of the footage I shot was good enough to make it into the final clips. But operating that camera definitely made my day. And being behind the camera wasn't even all I did! I also participated in one scene together with Ludwig in front of the camera. That will be the story of the third and final part of my report, though.