‘Luke and I are monogamous, too, but we thought it was a good idea. If you can still get it for free, do, OK? Otherwise we’ll pay for it. That goes for everyone. Not that I’m expecting to shoot an orgy anytime soon. I propose that the actors on camera are already couples in real life – or triples, or, for those who are willing, at least good friends. Still, I think the tests are a good idea.’
Heads nodded.
‘I’ll fuck pretty much whoever,’ said Marion, ‘if you think I qualify in the looks department.’
Emily recalled Luke’s compliment from the other day. ‘You’re as pretty as any porn star, Marion.’
Jillian piped up. ‘What about me?’
‘You too,’ Emily assured her. ‘Am I right, guys?’
The men assented with gusto.
‘Then I’m in,’ Jillian announced. She shrugged. ‘I just want to act.’
‘Thanks, Jillian. Who else? Couples, want to talk it over between yourselves and make joint decisions?’
Kara, exotic and raven-haired, said, ‘Gary and me are in, provided it doesn’t get too kinky.’
‘There’s no such thing as “too kinky” by me,’ Jillian said, surprising Em.
‘So where do we start, Emily?’ Marion asked.
Right. Christ! As E.P., everything fell on her. Failure or success, it was on her shoulders. She’d be making all the major decisions, every one of them vital.
‘We’ll need a company registered, to make us legit. I’ll look into buying a shell.’
Blaine piped up. ‘My dad’ll give me one.’
‘Great,’ said Emily. ‘We need it now.’
The rest of the group looked puzzled.
‘Don’t worry about this business stuff,’ Emily said. She nodded to Jillian. ‘Write it down.’
Emily’s mind was whirring like the blades of a helicopter. She’d been planning to start a film company as soon as she graduated. So why not start right now? OK, maybe producing porn hadn’t been the plan but these days it was crucial to be flexible. This thing could actually work!
‘Equipment is major, which means we have to have one of us enrolled in a summer course, on the technical side of things. Luke, you’ve been pretty inventive in spiriting equipment in and out of the department. We’ll get you signed up for a course.’
Luke nodded.
‘I can help in that department,’ said Patricia. ‘Professor Simmons and I …’
‘I knew it! All those freakin’ top marks for that hand-held camera work of yours. I thought I was gonna have a seizure if I had to watch any more of it,’ Marion said.
Patricia shrugged. ‘He likes that documentary-style shit. And me.’
‘It can work. Look at Blair Witch Project,’ said Luke.
‘District 9,’ piped up Gary.
‘Tarantino says –’ began Richard.
‘THANK YOU, Patricia,’ shouted Emily. Sometimes, she wondered if ADD was a requirement for the film programme.
‘Don’t forget post-production, Em,’ said Luke.
‘Right. Editor?’
Richard, one of Luke’s roommates, held up his hand.
‘Sound editor.’ Emily pointed at Marion. ‘I guess that’ll have to include music and special effects. OK?’
‘Great. I have my own recording gear but we’ll need to use the Film Department’s editing equipment if we want a polished product.’
Richard nodded his agreement.
‘As long as Luke’s taking a course we should be OK. After that …’ Emily glanced pointedly at Patricia.
‘I have a key,’ she said. ‘Maybe I’ll forget to return it after the semester ends.’
‘Thank you again, Patricia. Please, people, listen up. We’ve got a month before the end of the semester,’ she continued. ‘We can start as soon as we have scripts – and I mean real scripts. That’s what’s going to make our stuff stand out from the crap on the internet.’
‘Stories,’ said Marion.
‘Yeah, but not just stories. Love stories,’ said Em.
The group erupted in a cacophony of discussion. Emily waited them out.
‘I’m no actress,’ she began, ‘but the stuff Luke and I have made is – and I really mean this, as a person who has trained for three years to spot the gem in the rubble – it’s powerful. Because we’re in love.’ She paused to take a sip of her beer. Everyone waited in silence. Good. She took the time to gather her energy, her intention and her intellect. She felt the moment when the alchemy of the combined elements began to flow from her gut upwards, outwards, infusing her entire body with confidence, and she began.
