Posted by critmk on June 05, 2003 at 08:43:19:
Part “The Making of ‘Scamming Stewardess’ – The Movie,”
by critmk
with contributions from Juli, Becky, Sandi, Barbanne, Yoko and Shoot2Kill
To view the pictures that accompany this satire, visit my Yahoo briefcase,
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/critmk/lst?.dir=/The+Movie!+Scamming+Stew...&.view=t
CUT TO THE THE HOME OF MARK AND LENA DORRANCE, THE LEAD COUPLE, WHO PLAY DOMINIC AND LEONA IN THE FILM. THEY LIVE IN A HANDSOME NEW YORK TOWNHOUSE FILLED WITH MEMORABILIA FROM THEIR LONG CAREERS IN FILM, TELEVISION AND THEATER.
Nigel Ian-Jeremy: Mark and Lena Dorrance are not exactly stars, but they are well known to the American movie and television audience. In the mid-1980s, they were featured on a popular situation comedy, “Us and the Kids.” Between them, they’ve had supporting or starring roles in 21 mainstream films, most of them character parts in comedies. They also have long experience in live theater.
We’re with them at their home in New York, where they are currently in a successful Off-Broadway revival of “Dinner at Eight.” Mark and Lena, how has involvement in “The Scamming Stewardess” changed your lives?
Mark: For starters, we’ve never been interviewed by the BBC before.
Lena: We’ve also never been picketed by feminists before. They’re screaming at us every night at the stage door. At least they haven’t disrupted the play – yet.[10lena.jpg goes here.]
NI-J: What would have possessed you, after such long mainstream careers, to take up so risky a project as “Scamming Stewardess”?
Lena: Well, this is our chance to work on something that is revolutionary and challenging in every conceivable way. The subject matter is way out on the edge, and the technology and marketing will change the entertainment business forever. And Joe; Hovey is the most daring director working today. You don’t turn down a chance to work with someone like that.
Mark: And we might as well tell you, we’ve been into this fetish for decades. How many times would you say I’ve killed you, hon?
Lena: I’ve lost track. You’ll note, Nigel, that I’m very much alive. We decided not only to take the project, but to come out, as it were. We want people to understand that there’s nothing to be afraid of, it’s all fun and fantasy. I’m a feminist, too, when it comes to the working world, safety for women on the streets, choice on abortion and so on. But I also believe that people should feel free to pursue whatever sort of sex lives they want.
NI-J: But aren’t you afraid that all of this might end your careers?
Mark: If so, too bad, but we’ve had wonderful careers. We’ve made a great deal of money, especially on that stupid sit-com, which was more of an embarrassment to me than ‘Scamming Stew’ will ever be. Truth be told, the controversy has been a big boost -- scripts are rolling in from all over the place. And you’ll note that we’re working right now, in a highbrow venue off-Broadway.
NI-J: But what about your children? Won’t they be embarrassed?
Lena: Our 19-year-old son tells us that he suddenly has the coolest parents of anyone in his dorm at college. My sexy poster for the film is the screensaver on every guy’s computer in the dorm. Our daughter, who’s 25, is a little ticked at us, but she’s always found us a little embarrassing. Fortunately, Dorrance is a stage name; their names are different.
Mark: The big trauma about this came when they found out about our sexual games a few years ago. Of course they thought we were crazy. Now, I think they’ve come to understand that what looks violent can actually be tender, an expression of love.
NI-J: I’ve seen a preview of the film, and it looks as if you two actually, um…
Lena: Screw?
NI-J: [blushing and laughing nervously] Well, yes.
Mark: The sex we have in that movie is the real thing. We love each other and we’re uninhibited in front of the camera.
Lena: That’s right, but I want to make something else quite clear: Mark’s love scene with Sharon Milton, who plays Linda , is good old, conventional, mainstream-movie simulated sex.
Mark: She’s right – dammit! [Lena taps him playfully on the head.]
Lena: [suppressing a smile] Sharon is, oh, how shall I say it? An uncommonly dedicated actress.
