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As I nervously walk down the bedroom hall, trying not to seem too eager, I briefly see her walk across the hallway in front of me to the large bathroom on the right. She's wearing a black t-shirt and grey sweat pants. She's barefoot. Her hair hanging loosely past her shoulders. She has a brush in her hand. I suddenly pause for a moment. It dawns on me...I'll soon be seeing her naked, eventually I'l be observing her having sex.
Now this is a drastic change from my typical day of labor at ATKingdom. My work usually consists of 9 hours of picture selecting, tweeting, blogging and normal day to day office work. The fact that the content that I'm working on happens to be sexy adult material, occasionally snaps me out of the monotony of my duties. But like all things in life, inevitably one becomes jaded by overexposure. At the end of the day, I'm really just a social media manager, like thousands of other people out there on the web. Wether the position involves promoting websites for newspapers, search engines.... or in my case, adult entertainment, the work is essentially the same.
So when the opportunity came to actually attend a professional adult photo shoot, I jumped at the chance. I've actually worked on several professional mainstream film sets before. But this was an opportunity to experience a professional adult entertainment set. I admit I may sound naive, but I've always had an appreciation for adult performers. I admire them much in the same way I admire a professional athlete. The work is physically demanding, requires a certain amount of artistic energy and prowess, and only a select few have the ability to perform impressively at the highest levels. I'm also not too embarrassed to admit that I find the female performers incredibly gorgeous and sexy.
I had arrived at the set a little excited and admittedly a little nervous. I was given a quick tour around the impressive set when I was greeted by my boss and the owner of ATKingdom. He gives me a brief rundown of what to expect from the day. He informs me he has business to attend to, but Sativa, a very attractive popular model in her own right, is supervising the shoot, and will tend to my questions and keep me out of trouble. After quickly orienting myself to the surroundings, I hear a car. The photographer has arrived.
Marco Pallotti is a bigger than life personality. He fills the room with a fun and infectious energy that immediately puts everyone at ease. He introduces himself to me with a warm handshake and smile. My boss informs him of my purpose at the shoot. A part of me feels that I might be a distraction, but Marco quickly puts me at ease, encouraging me to ask questions whenever I want. He tells me he shoots fast and that if he doesn't answer me right away it's because he's focused on his task and that he will eventually answer any and all of my questions. I ask him if it's okay if I take some pictures. He jokes, as long as I don't show his gut. It's not long after, that I hear another car arrive, the model is here. I remind myself to try not to look like a tourist at his first day in the big city. I also remind myself to try to keep my mouth closed lest I look like a complete idiot.
Gracie Glam is one of the most popular models in the industry right now. She has appeared in over forty adult films and she is part of a new batch of exciting young performers who have an impressive, all-natural and fresh, girl-next-door look. In a lot of ways she represents the future of the industry, as it moves away from the fake breasts, "Barbie-type" plastic models which were popular in the early days of DVD. She has scored extremely well with our members in ATK Galleria and my boss thinks that she's an excellent model for ATK Premium. I calmly agree with him, but I'm too embarrassed to admit that she's actually one of my favorite models on our sites. When I enter the dressing room, there is a large black suitcase on the floor. While I grab my phone and start to tweet. She comes out of the bathroom and grazes my left shoulder. She heads to her case and proceeds to unpack. I try not to stare.
After a couple of moments Gracie Glam makes eye contact with me. My boss introduces me, explains that I'm writing an article and that I'll be watching the shoot and blogging about the day on twitter for our site. She smiles and greets me with a cute and sexy hello as she shakes my hand. Gracie has retweeted some of my posts in the past. I nervously thank her for helping me out in the past, even though we've never met.
Marco enters the room with a warm energy. He promptly asks Gracie what her age is. Gracie responds that she's 19. Marco makes an awkward joke about her age, but Gracie doesn't laugh. A part of me thinks their might be tension, but I soon realize that it's just an understandably awkward moment of two professionals meeting for the first time. Marco gushes about her beauty, before he asks for Gracie's legal documents. He examines them thoroughly.
Sativa starts to go through Gracie's wardrobe. It's clear Sativa is an expert at putting together outfits for a shoot and has an uncanny eye for color schemes. It's also clear that she has researched Gracie's assets and strong points. She discusses with Gracie that our members like her in short skirts and outfits which accentuate her legs and lower body. Marco approves the costume for the first set then takes off onto the location. I follow him out as he explains to his assistant Ken, his vision. Ken almost instinctively knows what he wants and proceeds to set up the first photo shoot.
I decide to head back to the dressing room. When I arrive Gracie Glam is naked. I'm impressed, but not surprised that she looks better nude in person then she does in photos. I've heard models look different under friendly lights and professional make-up. But Gracie is a natural beauty. I honestly think she'd probably look good with a potato sack on. Gracie is at ease with my presence, in fact I think she almost likes the attention of being naked in front of me. This dynamic immediately takes away any potential awkwardness between us. It's a constant theme throughout the day. Gracie is a professional and is rarely fazed by the happenings on a set. I try to look calm and collected when in reality I can't believe what I'm witnessing. I look for Sativa, so it doesn't seem like I'm obsessed with the distractlingly hot Gracie. I find Sativa who is rummaging through wardrobe trying to find matching panties for an outfit.