‘We start with offering three choices. “Couples in Love” is the first. It’ll be easy to write and my apartment is already set up for it. We could have the series in the can before the end of semester.’
From the corner of her eye, she saw Luke watching her intently. The unabashed pride on his face made her ego swell. Good. She needed the ego of Lex Luthor to pull this thing off.
She continued, ‘The second line would be “Love on the Run”, the idea being that even chance encounters can be meaningful. A one-night stand doesn’t have to be cheap. Know what I mean?’
A few people nodded, Marion among them. Em knew Luke could squeeze the performance out of his actors, if they were willing to give it a shot. So to speak.
‘By then, we should be generating income. Then we hit them with “Share and Share Alike”. For those actors who are willing, of course.’
She focused on Marion. ‘Those scripts will be particularly delicate to write because I still want them to emphasise love. We’ve all heard of threesomes, right? Who’s heard of polyamory?’
Most of the students nodded.
‘Polyamorous relationships are “love” relationships, as I understand it,’ said Em. She raised her mug, slugged back a mouthful of beer and slammed the mug down on the table. ‘We will be a fucking sensation!’
She almost laughed as Jillian neatly added ‘Fucking sensation’ to her list.
‘Of course it would be ideal to sell through our own website but we don’t have time to get one up and running and generating subscribers. We’ll have to start by selling the finished product to an established porn site. Thoughts?’
Tony, short, handsome and looking too young for college despite being 23, said, ‘My folks don’t talk to my uncle because he’s in the porn business. I always liked him so I keep in touch, even do a few odd jobs for him over the summer. I know that he’s always hungry for fresh faces, especially young ones.’
Emily grinned. She turned her hands palms up on the table. ‘So there you go. If we can sell a set of three in each category we should be able to cover first semester for everyone. We’d probably still –’
For a moment she was drowned out by the cheers of her fellow students. Mugs were raised and emptied. She waited them out.
‘We’d probably still have to keep shooting through the first semester, to pay for the second. Once we know what we’re doing we’ll be able to work faster. And our actors should have established at least a small fan base.’
‘That’s what worries me,’ said Aileen. She was of Asian descent and looked like the youngest in the group, though at 24 she was, in fact, the oldest.
Emily was surprised at how much it pleased her that this legal adult looked so young. God, she was already thinking like a porn producer. ‘Go on.’
‘I don’t mind nudity. I’m even willing to do the “Love on the Run” stuff.’ She shrugged. ‘I like sex. But once I get pigeonholed as a porn actor, I’ll never get a shot at becoming a movie star. Or, you know, not a star but –’
‘A serious actress.’
Aileen nodded.
‘Tell me –’ Emily leaned forwards, catching and holding Aileen’s almond-shaped dark eyes with her clear grey gaze ‘– what does an actor need to succeed?’
Aileen frowned. ‘A good script, I guess. I don’t know. Talent? Luck?’
Richard, the Tarantino freak, piped up,
‘The Weinsteins! Harvey … “I want to party with you!”’
Trust Richard to waste a Weinstein sighting, even an imaginary one, by quoting a line from Saving Silverman. Em pushed on. ‘Exactly. Except you don’t need him, because you’ll have me. I don’t intend to produce porn for the rest of my life, either. My film company, our film company, will evolve into producing real movies and I pledge …’ Emily picked up the Navajo bracelet and jumped up onto the table. She held the bracelet high. ‘I pledge to the Gods of Film that I will take my actors and my crew with me, all the way to the top!’
As the group erupted in table-thumping, back-slapping, howling ebullience, Emily felt an intoxicating rush of adrenalin. It confused her for a moment but as the cheering erupted into a crowd chanting, ‘Em-i-ly, Em-i-ly,’ she recognised it for what it was …
Power.