Mark: She lives any character she happens to be playing, and she loved playing – being Linda! When Hovey yelled “Cut” everyone else would drop back into normal life. Sharon stayed Linda – she actually taunted the girls who were playing her victims when they were in makeup or at lunch. Scared the crap out of the poor things for the first day or two. Lena and I have known her for years, though, and we thought it was funnier than hell.
Lena: Remember when we first met her, 20 years ago? She played a nun in “The Sound of Music.”…
Mark: Walked around praying the rosary all day. She’s a bit of nut, but we’re fond of her.
Lena: I got a little ticked at her for coming on to Mark off camera the whole time we were shooting, but I couldn’t stay mad. That’s just part of the way she works. She wanted me to be jealous to make more sparks on camera.
Mark: This was such a tough shoot for me, consorting with two gorgeous women who couldn’t get enough of me. Of course, Sharon was just toying with me – she never would have actually gone to bed with me.
Lena: Nigel, at your interview, be prepared. Sharon just loves to mess with press people.
NI-J: Thanks for the advice. I will have my upper lip re-stiffened and my English reserve refilled for the occasion. But now back to you two. Does working in a film such as this, with so much sex and violence, have an impact on a marriage?
Lena: Nigel, we love each other. We’re a rarity in this business, in that we’ve been faithful to each other and stayed married for the long run, and one movie won’t change that. Frankly, I think “Scamming Stew” brought us even closer together
.
Mark: “Shadows and Fog,” a Woody Allen movie, has a scene with a group of prostitutes are sitting around a table swapping stories of the nutty things that men want from them. It feels improvised. Lily Tomlin, of all people, has a speech about a guy who liked to have her put on spurs and ride him around the room. He’d pretend to be her horse.
She speculates about what his marriage might be like. He might find a woman who loves him and goes along with it. She’s a good sport, but after 10 years she gets tired of it and they part. Then Lily says, “But what if he should find someone who likes to ride as much as he likes to be ridden? Ah then – it’s bliss.”
Well, with Lena and me – it’s bliss.
CUT TO SCREEN VIEW OF GUNSIGHT CROSSHAIRS TRAVELING ACROSS THE BODIES OF TWO WOMEN SEATED ON A SOFA AND ANOTHER ON A CHAIR NEARBY. THEY ARE THE PETRA, JULI AND MARNI CHARACTERS FROM THE ASIAN COUTURE SCENE OF THE MOVIE. WE HEAR THE OFF-CAMERA VOICE OF ROBERTA SOX, DIRECTOR OF MARKETING FOR THE SCAMMING STEWARDESS PROJECT.
Bobbi Sox: Fire when ready, Nigel.
Nigel Ian-Jeremy, BBC Documentarian: [laughs nervously] Oh, I don’t know…
BS: [a little seductively] Go ahead, you know you want to.
NI-J: Didn’t Petra, the one on the left get shot first in the movie?
BS: Yes, but players needn’t follow the script. This is a very sophisticated game.
NI-J: Well, then… maybe I’ll shoot the bossy little Chinese girl.
BS: Juli.
NI-J: Yes, Juli. [BANG] I got her!
BS: Yes, but only in the thigh. You have to finish her.
[BANG BANG BANG BANG – on screen, Juli’s breasts erupt in realistic bullet wounds.]
NI-J: [giggles] Ha! Now what?
BS: You’d better hurry and find the next target before they spot you and start shooting back – oops, too late, Becky, on the steps to the left, nailed you. [A red haze fills the screen, which then fades to black.]
[NOW NIGEL AND BOBBI ARE IN HER OFFICE]
NI-J: The raw footage for “The Scamming Stewardess” has all been shot. Director Joel Hovey and his editors are hard at work on a final cut. They have the advantage of an all-digital production that lends itself to easy manipulation. It also lends itself of extraction of scenes for other purposes, such as the game I was playing a few moments ago.
[NIGEL TURNS TO BOBBI]
NI-J: What a remarkable game it is. It’s like stepping into the movie, and having the power to change the storyline.
BS: Our designers and technologists are the best in the business. This game goes further than any other in blending video and computer-generated imagery – it’s almost seamless. The combination works because everything was digital from the beginning. The realites of the film and game worlds are completely malleable because of it. We didn’t need any expensive squib work for the bullet wounds, which are all digital in both the film and the game.
