Chapter 14

We were up early courtesy of jet lag and greeted Janie with a hot breakfast.

"I need to keep you guys," Janie said. "I rarely wake to hot coffee and breakfast waiting."

Pam replied, "Speaking of that, I'd like to come back sometime and experience LA the way you know it."

"Little sis, you're welcome anytime. I'd love for you to come and hang out with me. Together, we could freak out my work associates."

"I'm sure you need to be at work this morning," I said, "so we'll take a taxi to the airport."

"Yeah, both companies are shooting today. We have 22 models in two houses up in the hills. I want to be there as a second set of eyes and help the directors as much as I can. It'll be a busy day."

Pam replied, "Sounds like a logistics nightmare."

"It was at first but we're to the point now that everyone knows their job and they take full responsibility for doing it well. It's obvious if someone is not performing up to my expectations and I occasionally have to deliver a stern message. Most of the time, it's smooth sailing."

I asked, "How do you manage to get 22 models together at one time?"

"Believe it or not, that's the easy part. We have a roster of about 300 girls that we've approved. That list is changing every day, of course, and we have two women in our office that do nothing but work that roster to find available girls for the days chosen for the shoots. At any one time, 25% will not be available due to biological reasons and our schedulers dial that into the plans. The girls get a week's notice of the shoot so they have time to get themselves ready."

"How do you pick the sites?" Pam asked.

"There again, we've developed a list of sites available for rent by the day. We like extravagant and elegant locations with nice views and secluded grounds. Fortunately, there are many available up in the hills and along the coast. We take our own bedding, props, and sterilized toys and have a crew that goes in before sunrise to set up everything in the rooms we'll be using. The logistics of the setups, lighting, sound, cameras and planning the shooting schedule and the food deliveries, makeup, costumes, etc. is very complicated. That's one area that separates the great production companies like ours from the rest of the heap."

"This is all interesting and something I never thought about," I said. "What's a typical day in the life of a model?"

"Let's start with a non-shooting day. The girls work on their tans, either outside or in a tanning salon. We like a pleasant tan with no tan lines. Definitely no chemical tans. For redheads and some blondes, we don't expect any tanning, as their skin is very delicate and sensitive to sunlight. The clean, porcelain skin is just fine for them.

"Their diet is very important. We expect them to maintain their weight within two pounds of their hiring weight. Unlike fashion runway models, we like normal body types, not skin and bones. That girl-next-door look sells. Twiggy doesn't.

"We don't want to see bruises, cuts, blemishes or the like on the girls. They have to refrain from sports and avoid contacts that would cause those. It's their responsibility to inform us if something happens in time for us to schedule someone else in their place. A bad case of pimples or a rash is the worst and so avoidable. We can cover it up in photos with post-production editing but there's nothing we can do for video that would not be obvious to the consumer. If the girls don't inform us and we think they should have, they may not get future bookings. Nothing makes me angrier than having a crew and equipment and a house that together cost me $4000 per hour and not have a girl to shoot.

"The girls know before they come exactly what scenes they're going to do. It may be solo, girl-girl, boy-girl, three-way, or group and what kind of sex they'll have. It's their responsibility to come prepared both mentally and physically. This is an occasional problem with new girls. No matter what we do with preparing new talent, they may surprise you on set. We've had girls totally freeze when they see the cameras, five or six production staff, the lights glaring on them and hear all the muddle of preparing for each shoot. And when the male actor shows up with a big throbbing tool pointing straight out, they run screaming for the door.

"There's nothing sexy about sex on the set. It's business. We're manufacturing a product that is using raw materials, energy, creativity, technology and human resources. We have the same challenges as other businesses with getting the best people who make up a productive work force. The only difference is that some of our human resources are naked."

I replied, "That's kind of a big difference."

"Not to us. When you do this for a while, nakedness is just ignored as part of the background noise. It becomes part of your normal environment and actors and actresses become numb to it."

Pam asked, "Do you provide food at each shoot?"

