Video blog: Dreams of Spanking HQ

Posted at 09:19 on 2 May 2012 by Pandora Blake in Pandora Blake, video diary

In this video blog, I show you around "Dreams of Spanking HQ" (i.e. my new flat!), tell you about yesterday's photoshoot and my video shoot plans, and talk you through the contents of my toybox. 

The video is public so you don't have to be a site member to view it. Click on the image to launch the popup player, or alternatively right click to download the MP4 (high res, large file) or WMV (low res, smaller file) version. Enjoy!

Spanking Library store now open!

Posted at 17:08 on 4 May 2012 by Pandora Blake in pay-per-download

Those of you who prefer to buy spanking films as individual downloads might be interested to hear that we've just opened our own clips store at Spanking Library. You can find all our video updates there, and I'm keeping it up to date with new releases each week.

Each 'clip' is a full movie including a title sequence and credits, and a complete storyline in its own right - exactly the same video file as is available to site members, in fact. So that means no partial clips, but full films with our trademark imaginative plots and character development, not just context-free spanking (although some of the videos squeeze in rather a lot of spanking!).

The films range in price from $4.99 to $24.99 depending on length, so none of them will break the bank. The longest, Caning Merit Badge, is 59 minutes long and shows me taking 39 whacks with the bath brush, 100 hard cane strokes, 20 cane strokes on the nipples and a final 30 strokes of the razor strop. Bargain!

Here are some of the many other clips on sale:

Not only that, but I've just added our latest film, Liberated Ladies of the Jazz Age - in which Zille Defeu and I play rebellious young flappers subjected to cruel domestic belt whippings in the Roaring Twenties:

The videos are all high quality, with a bitrate of around 1.5mbps and a resolution of 960x540 for older scenes and 1920x1080 for the newest ones. As such downloads might take a little longer on slower internet connections, but it'll be worth the wait.

So if you prefer to watch spanking videos on a pay-per-download basis rather than with a site membership, you can now bookmark our Spanking Library store and cherry-pick your favourite movies from our growing archive.

Removing her belt

Posted at 13:48 on 5 May 2012 by Pandora Blake in Adele Haze, belt, consensual, domestic, Fforbes, film, free video, F|F, hand spanking, light-hearted, OTK, photo, Zoe Montana

Have you ever seen a spanking video in which a woman removes her leather belt and uses it to deliver a whipping? I hadn't. Twitter informs me that Nuwest and Leda Productions might have explored this niche in the 90s, but it's certainly not as common as seeing a man do it.

I love watching a top remove their belt. Hands at the buckle, fingers working. Loosening the leather and sliding it, knowingly, deliberately, smoothly out through the belt loops with an audible swish. Their eyes watching you, while you watch the belt, mouth drying. Is the speed with which the belt is removed a hint of the pace of the whipping to follow? Swiftly, all in one breath; or slowly, drawing it out, savouring your anticipation?

Either way, it's hot as hell, an erotic pre-punishment ritual improved only by the unbuttoning of cuffs and rolling back of sleeves. But all of these preparations, in my experience, are usually assigned to male tops. Why? Why not a female spanker, resplendent in tight denim, fixing you with her gaze as she slides her leather belt free of its constraints and puts it to another use? 

Well, this is exactly what Zoe Montana does in our latest video, all the better to whip Adele Haze:

It was an absolute treat to cast Zoe and Adele together for the first time. I'm grateful to Adele for stepping in at the last minute as spankee for this unscheduled scene, after plans had to be re-written on the fly; and for tolerating the not-entirely-flattering script I came up with on the spot. I can assure you that Adele very rarely drinks, and when she does she's perfectly charming and would never dream of stealing anything. Still, she looks very pretty while being spanked, and we thought the film would be a bit more interesting if we gave Zoe some excuse.

Personally, I could just watch the bit where Zoe removes her belt over and over again, but if you need more reason than that, this video also includes some hard hand spanking and 24 searing strokes of the leather belt on Adele's bare bottom. If you like that sort of thing. Which if you're reading this blog seems a reasonable guess.