This is one of the most technically innovative films in history. The miniature cameras are operated by remote control and cables, so we could fly them through scenes and digitally erase them when they got in the way. They are entirely portable, can operate in very low light and make it easy to shoot on location. There was a lot of upfront development cost, but the actual production cost was very low. We’ve put those savings into creative people, including our actresses. We’ve paid the girls – the professional actresses and stunt women -- as much as $2,000 per day. And we’ve given everyone involved a tiny piece of the action. If all goes as projected, people who worked on this project will collect checks for the next decade.
NI-J: How much money do you expect to make from all this?
BS: We’ve patented our technical developments, which include revolutionary anti-copying software, and now we can make money by selling and licensing them. And our digital film studio is so compact that it can by shipped in one truck. We can rent it out. We believe that we can collect tens of millions from the technology, and millions more from producing future films with it ourselves.
“Scamming Stewardess” is exceeding our expectations – we had no idea so many perverts were out there [laughs]. Not to mention the scandalized and the idly curious. That and the spinoff game should pay production cost and net a few million.
NI-J: I’ll have to admit, the game is a great deal of naughty fun.
BS: Here – have a complimentary copy.
NI-J: In a plain brown wrapper, please. [They both laugh.]
CUT TO AN EDITING STUDIO IN LONDON; JOEL HOVEY IS INTENT ON A SCREEN UPON WHICH AN ASIAN GIRL IS SHOT AND FALLS DOWN A FLIGHT OF STEPS. HE RUNS IT OVER AND OVER, TAKING OUT A FRAME HERE, CUTTING IN A DIFFERENT CAMERA ANGLE THERE.
NI-J: We are here in London with the bad boy of British cinema, Joel Hovey..
His first three films were low-budget affairs in a neo-noir mode and became
cult hits. He broke into the big-time with a science fiction epic called
"Armies of Women" three years ago, and surprised everyone by following that
with a hit romantic comedy, "Love at a Distance."
NI-J: Mr. Hovey, your last two mainstream projects made you an A-list
director on the international scene. Why would you jeopardize your status by
taking on such a controversial project “The Scamming Stewardess”?
JH: I think the answer to that is fairly obvious - I can't just keep going
for the safe bets. "Love at a Distance" really got me an audience I was
uncomfortable with - I've never been a cutesy director, suddenly that's all
people see me as. I had something like 100 scripts in the month after the
release, and with only one exception, they were all for Meg Ryan and a man
whose trousers fall down at a garden party.
NI-J: The exception was “Scamming Stewardess”?
JH: Exactly, though that wasn't the title at the time. It turned out that
they'd seen Armies of Women - and a couple of shorts I made at college as
pastiches of the Mike Hammer movies.
CUT TO AN OFFICE, IN WHICH A BUXOM BLONDE IN 40S COSTUME SITS WITH HER
STOCKINGED LEGS UP ON THE DESK. A GUNSHOT TAKES HER IN BETWEEN HER BREASTS,
CAUSING A SPURT OF FAKE BLOOD FROM HER BLOUSE. SHE IS THROWN BACK AGAINST
THE WALL, AND SLIDES DOWN IT. THE CAMERA PANS AROUND TO A MAN IN A TRILBY
AND A TRENCHCOAT, A SMOKING GUN IN HIS HAND. "YOU'RE FIRED" HE WISECRACKS.[11blondsec.jpg goes here]
NI-J: It seems people were happier with "Love at a Distance", as you'd had
plenty of accusations of misogynism in your previous work..
JH SHIFTS, ABOUT TO MAKE A PROTEST
NI-J: After all, isn't it a rather easy excuse to say “oh well, ‘Armies of Women’ is a
feminist text”?
CUT TO A SCENE FROM 'ARMIES OF WOMEN', IN WHICH FOUR NUDE ASIAN MODELS ARE IN THE MIDST OF A PHOTOSHOOT, WHEN A SQUAD OF THE FILM'S EPONYMOUS WOMEN ATTACK, MACHINE GUNNING THE CREW OF THE SHOOT AND ROUNDING THE MODELS UP.