"Yeah, that's a necessity. We usually offer fruit, yogurt, cereal and pastries for breakfast and a nice buffet for lunch. There's stuff to snack on all day. We contract with a catering company who supplies all our shoots in the LA area. If we're shooting somewhere else, our scheduling team finds a good caterer for us in that area."

Janie continued, "I was talking about the girls. Again, the younger and less experienced ones have a steep learning curve and most girls will never be successful. I'll bet that only one in 50 girls that we interview have the mentality or aptitude to handle it. Most are very pretty, some absolutely gorgeous, and have great personalities but are terrible on a set. A young woman has to really want to get into this world. None of this is easy and it's not fun. If you want fun, find a good friend and spent your time together and have great sex together. Stay away from this twisted world."

"What would the schedule be on a shooting day?" Pam asked.

"Like I said, the setup crew would arrive at the house by 4:00 am and move in the lighting, sound, cameras, furniture for the sets, sheets, pillows, makeup cases, makeup chairs and lighting, computers and the toys, props or anything else the director specified. The director would have made his or her list three days ahead of time so the setup crews have time to prepare everything.

"Around 6:00 am, the models begin arriving two at a time in 20 minute increments along with the makeup artists, lighting, sound and camera operators. The first shoots would be scheduled for 7:00 am in various rooms of the house. We do the solos first and plan to have them finished around 10:00 am. The actresses would then do the girl-girl scenes or multi-girl scenes between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm using at least two of the bedrooms, sometimes three plus outside in gardens or around pools. Avoiding background noise is critically important so we try to schedule the scenes to avoid high-energy shoots in adjacent rooms. We can edit out some of the noise, but I prefer not to do that to preserve the realism. The boy-girl scenes would start at 3:00 pm after a lunch break and continue until 8:00 pm or even later. With the 22 girls today, we should end up with material for 30 to 40 videos and about that many photo sets."

"I'm confused," I replied. "How many directors and camera teams would be at each house?"

"At least three but sometimes as many as five. It depends on the number of scenes scheduled."

"That means you may have as many as forty people in each house?"

"Yes, and we often do. That's why noise control is critically important. Everyone learns to talk quietly."

"How many male actors do you have today?" asked Pam.

"I think we have 12. We have 75 give or take on our roster. Most of them work regular jobs and do this on the side. Men don't get paid near as much as women and I'm very picky about whom we shoot. I only want great looking guys with flat or six-pack abs. They will probably do two scenes a day and not many guys can keep it up that long without help from Viagra. Like the girls, they get tested every two weeks for STDs."

Pam asked, "How to you select men for the roster? Do they have to pass any sort of test?"

"They do. It's funny how new men think they can do anything when they first show up. Their ego has them convinced that a male porn star is the ideal job. I mean, who wouldn't want to have all that new pussy every day, right?" She laughed.

"That was my thinking," I admitted. Pam slapped my arm.

"It's the exact opposite. Sure, the first few shoots they do the guys are all gun ho and ready to go. After they've done a number of them, it becomes less fun and more work. The oral becomes more rote, the pussies become more and more alike, and they get tired of following the script and have a difficult time coming on demand. Unlike the girls, they can't fake their orgasm and it's hard to stay hard for as long as it takes to do a scene. Their job is very difficult. Maybe one in 500 are good enough for us to use."

"How are they selected?" I asked.

"They apply like the girls do and we bring them in for interviews and screen tests. We always have a few lady volunteers around for them to work with and they give us their feedback on the guy's performance."

"That's an interesting job interview process," Pam said with a grin.

"Yeah, it's not like applying at IBM!" Janie replied with a smile.

We all laughed at that thought.

"This overall process sounds like a production assembly line," I said.

"In a way it is."

"How many days a week do you shoot?" Pam asked.

"Usually four. The crews work hard and many of their days are 14 hours; so I give them a three-day weekend unless we're busy with orders. Right now, with the holidays coming, we're not that busy. Our legal, accounting, editing and marketing teams work five days a week and sometimes more. I currently have 150 employees but planning to add many more in Brazil."

"You mentioned working with new models who have little or no experience in front of a camera," I said. "How does that whole process of finding potential models and training them work?"