A Taste of Her Belt also includes a 6 minute behind the scenes video including out-takes, negotiation and some post-shoot lotion and aftercare, 36 high resolution screengrabs and a bonus gallery of 12 photos, in which our photographer Fforbes had a go at capturing the 'spanker's eye view' from above Zoe's head. I think my favourite is the shot which shows the white handprint left behind by Zoe's palm on Adele's pink bottom.

Have a great weekend!

Mike Stryker does Barelesque

Posted at 10:20 on 8 May 2012 by Pandora Blake in female gaze, Michael Darling, Mike Stryker, solo-M

I hope he won't mind me posting this, but I LOVED this video of Mike Stryker, our newest spankee, on stage doing a butch, Teddy-boy themed burlesque striptease, and I thought the ladies reading this blog would enjoy it too. He seriously knows how to move!

Assorted geekery

Posted at 10:50 on 11 May 2012 by Pandora Blake in files and formats, pay-per-download, site development

I'm currently rolling out a few changes to our video files and how they reach you. These are mostly improvements planned since before we launched, which are only now becoming practical to implement. Here's the details.

1. High definition video

When the site launched, all our video files were the same screen resolution: 960x540px. This is big for web viewing, but it's not going to fill a large TV screen.

Now, I'm proud to be able to offer high resolution MP4 files at a DVD-quality 1920x1080px. This is so big it has to be shrunk down to fit on my computer monitor!

So far, A Taste of Her Belt, Liberated Ladies of the Jazz Age, Dana for Senator and The Prefect's Revenge - part 2 all have high res MP4 video files available at the new HD resolution. The embedded video player and low res/small download files will still run at 960x540px as before. 

Click on the image for a full-resolution preview of the new HD video size (and this week's BDSM film epic...)

Video formats

Our archive is getting bigger by the week (53 spanking scenes and counting, of which 30 include video), and as the site grows server space becomes an increasingly pressing issue. Last week I needed to free up some space on the server at short notice, and I took the step of cutting back on the number of video formats offered for a small number of scenes.

Did you notice the change? Did you find it disruptive? Let me know!

When the site launched I wasn't sure what formats people would prefer. I needed to balance quality against download size. MP4 offers a good quality to file size ratio, but I know many Windows users prefer WMV. When the site was very new, I went down the route of offering everything: an embedded video player, a large/high quality MP4 and WMV, and a small/lower quality WMV and MP4. I never intended to keep all of these, but I hoped to collect some data that would help me whittle the selection down.

The option I am currently testing with some video scenes is to offer the following:

• Embedded popup video player (960x540, 1.2mbps) 
• High quality, large download MP4 (1920x1080, 1.5mbps)
• Lower quality, small download WMV (960x540, 1mbps)

Many spanking sites still only offer you one download option, so I'm hoping this will still provide enough range to be convenient for most people. It also halves the amount of time it takes me to export and upload video files, as well as saving space on the server. 

My current intention is to roll this change out to all scenes by the end of the month. If it's going to muck up your browsing habits, this is your chance to leave a comment and tell me what would suit you better.

'Buy Scene' links

This is the really exciting one.

Eventually, I want a shopping cart on-site which allows you to buy individual scenes instead of a membership, with discounts for bulk purchases. This is on the wishlist up there with selling printed DVDs. It'll cost a bundle to write the code and I'm unlikely to afford in the next year. 

In the meantime, of course, you can visit our Spanking Library store. Spanking Library has a very clean page design and easy to use interface. But you have to create a user account - it's not quite a neat one-click process. So I've come up with an interim solution.

If you're not currently a paid member of Dreams of Spanking (which is still the best value option if you want to watch more than one scene), viewing each spanking scene page will give you a "Buy Scene" button next to the button to join the site. Clicking this button will take you straight to a payment page for that video. No site membership, no subscription, no pressure: just the one scene you're interested in, available for download at your fingertips. 

If you click this button, the transaction will be handled by Clips4Sale, who don't require a username and password to buy clips. I've duplicated our clips store on their website, and the button will take you straight to the payment page for the scene you were viewing. Simple, easy.

I'll be rolling this exciting addition out to all the scenes in our archive over the next few weeks!