'NO! WE'RE ON YOUR SIDE!' SHOUTS ONE OF THE MODELS. 'HARDLY,' SNEERS ONE OF THE TROOPERS, BEFORE SHOOTING ALL FOUR TO DEATH. THE VIEWPOINT DRAWS BACK TO SHOW THE BLOOD SPATTERED SET, COVERED WITH CORPSES.[12nudequartet.jpg goes here.]
JH: Nonetheless, the argument does stand up. There have been just as many
essays about how my films reinforce the power of women as undercut it. I
enjoy the usage of violence as an approach to narration, it has a place in
storytelling - witness all those classic fairytales, it's the ultimate form
of character interaction. And I also like to use beautiful women in my
films, because the shoots are long, and it's always nice to have something
worth looking at. I adore women, I always have done, and I want to work with them forever and ever.
Maybe I've strayed from the point here... I have never seen my movies as
exploitative, there's a point to them, and the characters are always strong.
That's why I signed up on Stewardess, because there's not a weak character
in it. And most notably, the characters who are originally innocent and weak and naive generally grow and find power: We see them obtaining their own empowerment. And whether that's being done by a half naked woman with a gun or a beggar in Calcutta, it's still a valid dynamic.
NI-J: So you're not into snuff-necro as a fetish?
CUT TO CLIP FROM 'STEWARDESS', IN WHICH A NAKED JAPANESE GIRL SITS UP IN
BED, ONLY TO BE SHOT BETWEEN THE EYES BY MARK DORRANCE.[13japbed.jpg goes here]
JH: Well, I think if you're into girls with guns battling other girls with
guns, then there are natural consequences. Love that gunplay! But what
happens afterwards, no, that doesn't interest me really. But it doesn't
appall me - I think there's plenty of room in this world for all sorts of
likes, and it's narrow-minded to impose restrictions.
NI-J: How did you run across the Scamming Stewardess novel?
JH: I've been aware for some time of the Necro community on-line, mainly
because it's a good way of seeing girls and guns imagery. I'd made a few
contacts, shared a few interests. So I read the Stewardess novel as it
appeared, but never really thought anything about filming it. But then I got
the script – someone I knew on the web sent it after the success of 'Love at a Distance.' It seemed a really good time to do it. Besides, it was unlikely anyone else would film it.
NI-J: Because it's effectively a porn film?
JH: Were it just a porn film, they could have got someone for a tenth of my
price. I did it because there is - despite what the critics say - a central
theme and message. I've been accused of just making a private little
skinflick for perverts - well if that was the case, I'd be unlikely to do
anything stupid like putting it out on general release. Please!
NI-J: But surely it must be difficult to direct actresses in such a sexual
and violent content?
JH: Sure, if the actresses had never done this sort of material, then it
would be nigh on impossible. It's hard enough to get some to do something as simple as a topless scene, let alone a topless scene in which she gets shot six times in the chest. Much as we computer generate all the wounds and
gore, you can't fake the reactions and they need to be spot on to convince.
We've had lots of fun rehearsing it, and only started filming after a week-long
"dead school", where everyone was taken through reacting with several mime
coaches.
CUT TO SHAKY FOOTAGE OF A DRAMA SCHOOL, IN WHICH JOEL HOVEY ALONG WITH A NUMBER OF ACTRESSES ALL CLUTCH AT WOUNDS AS SOUND EFFECT SHOTS PUMP OUT OVER THE PA.
JH: Everyone got so into it that the directing of the violent scenes has
probably been the easiest part of the movie. My casting agent knew exactly
what we were looking for, and in many cases people offered themselves
because they already had an interest. They were the ones who graduated the
'dead school' with honors!
CUT TO A NEW SCENE: A MAN IN SHADOW, SEEN ONLY IN SILHOUETTE. A COMPUTER SCREEN GLOWS SOFTLY BEHIND HIM. THE CAMERA PULLS BACK TO REVEAL NIGEL, IN FULL LIGHT.
NI-J: We are with the man who started it all, the author, known in the snuff-necro web underground as critmk. At his insistence, we have kept him in shadow and electronically altered his voice. We can say only that he’s in his 50s and lives in the American Midwest.