It's not long before the first photo set begins. The first thing I notice is that Marco shoots at a very fast pace. He explains to me later that it keeps the energy up during the shoot. It also keeps the model interested and discourages her from being self conscious. I also notice that he gives straight-forward, non-emotional direction. Which takes away any awkwardness when he directs the model to "show pink" or "suck on your toes".
Marco loves to take photos of the models faces. He admits it's probably not what members want to see most, but he later explains to me that his favorite thing to shoot is portraits. He also explains that a close up of the girl’s face helps the viewer connect with her. I notice that it also serves other purposes. It encourages the models to focus their energy directly into the camera at all times and even though it appears that Marco is focusing on private parts, he's aware of the larger picture of the complete set. Occasionaly throughout the shoot Marco shows Gracie how good the pictures are turning out. I noticed on several occasions Gracie was impressed and happy with the results.
In between sets ups, I muster the courage to ask Gracie a couple of questions. I ask her how she came up with her name and she tells me that she always liked the idea of a persona named Glamourous Gracie. Even before she had any intentions of becoming an adult performer. When the time came for her to choose a name she was advised by her handlers that Glamourous Gracie sounded too 80's. So she settled on the fun name of Gracie Glam. Later I ask her if she enjoys doing photosets or movies more. She explains to me that they both present challenges and they both have their pros and cons. But she genuinely likes doing both. I ask her if she's interested in doing mainstream work. She says she'd like to, but her agency hasn't started focusing on that type of work for her yet.
The rest of day goes smoothly. Gracie proves extremely easy to work with. Marco keeps the mood light with the occasional joke and infectious laugh. Occasionally, he feels the need to crack the whip, but it's never more then a quick direction or helpful suggestion to his assistant Ken. Sativa is helpful in moving everything along. Making sure the model and photographer are happy. She is also constantly looking at the complete shoot. She occasionally checks in with Marco, careful not to step on his toes, but making sure that he has the different types of sets represented. Marco seems to enjoy Sativa's help, which takes away some of the pressure from him.
One fascinating observation I do make is that Gracie and Marco are great at focusing their energy into the camera. For instance, on several occasions I would remove myself from Gracie's sight-line and watch the shoot from the side. What I see from that angle, is not very impressive. But the moment I stand behind Marco and his camera. Their seems to be a magic in the air. Gracie's energy seems to sparkle towards the camera and I can clearly see the vision that Marco is creating.
Later the male talent arrives. He is calm, very respectful to everyone. Nothing like the stereotypical testosterone filled male one would think would be on a adult movie set. A part of me feels that this shoot is surreal. Earlier in the day, Sativa had shared stories of shoots that were dramatic, unconventional, tension-filled and just a plain nightmare. Instances like difficult boyfriends who won't leave the shoot, models who would mysteriously "disappear" from set. Photographers who are out of control and abusive. But there is none of that here. The shoot is remarkably smooth. Later when my boss returns, I ask him if I can attend a difficult shoot. To witness something more dramatic. He laughs and says he wishes they all ended up like this.
When the time comes for videos, I start to feel a little awkward. I ask Gracie a couple of times if she's uncomfortable with my presence. She explains when the camera starts rolling, everyone disappears. I guess one would assume watching people have sex a few feet away is awkward or extremely unnatural. But professionals like Marco, Ken and Gracie seemed to be so focused on the task, they don't have time to get distracted or embarrassed. After awhile I feel like a member of the crew, who is trying to help everyone accomplish their goal. I'm reminded of my earlier analogy of athletes performing. They don't have time to get nervous, they are too focused on getting the win.
By the end of the day Gracie Glam has a several nudism sets, an up-skirts set, foot-fetish, a uniforms set, two masturbation sets and two hardcore boy-girl sets. He also manages to shoot two masturbation videos, a hardcore boy-girl video, and a fun interview between Gracie and Sativa.
10 hours later at the end of the shoot, Gracie, Sativa, Ken and Marco are all exhausted. My boss who traditionally wakes up at 4:30 am in the morning is also tired from a hectic day of work and commuting to different offices as well as back and forth to the set.
I thank Marco for letting me sit in. He tells me that I'm free to contact him at anytime. He gives me his business card. He also tells me that I'm welcome to return to one of his shoots at anytime. I feel like I've made a new friend. When the time comes for me to say goodbye to Gracie Glam. The romantic in me hopes something unique will happen. Maybe she'll want to become friends, ask for my e-mail or better yet give me hers. But Gracie Glam like a lot of the models in the industry is a true professional. She says a warm goodbye to me like a professional athlete thanking a gushing fan. I'm more than happy with just that. I feel like the entire experience has been a privilege.
Essentially, today's work amounts to a month or more of content of Gracie Glam on ATK Premium. I walk away impressed by the entire experience. Anyone who thinks that what these people do is easy work is insane. This was a team of professionals at the top of their game.
No matter that the game is sex and lust-filled.
-ATK Ray
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