New series: The Morpheus Club

Posted at 18:17 on 13 May 2012 by Pandora Blake in Amelia Jane Rutherford, back whipping, BDSM, bondage, bottom grasping, cane, collar, dominance|submission, double caning, edgy, erotic, flogger, groping, hand spanking, hand tawsing, humiliation, Hywel Phillips, M|F, nipple clamps, nude spankee, objectification, OTK, Pandora Blake, service, slave training, stockings, strap, tawse, Thomas Cameron, wax play

I'm a little bit in love with the music in our newest film. I had a lot of fun editing this one, not least because that combination of powerful classical cello with more industrial rhythms is guaranteed to get me wet, regardless of whether it's accompanied by any sexy visuals. I don't know why, something about the vibrations perhaps. But it doesn't hurt that Amelia Jane Rutherford looks utterly gorgeous writhing under splashes of hot red wax:

The movie is called Pandora's Initiation, and is episode one of our new BDSM/spanking series, The Morpheus Club.

New slavegirl Pandora is nervous, untrained and intimidated by the experienced Amelia. She endures bondage, nipple clamps, humiliating inspections and punishment, culminating in a painful double caning.

So much happens in this 37-minute BDSM epic that there was no hope of me squeezing it all into the short scene description above. I decided to focus on my character's journey, but you only need to look at the tag list or trailer to get a sense of just how much else is packed into this movie. (The tag list is so long it almost breaks the page layout!)

Specifically, the scene description fails to mention any of Amelia's myriad kinky activities, including gruelling slavegirl postures, strapping, spanking, hot wax and a flogging on her back and bottom - all of which she submits to with sublime grace and poise.

This is one of my oldest fantasies. It's got a dark non-consensual edge (the implication that my character has consented to be enrolled in this establishment out of desperation, rather than because she is kinky) but otherwise it's absolutely classic. The idea is not original in the slightest: this scene has echoes in dozens of erotic novels.

I'm honoured to have had the help of the talented Hywel and Amelia in bringing this fantasy to life, and indebted to Hywel for his expertise behind the scenes, particularly in taking over the direction from me to allow me to concentrate on performance.

In our version of this classic concept, the Morpheus Club is an underground society with a faintly historical flavour. Members are kinky men and women with a range of tastes; all of them top, and some of them switch. Male and female 'pets' are recruited by fair means or foul - some are the equal partners of members who give full consent; others have less choice in the matter. Members have equal access to all pets, and training is undertaken collectively, but new pets are often mentored by their recruiter. As a natural consequence of the cast, this scene is pure M/F, but there's more to the Morpheus Club than that, and we'll see more of it in future episodes. 

For me, the hottest parts during filming were the inspections, both kneeling before the Doctor, and exposed on all fours on the table with my new employers dispassionately discussing my body and reactions. That moment is the hardest part of this scene for my character, and undoes some of the confidence she gained during the bondage. This was the first time I'd played with Hywel (exciting!) and my nervousness about whether he'd find me pleasing was quite real. But I also had a lot of fun with the nipple clamps, slave training, picking things up in my teeth, and watching my handsome boyfriend flog beautiful Amelia. And, of course, the spankings!

Watching the finished film back, more things leap out at me. Amelia's hot wax sequence is one of the most glorious pieces of D/S play I've ever had the privilege to film. Her grace is just astonishing, and the genuine chemistry between her and Hywel is a joy to watch. Oh, and there are quite a lot of shots of both Amelia and I crawling on all fours with our bottoms in the air, which I hope some of you will enjoy.

You can find more of Hywel and Amelia's work at Hywel's bondage website Restrained Elegance, where Amelia is the resident slavegirl as her alter ego Ariel Anderssen. They have also made several bondage and spanking feature films which can be found at Elegance Studios. Their work is artistic, imaginative and beautifully executed, with the highest production values of any kinky studio in the UK. Spanking fans will particularly enjoy their domestic discipline movie Amelia's Sunday Spanking, which I've reviewed on my other blog here.

She had built it from scratch

Posted at 10:09 on 15 May 2012 by Pandora Blake in female gaze, light-hearted

I can't help feeling that I (and this website) resemble this Wondermark panel...