Critmk, why do you wish to remain anonymous?
C: I have a regular job in the media, fairly high profile, a wife, kids, a mortgage. I don’t need the controversy, and I certainly don’t need my house burned down by anti-porn fanatics. I’m not paranoid, but I am prudent.
NI-J: You fear for your safety?
C: Yes, and for my family’s. There’s a certain irony in a purveyor of fake violence fearing real violence from people who hate fake violence.
NI-J: Now you’re making my head hurt.
C: Sorry. I hate to cause anyone real pain.
NI-J: Can you explain your fascination with sex and violence?
C: No. All I can say is that it’s been with me as long as I can remember, even before I really knew what sex was. The idea of women pretending to be shot, stabbed, strangled, or whatever, has always excited me, and the sexual dimension of it grew as I matured.
NI-J: Hasn’t this been a terrible burden?
C: Yes and no. It’s a hard thing to share with the women in one’s life, and of course almost no one understands it. But it also adds an element of thrill, an electricity to sex, a level that few others can reach. Once you get over the anxiety, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. I got over it 30 years ago. Now I just accept it – it’s part of me, it hurts no one, and I just enjoy it. It’s a hobby.
NI-J: You did share this secret with women?
C: Oh yes. Before I was married, I had a four or five girlfriends play along with it, and two of them were really into it. I think part of it is that they got to know me and trust me before I brought the subject up. I’m really a sweet, gentle guy, and they knew I wouldn’t hurt them.
NI-J: And how does your wife feel about all of this?
C: I’ve been married to the same woman for over 25 years. She’s not into this, but she often plays along because she loves me and likes to please me. We’ve had some bumps in our relationship over the fetish issue from time to time, but she’s very generous and understanding. I love her all the more for that, and I do everything I can to show her that I love and appreciate her. I the sort of husband who cooks dinner and cleans bathrooms.
NI-J: Did you model Leona on her?
C: Oh yes, although if you knew her you’d know how funny that is. She is the kindest, least violent, most honest creature on the planet. The modeling is more on her age and the way she is physically. She’s a very attractive, classy 50-year-old, highly intelligent with an important job. She’s just my type.
NI-J: How does she feel about your sudden notoriety?
C: [laughs] She was irked to find that I’d wasted a whole year writing a snuff-porn novel. She calmed down when I got that $25,000 check for the story.
NI-J: That’s all? The production company anticipates making millions.
C: These are honorable people. I wrote the novel for fun and for free. It was posted all over the web without copyright protection. They didn’t have to pay me anything, but they did. They paid me well to work on the script, and they are also paying me as a consultant. And they’re talking about more writing for future projects. I could get a lot more, depending on how the movie and the spinoffs do. The producers gave me a full point of the net. If a few million roll in, then I’ll be independent enough to go public. In America, Nigel, we call that [bleep]-you money.
NI-J: Why would you go public at all?
C: Because I’d like people to understand that there’s nothing to be afraid of. I’m about as easygoing and reassuring as a man can be. No tattoos, no piercings, no Nazi regalia, no wife beating, no explosive temper, no drugs or alcoholism. I have never owned a gun – never even fired one. I’d be a good poster boy for the fetish.
NI-J: Have you had to compromise the novel for the sake of the movie?
C: I’ve revised the script pretty extensively from the novel. When it’s just words on a page, you can have characters do anything. But there’s no way I’m going to require some poor actress to play dead and let some guy come in her mouth, which happens more than once in the story. The Dorrances are uninhibited, married and hot to do real sex on screen, so they really do it. The rest of the sexual stuff is off screen, simulated or cut. In the book, for example, Dominic screws the Petra, Juli and Yuki characters after he kills them. That doesn’t happen in the movie. Instead, he calls up Leona for phone sex while he describes the scene in Asian Couture. It’s important to respect the sensibilities of the actresses. I’ve been negotiating these points with Joel Hovey and the actresses – who sometimes are willing to go farther than I would have them go. My old friend Juli was really disappointed when her post-mortem screwing was written out. It was fine for the page, but just too over-the-top for film. Ten years from now, she’ll thank me. “Hey Ma, is that guy really poking you?” She doesn’t want to hear that.