"In many ways, that's the hardest part and the one carrying the biggest risk to my bottom line. We get on average 30 applicants a day. Let's say that a girl named Natalie from Chicago sends us an application along with photos. If we like how Natalie looks and the application is well written with logical responses to the 20 questions, our scheduling assistant will call her and talk. On the call, which we record, we'll assess Natalie's voice, and personality, and go over any of her responses that need additional information. Once she jumps those hurdles, we pay for her to fly to LA. At that point, I've invested maybe a $1000 in her.

"One of my crew will meet Natalie and bring her to the office. There, we'll interview her again, usually with me involved along with one of the directors. If she passes that, we'll do the full casting session. That involves a lot of camera time, full makeup, personal grooming, an on-camera interview, and a strip tease to music so we can assess the movement and agility of her body. We do a complete photo session and video of her solo scene. Then we bring in a male actor and do a complete hardcore shoot. By that point, I've invested $5000 or more in her counting all our personnel time that I must pay.

"Once that is edited and I approve it, we will sign a 30-day contract with her and work her into the schedule as soon as possible. At the end of that short contract, we assess her performance and review it with her. Assuming she's got what we need, we suggest she find an agent if she wants representation. If she doesn't, we'll offer her an additional 180-day contract that specifies what scenes she'll do and how often, usually a minimum of three per month and she'll be paid by the scene. We'll renew the contract if all parties agree.

"If Natalie doesn't want to live here, we schedule her in for two, three, or four days in a row. That saves her travel money and allows her to fulfill the minimum requirements of the contract. But it's hard to do several days in a row on camera with two scenes per day and look like you're enjoying it. Let me add that our contracts allow her to perform for other studios which means that she may be doing many more scenes than we know about."

Pam asked, "Even after all of the work to assess her talents, you can still end up with a dud?"

"Oh yes and it happens more than I want to think about. It's sometimes easy for a girl to do well in one casting shoot when it's all about her; but when she comes on set, it's a whole different world. There are models everywhere in various stages of undress, working scenes, getting their makeup, etc. Many of them are very experienced and a lot prettier and more confident than Natalie.

"There are male actors everywhere getting showered, shaved, and masturbating to get ready for a scene. When Natalie walks into that house, she can be shocked as it looks like an orgy. Insecurity overwhelms her and she freezes. Like I said before, for every one girl that actually does well in this business, there are at least 50 that got an interview.

Most of the girls only make $50,000 a year so this is not a gold mine for them. On the other hand, they may only work 30 days during the entire year so, on a per-day basis, it's good money. The very top models make between $250,000 and $400,000. My company has maybe 20 of them on our roster. When I was younger, I was doing much better than that since I was dancing in strip clubs and escorting until I bought the companies."

After breakfast, we talked about the next weekend. Janie's plane would land at the Chattanooga airport and we would meet her there. She was unsure of the arrival time and we left it that she would call Pam once she knew. Janie took off for her shoots and we left for the LAX airport. The flight home was uneventful, but infinitely better than the ones Pam and I had to LA earlier.

Wednesday was again a busy day for us. Pam had her hair done and a mani-pedi at her favorite salon. I worked to finalize contracts for 2012. Ron was a very big help, as usual, with the negotiations. Christmas shopping for Pam took my lunchtime.

That evening, we had a nice dinner at Bistro and visited with many of the staff to learn their plans for Christmas. Everyone was off on Sunday and Monday for the holiday. Being closed a second day for Christmas was a tradition started by my dad and I've continued it. The employees enjoyed that time with their families and came back rejuvenated.

Pam returned to work at the bank on Thursday. The Meeting Place had an unannounced health department inspection that same day. For the fifth consecutive time, the restaurant received a 100 A+ score that we proudly displayed near our entrance. I went there with Ron and congratulated the entire staff.

The Christmas bonuses appeared in the employees' pay on Thursday and I raised it from $250 to $350 in recognition of the outstanding year we had. I must have had 25 calls and emails from our team members to thank me. That giving experience warmed my heart and helped me get into the Christmas spirit more than anything else I did.