She had built it from scratch, each part carefully sourced and fitted just so. It was a difficult beast to manage, all fine adjustments and counter-intuitive weight distribution, but it was a challenge, and it was unique, and it was hers. Some explained how she could make it simpler, or do it a different way, but she expected that. It could be simpler, but it wouldn’t be what it was. It could be different, but then it wouldn’t be her own. It was a terrible way to get around, but at least until she tore it down for parts again, it was a real, metal, 800-lb accomplishment. She’d take the smell of smoke in her hair over the rot of unfinished plans any day.

Painstakingly hand-built, more complicated than it needs to be, putting principle over practicalities, the culmination of year's love, sweat and tears during which everything came second to the project's completion? Challenging, unique, often inconvenient, and not entirely profitable? This is all sounding very familiar.

But it's worth it to see your labours bear fruit, and to feel a glorious sense of pride and ownership of your achievement.

I'm sure that my boyfriends can empathise with the source comic strip:

Dating the owner of a start-up can be a trial at times.

(Speaking of putting aesthetics over profit, you could argue that this is a better metaphor for what I'm doing here. But I know from experience that at least some things on this website fit in your mouth.)

Marital Discipline: F/M celebrating the male spankee

Posted at 18:42 on 20 May 2012 by Pandora Blake in age play, bath, consensual, Dana Kane, domestic discipline, dominance|submission, erotic, fair, free video, F|M, hand spanking, Michael Darling, Mike Stryker, nude spankee, OTK, photo, pyjamas, romantic, shaving, Tricia Sullivan

Five years ago, I had no interest in F/M. I had nothing against it; it just wasn't my kink. As a female spankee it didn't seem relevant to my experience.

Then I kept hearing from toppy/switch women frustrated with the lack of sexy imagery focussing on male subs and bottoms. I subscribed to the groundbreaking Filament Magazine (sadly now ended) and learned about the female gaze, and the need for more women to create erotic imagery aimed at women. I read the archives of Male Submission Art and started to notice the way that submissive male performers are sidelined and even mistreated by the adult industry. This is not only unfair and contrary to the principles of ethical production, but it's a feminist issue too. Women have just as much right to quality porn catering to their sexual desires as men, and many women want to look at hot men. The adult industry has some catching up to do.

In December 2008 I filmed my first F/M material with Zoe and Jimmy, found it just as hot as any other spanking content, and started to wonder why I'd never looked at it before.

The longer I spent on the scene, the more I realised that the reason I'd never sought out F/M was that I'd never seen any I liked. Partly this is because of the gender segregation practised by so many websites. I'd never been exposed to it. But since then I've started looking, and I can find very little F/M which eroticises, which celebrates, the male spankee.

Nowadays I identify as a switch, and have enjoyed spanking a few male bottoms in my time. I don't just enjoy the power trip of spanking a man: I enjoy his body, too; the curve of his bottom, the way his toes curl, the subtleties in his voice and his breath. I find a range of male bodies aesthetically pleasing, from the lean to the soft to the chunky, and I find them no less aesthetically pleasing while being spanked.

If I'm watching a man being spanked on video then the male spankee's body isn't an unfortunate side effect of the spanking experience. It's the point. I want to see his body in all its glory. I want to see his face while he's spanked, I want close ups of his wide eyes, bitten lips and flushed cheeks. On video, I want to hear him yelp and catch his breath. I want to see him kick. I don't want to see an anonymous, nameless bottom thrashed by a domme who pouts at the camera rather than connecting with her sub.

Look at any blog or site which publishes F/M imagery. How many male spankees are named? How many have their faces shown? I'll give you a clue: it ain't many.

If I'm watching F/M, I'm in the delicious position of identifying with both halves of the couple. My toppy side identifies with the domme, imagines having that boy to play with. I want the boy to be fuckable, because this is porn and I'm shallow like that. I want to see male spankees who are easy on the eye. But my top side wants to know what he's like, this boy being spanked. What's his name? What's he like? What turns him on? How does he react when you do this? If I'm topping a guy I don't want to play with a piece of meat I don't know from Adam, without ever seeing his face. I want to get to know him, find out what makes him tick. I want to look into his eyes and see the effect I'm having.

Then there's my bottom side. The spankee in me empathises with the male bottom; imagines myself in his place. In order to identify with him, he needs to have an identity. I can't identify with a nameless, personless bottom floating near Mistress Whatsername. I want to identify with a person: I want to watch his journey, understand his experience.

