Making a Spanking Video, Dana Kane Style

(In this case, ‘Dana Kane Style’ meaning: fast, low tech, and without taking ourselves too seriously.)

One of my playmates recently asked that I write something about the video-making process. Since it’s not the first request I’ve received, I thought it’d be nice to take a couple minutes to talk about my simple approach to video-making. 

There must be as many video-making styles as there are producers, and each person/company offers something unique to the viewer. The style we practice here is pretty off the cuff. 

I run a single, simple HD camera and a couple basic light sticks (with, granted, quite expensive bulbs). While I’ll eventually buy another camera – since I like being able to capture facial expressions AND action simultaneously – this simple, low-tech setup has worked exceedingly well for me. The truth is, the ‘production end’ of spanking video-making is fiddly and complicated. Nobody actually enjoys setting up cameras, lights, microphones, setting stages, white balancing, sound checks…well, okay, maybe someone out there does. But they don’t live here. 
For that reason, I’ve chosen to keep things as simple as possible. I have this fantasy ideal that viewers will appreciate the realism of a simple production. Or maybe that’s just the part of me that doesn’t like setting up lights.

Usually, my F/M videos are made featuring My Bottom’s Bottom – my main squeeze, my partner, my best friend. He’s game for (most) anything spanking-related, so we have a lot of fun coming up with themes for our scenes. Oftentimes, they’re real discipline spankings for something he’s (intentionally) done to merit a spanking. Just as many of our videos are parodies on common domestic disputes, like gambling, flirting, tardiness, and the like.

My girl Angel has received several real punishments on video, as well as the Little Angel videos which we make, in which she plays my stepdaughter, and I, her crazed Stepmommy. These ageplay scenes work particularly well for both Angel and me, as we both thoroughly enjoy regression play. Besides, she looks adorable in those pigtails.

The Very Bad Boy and his Wonderful Wife have been gracious enough to share episodes of their Domestic Discipline lifestyle with us via the videos we’ve made together.

For my Live Session Video series, a few of my long-term playmates enjoy helping me make videos on the road. Traveling all over the U.S. and Canada, I come in…ahem, contact…with a lot of star-worthy bottoms, and am always tickled when one of my playmates asks to be in a video. These videos are extremely pared-down, tech-wise, as I don’t travel with lighting kits (because I’m not a masochist). I also never film a full playtime, as we usually change positions, move around the room, and generally make it impossible to capture a whole session on film. All those fiddly angle changes would be too much of an interruption so I usually keep the Live Session Videos relatively short.

As I’ve been working with more female performers lately, I’ve had the opportunity to branch out the scene ideas and storylines. Cheyenne Jewel has appeared in a few scenes as my particularly worrisome sister-in-law, and will be back for more ‘instruction’ from her meddling brother’s sister soon.
Ela Darling and Christy Cutie spent a weekend here making Auntie Dana’s Naughty Nieces – we shot an entire DVD-length production mostly over the course of one day, and those two ladies were real troupers, enduring several spankings each as well as numerous scene dialogues and wardrobe changes.

Usually, we (the performers and I) discuss the basic premise of the scenes we’ll shoot in advance, then ad-lib our way through the dialogue. I enjoy getting natural reactions – physical and verbal – from spanking performers, so we try not to do much scripting ahead of time. This has led to some really excellent verbal exchanges during scenes, since neither of us knows what the other may say at any moment.

Thus far, I’ve had an amazingly positive experience making these videos, and I’m hoping that it’s something I can continue to do for a very long time.

(Thanks to everyone I’ve had the pleasure of working with thus far, including all of the above.)

–  Dana