Pam and I had a very passionate evening. We were lovers once again. As we lay in bed afterwards, Janie called to tell us her plane would arrive at 2:00 pm on Saturday. She and Pam talked for a long time but Pam went to another room for that. She was up to something, I was sure.

We dropped by my parents' house Saturday morning to wish them a Merry Christmas. We had stopped giving gifts to each other years ago. There were so many great ways to use that money on people who really needed it; and we chose to do that instead.

Arriving at the Chattanooga airport some thirty minutes early, we had coffee in the General Aviation terminal and visited with a few of the guys there while we waited. One of them had been a frequent guest in the restaurants and he recognized Pam from the news article.

The jet landed on time and we watched as one of the pilots came inside to collect our bags and us while the plane was refueled. Janie met us at the door of the jet with very warm hugs, kisses and smiles. As she said, there were several others on the plane and we enjoyed meeting and talking with them on the short flight to Greenville.

Driving into the lane at the house gave me chills. As we approached the parking spot, Jerri came quickly down the steps and almost ran to our car to greet Janie. They hugged and kissed and cried for many minutes. I joined David and introduced myself and stood with him and Rudy on the porch as the three girls and Ruth visited together at the car. That heart-warming sight was one I'll remember the rest of my life.

After several minutes, we walked together into the house. The fragrance of pine filled the room and a very large tree stood in the corner. Both fireplaces were burning and the subtle aroma of hickory and oak smoke added to the wonderful ambiance. The tree was only partially decorated and I could see many boxes of ornaments still to be opened.

Pam exclaimed, "You left some of the tree for us to decorate! Thank you, Mom. I've always enjoyed that."

"I haven't had a tree in many years," said Janie. "Can I help?"

Ruth replied, "Of course you can. We popped corn to string along the boughs like we did in the old days. Who wants to work on that while we get the ornaments and lights on?"

I volunteered along with David and Rudy. Ruth sent us to the dining room to string the popcorn using small needles and sewing thread. The girls opened the boxes and began adding more ornaments and strings of lights. Many of the ornaments were quite old and had been cherished by Ruth from the early days of her marriage to Richard. The pleasant banter among the ladies was nice to hear. Ruth would occasionally stop to explain the history of a particular ornament. The girls were amazed at their mom's memory of each one and Ruth seemed to enjoy passing on this piece of the family history and tradition.

After two hours of "hard" work, we put the empty decoration boxes back in the attic and relaxed in the living room with hot chocolate. The tree was very special and we gazed at it for a long time remembering past Christmases. Janie told us some of her special Christmas memories with her parents. I shared a few of mine, as did Ruth and Rudy. Many smiles were once again shared as those happy memories were recounted.

Before dinner, everyone put presents under the tree and we marveled at the beauty of this classic Christmas scene. Ruth said, "It's sad to think this might be the last time, after 120 years, our family will have a tree and celebrate Christmas in this house." None of us wanted to think about that, even though it was reality. Ruth had told us in early December that it would go on the market in January.

Ruth had roasted a turkey and baked a ham plus six different vegetable dishes and several desserts as well as her wonderful sour dough bread. Jerri and David had arrived on Friday and pitched in to help Ruth with all the food preparation.

After dinner, we talked in the living room about many things with Jerri and Janie leading the discussion. Ruth had shared some of Janie's history prior to our arrival and nothing else was discussed about her career.

Ruth said, "Janie. You remember Fred McDonald from the last time you were here?"

"Of course, he's cute."

"He called earlier this week and asked if you were going to be here for Christmas. I assured him you were coming. He wants to come call on you."

We all turned to see Janie's reaction. It was surprise mixed with joy and questions. "He wants to call on me? Does that mean he wants to come here and talk or what?" Everyone smiled.

Ruth replied, "In this part of the country, it means he wants to come meet you officially through me and then take you out on a date with my blessing. If you were younger, say 15 or 16, he would visit with you here. That way I could keep an eye on you two." Everyone laughed.

"How quaint. I love it," Janie said. "What did you tell him?"

"I told him I would let you know and if you're agreeable, I would call him."

"Does that mean you're my agent?" Everyone laughed again.