NI-J: How do you answer critics who say that this is degrading to women, that it promotes crime against women, or that it is just plain immoral?
C: I can do no more than tell you that I would literally rather die than harm a woman. I couldn’t be compelled at gunpoint to hurt a woman. That’s hard for people to comprehend, that someone like me could have such a clear line between fantasy and reality. But I do, and so does practically everyone who visits fetish boards of this type. Expressions of contempt or hatred of women are rare on these message boards, and the ones that do pop up are invariably roundly jeered.
Of course outsiders aren’t going to get this. This is a damned hard thing to understand and the best we can hope for is live and let live.
Some people – censors, religious fanatics, the pious politically correct – aren’t will to let it go at that. They want the cops after us. Some people, for reasons I don’t understand, want to control everyone else’s sex fantasies. It’s crazy, but it’s common.
What they don’t get is that we have sexual fantasies precisely because the events imagined in fantasy cannot happen in reality. Certain aspects of my stories might seem real as you read them or see them on a screen, but pull back an inch and they are obviously preposterous. The world of the scamming stewardess is a cartoon playground; it doesn’t exist and cannot exist. The militant feminists want us to have no fantasies whatsoever that involve women; the Christians want us to fantasize only about married love in the missionary position in the dark through two or more layers of flannel.
That’s silly and shows a narrow and, I would say, cruel and repressive view of human sexual psychology. There’s no point in fantasizing about what you can do in real life. Fantasy, almost by definition, is imagining and taking pleasure in the impossible.
My brain and my imagination are my sexual playgrounds, and censors and nags have no jurisdiction there. And if I care to share the games that go on there with the like-minded, it’s none of anyone’s business.
I sometimes lose patience with these people, but you can’t be angry with them, really. This whole thing is terribly difficult to comprehend from the outside. Except for the opportunists – the politicians who carry on with right-wing constituencies and the TV preachers who can use it to get money – opposition to porn in general and especially Scamming Stew is the product of ignorance. If people had a perfect understanding, they would be tolerant instead of angry or fearful. They’d laugh it off, because none of this is serious. It’s not crime, it’s not injury, it’s just words on a page and flickering on a screen. It’s not blood, it’s red food coloring mixed with corn syrup. When you think about it, snuff porn is pretty damned silly.
CUT TO NIGEL BACK AT THE BBC STUDIOS, A LAPTOP OPEN ON THE DESK IN FRONT OF HIM.
Nigel: Frankly, the people behind “The Scamming Stewardess” are not the sleazy, disagreeable sort we expected to find. Yet there is no denying that the material in it is highly offensive to many people, and calls for censorship grow louder as time ticks down to the release date.
But even if the political will toward censorship existed in the Western world, how would it be implemented? “The Scamming Stewardess” is being sold for download from dozens of sites around the world. To attempt to censor it would be to try to stop the flow of wind across national borders.
Will this strange web film and the technology that make it possible change the entertainment industry fundamentally? Will it change our attitudes about off-center sex?
That remains to be seen. This much we know: With one week before release date, over 3 million people have purchased download rights for $50 U.S. each. “Scamming Stewardess: The Game” won’t be released for seven weeks, and almost half a million orders have come in. All of this happened with practically no paid advertising. The ground might be shifting under our feet.
[THE LIGHTS DIM AROUND NIGEL. HE SWITCHES ON THE LAPTOP; WE SEE THE SCREEN’S GLOW ON HIS FACE. HE PLUGS A GAME GUN INTO THE COMPUTER AND SLIDES IN A DISC. HE AIMS AND PULLS THE TRIGGER. WE HERE THE COMPUTERIZED “TEWP” OF A SILENCED AUTOMATIC, AND THE THUMP OF A FALLING BODY. A COMPUTERIZED FEMININE VOICE PLEADS: NO, PLEASE, DON’T SHOOT ME AGAIN! NIGEL SMILES AND AIMS. FADE TO BLACK TO THE SOUND OF TEWP! TEWP! TEWP! TEWP!………
THE END