Chapter Seven
Emily pushed the fourth tedious tome aside and opened the fifth. Finding concrete examples of the ‘trickle down effect’ wasn’t difficult, thanks to the Business Department’s enormous library. It was just deadly boring. Still, she had to squeeze in some study time before exams or she’d be stuck with a pass in the major she wasn’t supposed to have and a fail in the one she was. The words on the pages blurred. She’d added the much-coveted Saturday-night shift to her schedule at the restaurant. She needed money … she had meetings scheduled … she needed time … but she wanted sleep … her head drooped …
A bright red file folder dropped on top of the fuzzy black and white pages. Emily’s head jerked up with a start.
Marion and Jillian dragged sturdy chairs up to the oak table, oblivious to the noise they were making. Sure, the film programme had a library but not one full of students destined to be corporate suits. Emily shrugged in response to a chorus of hissed shushing noises.
‘What’s this?’ Emily asked.
Marion flipped the file open. ‘Dossiers on all our talent: names, ages, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, measurements, who’s in a couple and who isn’t, sexual tastes, who’ll do who for the good of the cause and who won’t do who on camera.’
‘Also proof of age, proof of negative STI status, real names and porno pseudonyms,’ Jillian added. ‘There are some things some of the girls don’t want to do, for love or money, but surprisingly few. We’re a horny bunch, it seems.’
Emily’s eyebrows rose. ‘Wow! That’s great, you two. This’ll make casting and selling much easier.’
‘We’ve made copies for everyone who might need them,’ Jillian said. ‘Now, Marion sketched out a rough draft of the first script but –’
‘I suck at dialogue,’ said Marion. ‘Sorry, kiddo. My heart’s in sound.’ She glanced around. ‘Speaking of which, I’ve never been in a place with less ambient noise. It’s like Night of the Living Dead in here. The original black and white version.’ She shuddered.
‘Kinda cool, though, the way the red folder stands out,’ said Jillian. ‘And, of course –’ she stroked Marion’s shining mop of curls ‘– your hair.’
Emily rubbed her eyes. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘But I have to pass this course.’
Jillian pushed her chair back with a squeak. She started massaging Emily’s shoulders. ‘Poor, producer gal. You work too hard.’
Only Emily seemed to notice the shocked faces of the other business students in the library and she didn’t care. She knew she should. They were just as much her peers as the two lively girls who’d interrupted the solitude so necessary for serious study. But she didn’t. Jillian’s hands felt heavenly.
‘What’ve you got so far, Marion?’ she asked.
‘In keeping with our theme of love,’ said Marion, shuffling the papers in the red folder, ‘you know Aileen, the mega-gorgeous Asian girl who looks underage?’
Emily nodded.
‘I would so kill for her hair,’ said Jillian.
‘Harder,’ Emily instructed Jillian.
Jillian kneaded Emily’s neck with increased vigour.
Marion continued. ‘She’s keen to do Tony – the cute one with the porno uncle? Now Tony also looks younger than his years. Naturally, he’s thrilled to be paired with Aileen and he did say his uncle’s looking for fresh young faces so – voilà!’
Marion shoved the business books out of the way so she could place the head shots of Tony and Aileen side by side on the table. One of the books tumbled to the floor with a thump.
‘Whoopsie!’ Marion bent at the waist to pick it up. She threw in a wiggle before she heaved the tome to the table.
Emily giggled. She felt giddy, almost drunk. For a moment, she couldn’t place the sensation but it dawned on her, as if from a dream or another lifetime, that this was called ‘fun’.
‘Aileen lives in the dorm,’ said Jillian. She rubbed her thumbs in the spaces between Emily’s vertebrae.
Emily moaned. That got the attention of anyone who wasn’t already glaring (the women) or staring (the men) at her table. She closed her eyes. Take a flying fuck at the moon.
‘So we can’t really shoot in her room. But I picked up a bolt of pink satin for pennies at the Hadassah Bazaar on the weekend, so I can make any bedroom, well, except the ones that are painted black or something, look like a girl’s room in her parents’ home.’
‘We’ll use my place,’ said Emily. ‘It’ll be more private.’
‘Perf!’ Marion exclaimed. She placed a disc on the table. ‘Like I said, the story’s there, such as it is, but the dialogue is shit.’
Reluctantly, Emily opened her eyes. She blinked rapidly.