Top and bottom, it adds up to the same thing: I want F/M that shows me a male spankee with personality. I know I'm not alone in wanting this. I've spoken to huge numbers of people who share my frustration. In order to find spanking porn which focuses on the male spankee I have to watch M/M - and I do. But what does that tell you about the extent to which the industry caters to a male audience?

At this point people argue with me: what's wrong with liking F/M that focusses on the domme? It's very popular, after all; lots of people like it. I would like to state, for the record, that I don't think there's anything morally wrong with that mode of F/M. (I do think there's something morally wrong with an industry that refuses to pay male bottoms for their time or expenses, but that's an aside.) Aesthetics and sexual desire are subjective, and if that's your kink, that's okay. It may not be what I like, but I'm not trying to take it away or criticise anyone for liking it. If that's what you want to see, great: I'm glad so many people are catering to your desires. But my desires, and the desires of everyone else I've talked to, male and female, who wants to see porn that celebrates male spankees, currently aren't catered to, and that's the problem I want to address.

My aim is to expand the scope of the genre, not restrict it. Watch femdom with my blessing, if that's what you like. In the meantime, for the rest of us, I offer a new angle on F/M: malesub.

Five years ago, F/M wasn't my thing. It turns out I just wasn't watching the right F/M. Done right, F/M is absolutely my thing. Put it this way: I found this video such a turn on that I got wet while editing it. Repeatedly. At the end of each work day, this was what I was fantasising about.

Marital Discipline

Frustrated with Mike's behaviour despite regular discipline, Dana initiates a little regression. Freshly spanked, bathed and shaved baby smooth, her bratty husband is transformed into a good little boy.

When I sat down with Mike before our shoot to discuss scene ideas and asked him if he had any particular fantasies he'd like to explore, he confessed that he didn't often fantasise about spanking: age play was much more his thing. I've become increasingly interested in the psychology of age play lately, and "little boy/girl" and child/parent roleplay definitely has a place within my kink. It's also very compatible with spanking and discipline, and I've already published a couple of "little girl" photosets on this site.

Of course, one has to be very careful to make it clear that age play is exactly that - roleplay. I thought it might be fun to make that explicit by introducing an age play/regression dynamic into a consensual adult discipline scenario. Mike provided the adorable pink dropseat jammies he wears here, and gamely volunteered to be shaved in order to make the transformation more dramatic. Other than that, I gave Dana and Mike the freedom to take the scene where they would. And boy, did they run with it.

I am in love with so many aspects of this scene: from the playful, affectionate, sexy flirtation between husband and wife which seamlessly integrates with the discipline dynamic; to the mutual trust and respect between both the performers and the characters, and the sensual intimacy of the bathtub sequence. I have a dozen favourite moments but the absolute best ones were all unscripted. Here are my top two:

1. Early on in the scene, Dana challenges Mike: "Who agreed to this relationship, and the terms of it?" Mike starts to give the reply he thinks she's looking for: "I did". But almost immediately he stops and changes it to we: "We did."

   I fucking love this. The connection and charge between them is immediately ramped up. It moves the conversation from adversarial ("whose fault is this?"), to negotiative, co-operative ("how can we fix this?"). It shifts the focus onto the relationship, the consensual, equal partnership between the two of them. Which makes the ensuing punishment so much hotter.

   

2. Towards the end, Dana has a much more obedient, happy, spanked Mike over her knee and is explaining to him that the final part of his punishment will be an early bedtime sleeping on the sofa, and he won't be allowed back into the big bed with her until he's proved he can behave. "Understand?"

   "Yes."

   "Yes what?" Mike laughs. "Come on, I want to hear you say it."

   Behind the camera, I'm wondering what Dana likes to be called. Miss? Ma'am? We haven't discussed it. I'm intrigued to see how this will play out.

   Mike is laughing nervously. "Say what?"

   "You know."

   Nervous, blushing, smiling from ear to ear, Mike eventually whispers: "Yes, Mummy." And I melt in a puddle on the floor.

