by Pat Powers
The Prop Master: Cindy Stripped Bare
copyright 2015 By Pat Powers
Chapter 1 -- Sabotage
Cindy and Julia were both bound and gagged and astraddle the horse when the phone rang, so Jack got it on the extension they kept tucked in a windowsill behind some drapes.
"OK, that's great news," Jack said. "I'll be there. I'll tell Julia too, she's visiting with us, so you can cross her off your list."
Jack came back in and looked at the two sweaty beauties standing with the padded two by eight between their legs, their ankles shackled wide apart and their hands cuffed behind their back.
"That was Atkins," Jack said, naming one of production assistants. "She says the injunction was bogus, it has been quashed, and we report on the set at 8 tomorrow morning."
Mmmmmmph!" Cindy and Julia exclaimed joyously.
* * * *
At 9 a.m. the whole crew got a briefing to the effect that the injunction had been quashed, that the Desert Industry Dreams legal staff had set things up so that any future injunctions would be intercepted at the gate and dealt with by the legal staff before they could affect production. DID apparently had a friendly judge or two out there as well.
After the general briefing, production resumed. A few key staff, mostly above the line people, attended a more detailed briefing with Gussett and the film's legal counsel, Alice Greaves. As prop master Jack wouldn't ordinarily have attended but since on this particular production Jack was the bondage wrangler and was keeping insurance rates down by doing so, Jack was key staff.
"We've done a little investigating," said Greaves, "and here's what we've come up with. Sorokin and her friends are members of a radical lesbian group called the Dworks. As you'll recall the Morality Laws crew has suffered a steep decline in power and popularity since the MacCammon administration. Over they years they've been made desperate by the feeling that they're losing their cause. Remember how the anti-abortionists starting blowing up clinics and shooting people when it became evident that their cause was lost in the courts and in public opinion? Well, the Dworks are at about that level of desperation. And they see Damsels as a way of publicizing their cause."
"If they succeed in shutting us down, they won't have a hell of a lot to publicize," observed Gussett.
"They figure they win either way," said Greaves. "If they shut us down they cast themselves as successful defenders of women against evil media fiends, and if they don't shut us down they protest us to the high heavens for so long as we shall exist."
"So, they would like to either shut us down or have us become a raging success," Gussett said thoughtfully.
"I'm sure they could protest our existence just as much if we were just a middling failure," junior executive vice president Jeff Simmons said.
"Not nearly as effectively," said Gussett. "The publicity they would get protesting us is directly proportional to our popularity. In fact, if something is sufficiently unsuccessful, you can actually make it successful by protesting it. A lot of art films have taken advantage of that little phenomenon."
"What are their chances of shutting us down?" Gussett asked.
"The chances are slim to none," responded Greaves, "with the emphasis on none. Ever since Pornerific Productions vs. Time Warner, the Supreme Court has operated under the assumption that adults are allowed to view, read or hear anything they like, so long as no one is actually harmed in the production of whatever it is they are viewing, etc. A lot of DAs and groups like the Dworks have tried to interest the Court in interpreting "harm" metaphorically, as in, moral harm or spiritual harm, but in Pileaster vs. City of Cincinnati, they established "harm" as having the same basis as criminal harm -- doing something to someone for real that would get you arrested for rape, assault, etc. The Court has never shown the least inclination to review a lot of cases that have challenged that standard, so we're safe."
"Could they get a local DA to take us to court, even if they'll lose on appeal?" Jack asked. "In Atlanta the DA kept adult books and films out of his city for a couple decades by busting the bookstores until he drove them out of business, even though he lost every case."
"Well, the short answer is, this isn't Atlanta, and this is now, not then," said Greaves. "A DA who prosecutes a case and loses when he knows he will lose has to explain to the taxpayers why he spent all that money on a futile effort. Folks here are pretty comfortable with the adult film industry, so they're not likely to support an action by the local DA."