‘You need sleep,’ scolded Jillian.
‘Later,’ said Emily. She straightened her back. ‘Marion, tell Luke we shoot in three days. He’ll have the script by noon tomorrow. He needs to assemble his crew and at least run through the script with the cast. This is not an improvisational piece. That’s key to the project.’
She reassembled the red folder as she spoke.
‘I want you to be his first assistant director.’ She avoided Marion’s eyes and pretended she didn’t hear the curvaceous girl’s surprised gasp. At the moment, whatever past Marion and Luke did or did not have was of no interest. Emily was damn sure Marion was her best choice for the job.
‘Jillian, get his key to my place. I’ll be out by six a.m. so you can start dressing the set any time after that. I’m writing an exam on Thursday and then working the dinner shift so I won’t be sticking my producer-face in on the shoot, much as I might like to. Got that?’
Jillian nodded.
Emily flipped her laptop open and inserted Marion’s disc. She looked up and feigned surprise that the two women were still there. ‘So? Any questions?’
They shook their heads.
‘Scram. I’ve got a script to write.’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ squeaked Jillian.
They fled the library.
Emily flashed her fellow Business students a brilliant smile. As they bent their heads to their studies, she heard one woman grumble about ‘the nerve of some people’.
Oh, baby, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Emily opened Movie Magic and set her fingers to the keys.
Chapter Eight
Six days later, Luke brought a disc with their finished product on it to Emily’s apartment. Knotted inside with fearful anticipation, Emily sat on her couch and told Luke, ‘Do it!’
His trembling fingers fed the disc to her DVD player. ‘Here’s what we did with your script, Em. I hope you like it.’
The name of the short film, Young Love, appeared on the screen, followed by the plain name – they didn’t have a logo yet – of their almost born company.
A NAKED AND IN LOVE PRODUCTION
Emily clutched at Luke’s thigh. He covered her hand with his own. On the screen …
Aileen, dressed in loafers, thin OTK white socks, a short pleated skirt, white shirt and striped tie, hair in bunches, entered her bedroom, followed by Tony in jeans and a tight white T-shirt. Aileen had turned out to be
a whiz with make-up. Somehow, she’d made him look even younger than he usually did. They let book bags thump to the floor.
‘You sure my coming over is OK with your folks?’ he asked.
‘I told you, baby, they’re away for the weekend, so we can “study” as late as we like, right?’ She threw herself backwards onto the bed. The motion flipped her short skirt high enough to expose a plump triangle nestled in her plain white cotton panties.
‘It took four takes to get her skirt to fall that way,’ Luke told Emily.
‘Was it worth it?’
‘Tony says there are lots of guys into “up-skirt”. See the way the cotton moulds into the crease of her pubes? That’s called a “camel toe”, also very popular.’
‘So who “moulded” it?’
‘Not me, honest. She did it herself.’
‘Maybe I better come to the next shoot, just to keep an eye on you.’
‘You’d be welcome, really, but you know you can trust me, Em.’
Emily grinned. ‘I know, and you don’t want your executive producer watching over your shoulder. No directors do.’
Luke nibbled her ear. ‘They would if the producer was you.’
‘Sssh.’
On the screen, Tony was sitting next to Aileen and leaning over her. Her shirt had pulled out of the waistband of her skirt, exposing a thin strip of tummy. He bent lower, lips pursed as if to kiss the tantalising ribbon of skin, but pulled back as if uncertain.
‘Is it OK if I kiss you?’ he asked Aileen.
‘You’ve kissed me before.’
‘I know, but …’
She pulled his face to hers and brushed her lips over his.
‘Oh, sweetheart,’ he moaned. ‘I do love you.’
She answered by parting her lips and running her tongue across his.
‘Did I write him as being a bit too slow, do you think?’ Emily asked.
‘Guys like to be seduced.’
‘I never had to seduce you,’ Emily said.
‘With us it was mutual.’
Emily moved her hand from his thigh to his crotch. ‘Mutual is good.’
The couple in the video were kissing passionately by then but their lips weren’t pressed together so that the viewer could see their tongues writhe together.
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