   

I believe that most CP enthusiasts will find something to enjoy in this scene. The sexual chemistry is sizzling, the roleplay is convincing, warm and funny. Mike is gorgeous, and I defy the ladies not to be won over by his dazzling blue eyes and transformation from neatly bearded man to adorable, babyfaced little boy. Dana is smoking hot, teasing and playful with a hard hand and unquestionable authority.

And oh my god, just look at this bottom:

Even if F/M isn't usually your thing, give this one a try. It might surprise you.

New behind the scenes videos

Posted at 13:59 on 22 May 2012 by Pandora Blake in Amelia Jane Rutherford, behind the scenes, Dana Kane, F|M, Hywel Phillips, Michael Darling, Mike Stryker, M|F, Thomas Cameron, Tricia Sullivan

I've just added behind the scenes videos to The Morpheus Club and our latest scene, Marital Discipline. I've written before about why I think behind the scenes material is so important on a kinky porn site:

Behind the scenes footage and out-takes are one of the most effective ways of demonstrating the consent of the performers. Video interviews and smiley post-shoot pictures are good, but I know from my own experience of shooting that even if you didn't really enjoy the shoot, you're expected to put on a smile for the camera at the end, and you're still in "work" mode, so you do. Candid behind the scenes footage is much harder to fake, and you can get a much better sense of the performer's personalities and level of involvement by watching it.

Briefly, here's what I'm trying to do with the behind the scenes stuff:

• Make it available as much as possible, especially in edgy scenes or scenes with spankees other than myself;
• Not publish anything which isn't flattering or respectful, or which compromises a performer's privacy;
• Make it honest, transparent, and publically visible rather than hiding it away on members-only pages.

If you're interested and haven't read the post, take a look; it explains my reasoning in some detail.

I discovered a new Tumblr yesterday which sets out to do similar things: not show the production atmosphere of one particular site, but provide a space for the happy, goofy, silly side of BDSM rather than the serious theatre which most publishers focus on. It's called Happy BDSM and it's made of awesome.

I've submitted the first of these behind the scenes photos from Marital Discipline:

As Dana leads Mike by one arm over her knee, I can't remember which person on set first calls out "Superman!" But after that, we have to pause shooting until everyone has stopped cracking up.

They're both still giggling even after the spanking starts

Of course no matter how much fun everyone's having, behind the scenes on a spanking video shoot isn't all smiles and laughter. There's a lot of thinking and logistics too, planning shots and dialogue and discussing what happens next. I found my early shoots very stressful and I'm sure that spilled over onto my performers to some extent, but I think I've come a long way since then, and this year's shoots have all been pretty laid back behind the scenes.

I've tried to represent the mood of the shoot fairly in all the behind the scenes videos I've published. Sometimes there isn't time to show you everything (I had three hours of behind the scenes footage for episode one of The Morpheus Club!), and sometimes there isn't much to show at all. But I think it's important to give you at least a glimpse of the performers' out-of-character moments. And I'm sure they'll let me know if they think I've rose-tinted anything!

The Morpheus Club: Pandora's Initiation was one example of a more stressful shoot - at least for me. Four actors, only one crew member, dozens of different shots, no storyboard and a director who was bottoming. This shoot was only ten months ago but I'd do it very differently now. But we did it, and the only person who got upset was me. Even after Hywel graciously took over directing responsibilities, I was still too uptight to relax into the CP, and wimped out during the final caning.

Eh, it happens. Everyone was great about it, and Amelia reassured me by telling me that bravery doesn't always work well on camera anyway. And I think she and Hywel had fun despite my fretting. You can watch it all in the behind the scenes video:

Pandora's Initiation: behind the scenes

24 minutes of behind the scenes footage, and that's even after editing! Laughter and cameraderie between takes, and lots of kinky negotiation and discussion as four enthusiasts collaborate to create a unique scene.

On this occasion, Pandora struggles to direct as well as act, and ends up asking the experience Hywel to step in and help her direct. But she still finds it hard to let go and relax into the scene, and has to ask for a break during the final caning. A candid, honest look at the difficulties, as well as the fun side, of improvised BDSM film-making.