"I can say they will be of a divided mind, at the very least," said Gussett. "When we decided to shoot in Meta Luna rather than downtown L.A., one of the reasons was that we'd gone to the city and county officials and the local Chamber and told them what we were planning, and they all assured me that they were very glad to have our production in their community. If any local law officers harasses us, I will be asking questions of the city officials, and they will very shortly be asking very sharply worded questions of those law officers."
"The real reason we don't have to be worried is the widespread acceptance of adult materials in general and adult materials with bondage themes in particular," said Greaves. "And of course there's a strong current of hatred for prudes and censors after the excesses of the MacCammon administrators. We're not going to be harassed by the locals"
"So this is basically just a harassment tactic by some fringe nut group of feminist prudes," said Senior Vice President in charge of Production N. T. Winger.
"Exactly," said Greaves. "I think you can proceed with confidence that you won't be harassed successfully in this way any more. We've got a system set up to stop them at the gate and get any injunction quashed before we have to obey it."
"Doesn't mean they won't find ways to harass us in other than legal ways," Jack observed.
"What do you mean?" asked Gussett.
"Well, if these Dworks are fanatics like Greaves says, they might go in for other forms or harassment," Jack said. "Maybe not physical assault, but midnight phone calls, threatening notes, that kind of thing."
"Well, there's nothing in the research we turned up that says the Dworks engage in that sort of thing," said Greaves. "They're more a political, intellectual sort of crew. Like to sit around and debate things. Physically harassing people would be too much like work."
Jack grinned.
"I wouldn't want to get our people worked up over the possibility of being personally harassed by these Dworks," said Gussett. "People in the entertainment industry are prone to be dramatic. They'll be bringing guns to work and so forth, and on a set where guns firing blanks are regularly used, this would probably be a bad idea."
"God, yes," said Jack, chilled at the thought of actors bringing real Uzis with live ammo onto a set where real Uzis loaded with blanks were in use. "The cure would definitely be worse than the disease."
"That's settled then," said Gussett. "We'll just proceed as we are now and keep security tight at the edges of the set in case they try to protest or picket us. We'll double our security guards and let that suffice."
"Some of the stuntmen work security when they're not on a shoot," Jack said. "You might consider setting them up as a sort of emergency reserve should trouble arise. They wouldn't be inclined to be dramatic -- they're pretty well trained by the security firms they work for."
"That's a definite idea worth considering," said Gussett. "Thanks, Jack. I am beginning to understand why the insurance people think so highly of you."
Jack grinned. "I'm not just another pretty face," he said.
* * * *
; "God, you really do know how to treat a girl right, Jack," said Bunny as Jack carefully poured some Perrier into her mouth. Bunny couldn't handle the Perrier herself because she was tied hand and foot and wearing nothing but a thong. She was lying on a futon where she had lain for a good part of the day for the exciting rope slide sequence. There were a lot of takes on this scene because it involved a fight between half a dozen villains and two damsels who come to rescue their co-damsel, who happened to be in distress.
In the scene, Bunny was hung from the ceiling by a thick rope that ran from a ring set in one wall out a narrow window to a canal that lay just beyond the fortress Bunny was being held in. As the good guys and bad guys fought, Bunny writhed helplessly, her shoulders, hips and ankles attached to the rope above her by ropes that simply looped over the suspension rope, leaving her hanging face down and able to slide freely along its length.
Jack had fashioned a sort of rope bra for Bunny that went above and below her breasts, defining them nicely for the cameras, but allowing them to hang freely and to jiggle and shake as much as they wished. Which Bunny aided and abetted with her energetic writhing and shaking.
The contrast between Bunny's large, incredibly jiggly breasts, and her soft, curvaceous torso tightly bound by rope was incredible, and Bunny knew it, and played it for all it was worth. With the actors doing their kicks, flips, strikes and feints beneath her incredible writhing body, the scene was almost surreal in its intensity.
