I’m dropping in to tell you about some important changes in the Dreams of Spanking team over the last six months. There’s a fair bit to catch you up on, so grab a cup of tea.
The short version: we’ve said a fond farewell to a much-loved colleague, welcomed a new face, and the brilliant people who have been quietly making more and more of our films for a good while now are officially stepping into the spotlight. I’m excited about where this is taking us, and I think you will be too.
Farewell to Eilidh
The thing that catalysed this period of change is that Eilidh, who has been with Dreams of Spanking since 2020, moved on to other projects in March this year. Over nearly six years of close collaboration she gradually took on more and more responsibility for keeping things running smoothly, going from my VA to Dreams of Spanking’s Operations Manager and Production Assistant, and eventually going on to produce shoots without any input from me.
When Eilidh joined the team I was rebooting Dreams during the pandemic, after the ATVOD saga and a year’s hiatus. With her support we made the business profitable, relaunched the website, expanded the team, and have gone from strength to strength. Her competence, initiative, professionalism and trustworthiness made it possible for me to delegate more than I ever had before – and to finally stop bottlenecking the business by insisting on doing everything myself. When she documented all the tasks she’d been regularly doing, it filled four pages of a Google Doc. Big shoes to fill.
We’re all I’m devastated to lose her, and equally excited to see her stepping into a role where she can have a huge impact. Eilidh is now one half of the team behind Image Angel, doing amazing work protecting content creators from image-based abuse and piracy. We’re running the Image Angel system on this very website, and I’m very proud to be partnering with them. So in a sense, Eilidh is still looking after us.
Welcome, Chris!
I want to give a warm welcome to our newest team member, Chris Underwill, who you may recognise from some of our recent scenes. Chris is a queer sex worker, content creator, kinky event organiser and sexual health professional I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know through the Bristol sex work community. After talking about it for a very long time, he and I finally got to shoot together last month – and he’s also stepped in to support with production.
Chris is going to be the primary point of contact for customers, so if you email us about a custom film or a customer support question, it will most likely be him who replies. He’s also supporting with production admin, liaising with performers and booking venues – and he was an absolutely incredible production assistant on set at our shoot in July with Lorraine, Denali and Willow. He’s deeply aligned with our mission to produce queer, performer-centric kink porn, and I’m thrilled to have him on the team.
Lola steps up to support production
You’ll already know Lola Doll’s work even if you don’t know their name: they’ve been our video and audio editor and camera operator for a good while now, and I continue to be delighted by their flair with editing, their gifts with music, audio production and comic timing, and their consistent reliability and high levels of organisation. Lola has significant professional production experience in their other work, and has already demonstrated their competence running sets single-handed while I’m in front of the camera.
So I’m very happy to say that Lola is going to be joining the production team, which will relieve the pressure on Nimue and I, who have been teaming up the production of new shoots with Chris’s assistance since Eilidh’s departure. (And look out for a forthcoming cameo from them in front of the camera later this year!)
Nimue takes the creative lead
Which brings me to the biggest news of all.
Alongside all of the above, over the last couple of years I’ve been leaning more into my other work – finishing my book, and increasingly focusing on one-to-one and group coaching to help people navigate the erotic fantasies that make us uncomfortable. It’s work I’m passionate about, and it’s really lighting me up. But the more I’ve focused on it, the more I’ve found myself holding back Dreams of Spanking as team members have waited on me to do specific tasks, while I’ve been less and less available.
For a couple of years now I’ve been handing more of the creative responsibility for Dreams of Spanking to my dear friend and long-time collaborator Nimue Allen. Nimue has been with Dreams of Spanking since the beginning as a co-performer, collaborator, co-producer, camera person and film director, and more recently as our lead video editor and content manager. For years while she was running her own membership site we shared shoots as much as possible, knowing that if either of us ran out of spoons while directing our own scenes, the other could easily step in. Nimue is a multi-talented content creator, performer, business owner and disability activist, and it’s a privilege to have had her as a friend for sixteen years.
She is, quite simply, the person I trust most in the world with this work. I’ve known for years that if anything ever happened to me, Nimue is who I would want to take over Dreams of Spanking. It was Nimue I asked to come on set as performer liaison for Queueing for the Cane – our biggest ever production – trusting her decades of skill collaborating with and caring for performers, discerning and communicating boundaries, and running ethical shoot environments.
The thing is, Nimue has been doing this quietly for a while – so if you’ve been enjoying our recent releases, you’ve already been admiring her work. Our Judicial Birching shoot at Easter last year was our first production where Nimue directed half the scenes and I directed the other half. Those scenes came out well, and since then I’ve felt increasingly confident stepping back and letting her take the reins. Nimue’s skill and attention to detail in the edit suite is what finally enabled me to relinquish my death grip on the editing process – and with each custom shoot we’ve done they’ve taken on more responsibility. Our custom shoot in February was the first in Dreams of Spanking history where I wasn’t on set at all. A huge milestone – and nearly a full day of custom films, no less.
If you’d like to see what that looks like in practice: Waiting Is The Worst and Do You Feel Lucky? were directed, edited and quality-checked by Nimue without any input from me at all. The Maid and the Chimneysweep and Sunday Best Spanking were co-directed by both of us on set, then edited and reviewed by Nimue; with Nimue – not me – giving the final sign-off. I think they speak for themselves.
Going forward, Nimue is taking charge of most of the operations tasks Eilidh was handling, including making sure everything is ready for your new release each week. She’s also handling new performer intakes – getting to know each performer’s limits, preferences and favourite kinds of scenes – which makes them the perfect person to come up with the juicy, creative, original scene ideas that play to each performer’s strengths. She’ll be our primary film director on set, and the primary point of contact for the rest of the team. In other words, after 13 years, Nimue is now the primary creative force behind future Dreams of Spanking productions – not me.
A team, not a one-person show
Dreams of Spanking started out as a passion project and a one-person show. The team has been expanding and growing ever since, and it’s finally time to officially acknowledge that this is a team endeavour. It’s no longer “Pandora Blake’s Dreams of Spanking” but a true community effort – and yes, we’re updating the logo accordingly! We’ll also be putting together a Meet the Team page for the website so you can get to know everyone properly.
This site remains incredibly precious to me, and it’s a huge thing to say that I trust this team to hold the vision. They fully believe in the mission of the site: to produce queer, hot, imaginative spanking porn with enthusiastic consent at its heart.
Where that leaves me
I’m not going anywhere. I’m still the founder and executive producer of Dreams of Spanking, I hold the financial reins and make strategic decisions, and I hold ultimate responsibility for everything we do. I’m on the production team to support anyone who needs it, and I’m still working closely with Nimue and the rest of the team every week.
If you’re one of our beloved custom clients, please rest assured: I personally review every single custom film before it’s delivered to ensure it’s as good as it can possibly be.
Although losing Eilidh is a wrench, these changes feel like an opportunity to breathe new energy into what we do, and I’m excited by the possibilities. More creative voices means more variety, more collaboration, and a Dreams of Spanking that’s more resilient and sustainable than it’s ever been.
This project wouldn’t exist without the amazing team behind it. I’m incredibly grateful to each of them – and to all of you – for supporting our queer, weird, sexy little art project.
Big love,
Blake