This is one of my favourite photos of Mike ever:

Bubbles! Dana gives Mike a foamy nose

Although Trish snapped some amazing candid photos, the behind the scenes video accompanying our latest film Marital Discipline is much shorter and sweeter. No stresses or difficulties on this shoot, thank goodness - everything went delightfully smoothly. We edited most of the shots in camera so there's not huge amounts to show you, but there's some chatter between takes and a couple of gigglesome moments. I filmed two interviews with Mike and Dana on that shoot which I'll publish as the other two scenes go up.

Marital Discipline: behind the scenes

Take a peek behind the scenes during the filming of 'Marital Discipline'. Mike and Dana talk nipple piercings, the difficulty of shuffling with your pants round your ankles, and how long it was since he was last clean shaven. Includes some in-character dialogue and a first take of the ending not used in the final movie.

Dana tickling Mike's polkadotted feet, and delighting in tickling him to make them kick :)

Smugglers!

Posted at 13:56 on 29 May 2012 by Pandora Blake in Adele Haze, cane, Caroline Grey, cross-dressing, fear, film, historical, honour, interrogation, military, M|F, M|M, Pandora Blake, spanking over slips, stockings, strap, Thomas Cameron

There's a song, I don't know whether it's traditional or not, which I know from folk band The Men They Couldn't Hang, called The Smugglers:

And when at last the dawn comes up, and the cargo's safely stored
Like sinless saints to church we'll go, God's mercy to afford
And it's champagne fine for communion wine, and the parson drinks it too
With a sly wink prays "Forgive these men, for they know not what they do"
Smugglers drink of the Frenchmen's wine
And the darkest night is the smugglers' time
Away we ran from the excise man
It's a smugglers life for me
It's a smugglers life for me

The UK has a lot of coastline, and large parts of it has a rich history of smuggling, particularly the south coast. I find it a compelling premise for corporal punishment fantasy for a whole host of reasons, from the romance and danger to the creative rebellion of the smugglers, and the pleasing anti-establishment flavour of the idea of whole towns conspiring against the excise to improve their quality of life.

There's infinite potential in this theme, and reading historical accounts of smuggling generates huge amounts of inspiration for judicial scenarios. I'd love to explore smuggling in older periods of English history, but with the venue and costume we had available the 50s was what seemed achievable this time.

The sailor suit Caroline wears in this scene is her own, and it really is an original uniform worn by a 16 year old boy. The lovely 1920s bar billiards table over which the smugglers are bent for punishment also deserves special mention!

The Smugglers of the Running Fox was filmed on our shoot with Caroline last summer, and included a couple of new things on which I'd interested to hear your feedback:

Cross-dressing

This scene is the first one the site to employ cross-dressing. This isn't just a female actor playing a male character, but in-character drag; a young woman posing as a boy in order to join the merchant marines.

Many people incorporate cross-dressing into their kink. Dreams of Spanking performers Kaelah and Jimmy have both written about the appeal to them of being punished in a persona of the opposite sex. I know that I'm far from the only woman to fantasise about being spanked as a boy, and I know many couples who incorporate this sort of play into their kink life. I hope you find the image of "Charlie" being severely thrashed in his military uniform as appealing as I do!

One question in my mind is, does this sort of scene count as M/M, or M/F, or both? If a female performer were playing a male character, I would definitely count it as M/M, but with a character pretending to be a boy it's more ambiguous. If you encountered a scene like this while searching for M/M, would you be disappointed or intrigued?

Music during spanking

I respond sexually to music, and I've really enjoyed the chance to stretch my creativity by adding musical soundtracks to Dreams of Spanking films. I know that not everyone enjoys music, and early after launch I received an email from one person who had a strong antipathy to music in spanking video. So far, as a compromise, I've been careful not to include music over the spanking itself. It's used during opening and closing credits, establishing shots, erotic sequences and over dialogue to build tension, but The Smugglers of the Running Fox is the first film to include music over some actual beating.

Does it work for you? Is it distracting? Please feel free to let me know your reaction in the comments.

That bit at the end

Finally, without wanting to give any spoilers, the ending of this film does something which I've been intending to do since the start of this project. I'm keen to explore the potential of this device more in future. If you've seen the film, let me know how you felt about it. Did it make the story less intense, or more interesting? Did it change your impression of the film? I'd love to hear your views.