Hi SuzCQ (cute nick!)
I am not sure what you mean by physically compatible, to be honest. You mean, the same height? Or that a penis is not too large for a given vagina? or that skin colours complement each other?
Well, I don’t shoot hetro sex, so some of that’s not an issue for me (we are planning on starting soon, and we plan to shoot people who are partnered in real life). People manage to have sex in real life with little regard for physical compatibility, and while we’re not making a documentary, the material we shoot is closer to reality than most of the slick porn out there. I cannot speak for other producers, tho.
We always use the super closeup shots of the same people who are in the long shots, and why anyone would do it is only to save money, tho really it’d not save much at all (and result in a crap product, and be a little mislaeading, see below). It’s much more convenient to shoot extreme closups (ECU’s) at the end of a shoot, in the “pickups” stage, for many reasons:
[ul][li]lighting is the same as for wide shots[/li][li]it will be on the same tape for editing convenience[/li][li]the pose will match the long shot (this takes a while, and is hard enough posing models for closeups when they were in that position 20 minutes ago - much harder to pose two models who have never done that pose together before, on a different day)[/li][li]the furniture, props, set dressings, clothes will match[/li][li]just plain convenience[/li][li]models will match[/ul] [/li]The last point seems kinda obvious, but in reality a gi-gi (sorry, our slang) has just as many features as someone’s face, and anyway, someone’s face is usually in on a closeup (especially in girl-girl material).
I know that some dodgy porn producers will shoot a softcore GG scene, and then edit in some more explicit stuff, but for the reasons cited above, it always looks crap, and never makes sense (why is the 18" pink dildo only used in extreme closeups, and never in long shots?). They greatly underrate the intelligence of their viewers. Unfortunately for me, they still make money, tho. :))
We shoot on MiniDV not 8mm, FYI, but the cameras are a similar size anyway. The lenses we use can focus from around 8cms (um, 3.1 inches), though we rarely put the camera that close. They would indeed ruin the mood however, so we usually only utilise ECU’s in the “pickups” (discussed in more detail earlier on this thread). We try to use the zoom function on the camera as little as possible, as it affects perspective weirdly. When we do use it, we stay away from the in and out extremes.
Closeups in video are over-rated IMO, and we are using less and less of them lately. A film is about the people’s interaction, and an ECU of one percent of the big picture rarely communicates that at any level (tho they are useful in small doses).
Occasionally, re-lighting for ECU pickup shouts is required, so the camera does not cast a shadow over the action. Hard to do well, to match the shadows to the big picture. Cinematographers and gaffers spend years perfecting it, and we’re no where near close.
Music, huh? Jezze, that’s a tough one. We commissioned a musician for music recently, and while he’s giving us what we asked for, it’s not even close to want we want, unfortunately (bah! Typical artist! ;)). This is REALLY HARD. Of course, we want to get clear of the typical sax and wah-wah pedal, but…
We had a vision for contemporary drums n bass… but it’s not working out how we hoped. I rilly like your idea of rain or wave sounds, tho. Thanks.
We go to a helluva lot of trouble to record live sound (customers demand it), and we tend to do a lot better than most people, and it’s hard knowing when to fade the music up, or when to not have it at all. It’s a fine art, I tells ya.
Abby