Because all the stunts had to be done right, there were a lot of takes to the scene, and as was to be expected, a lot of breaks between takes. Whenever there was a break Jack lowered Bunny to the ground by slacking her suspension rope -- staying bound in suspension would have injured her after a time. Jack had an assistant place a futon and a few pillows beneath her so that she stayed comfy and clean.
Many of the breaks were long enough for Jack to untie Bunny's hands and feet and let her stretch a bit and get her circulation back. Some of them were too brief for him to untie her wrists, in which case Jack took care of whatever she needed for comfort. Since she spent a lot of time tied up during some scenes, Jack wrapped a dozen times around both her wrists and ankles to keep the pressure evenly distributed, so tying and untying her wasn't just a matter of quickly unwrapping a single coil of rope. And for continuity's sake, Jack had to be consistent -- the same number of coils in each case, and one loop couldn't slip over another. Otherwise the rope would appear to be jumping around from scene to scene.
At the climactic end of the scene, Jack took Bunny down from the rope and substituted a stuntwoman in a Bunny-colored body stocking and a jiggly fake breast (the things they could do with latex!) and a Bunny-colored wig took her place.
"Hi, Jenny," Jack said as the stuntwoman stood with her arms raised so Jack could tie on her rope bra. They'd worked together before on some of the less financially endowed productions where he'd been prop master, stuntman, extra and whatever, and she'd been stuntwoman, extra, production assistant and whatever.
"Hi, Jack," Jenny said grinning up at me as Jack wrapped coils of rope over and under her breasts. "Hey, I heard you gave me them a rec about me. Thanks for the work!"
"No problem," Jack said. "I just said I knew you were good and that you looked like Bunny. Which happens to be the truth."
"You just wanted to get me in your ropes again," Jenny said, grinning, as Jack tied her hands behind her back.
"Oh, yeah, I tied you to the chair in Jailbait Jailbreak," Jack said. "Pretty feeble stuff, the director wouldn't let me do things right."
"He was a pretty feeble director in general," Jenny said.
"That's the way it tends to run," Jack said, running the joyrope between Jenny's legs, over her waist rope and then cinching it tight, but not very tight.
"You call that a joyrope?" Jenny asked.
Jack cinched it tighter.
"That's better," Jenny said. "I can feel those knots now."
"That's the idea," Jack said. Jack hadn't cinched them as tight as he might have because this would be an action shot and it wouldn't show on film if the knots were a centimeter less deep than they might have been. But if Jenny was cool with it, Jack was cool with it.
"Well, here comes the gag," Jack said, saving the best for last.
"Now, what was the idea behind the ball gag again?" Jenny asked.
"It'll form a better seal with your lips when you go under the water," Jack said. "A bit gag doesn't form a good seal and a cleave gag would wick water into your mouth. You can seal your lips around the ball and keep the water out."
"Good point," Jenny said appreciatively.
"Glad you agree," Jack said. "Now, say ahhhh..."
Jenny opened her mouth wide and Jack buckled the ball gag in place. She was not going to do any more talking.
"What's the sign if you have a problem?" Jack asked.
Jenny shot the bird at me.
"Exactly," Jack said. "Use it if you need it."
"Mmmm hmmm," Jenny said.
Jo Harner and Sharon Simpson, two stuntwomen who resembled Julia Strange and Trish VandeGroot, joined us, dressed in the black sling thongs, leather collars with spikes, thigh-high boots and wrist braces that constituted the ninja outfits of the Damsels. It was the chainmail bikini approach applied to modern times.
"Damn, I can't believe how much glue it takes to keep my tits in this sling," said Jo, "especially with all this padding."
"Think of it as special effects," Jack advised them.
"Gee, is that what you tell Cindy?" Sharon asked innocently.
"Yes," Jack responded, grinning, "and she's bought it so far, so don't let on, gals."
The crew pulled the suspension rope tight and Jack leaned out the window and gave the signal to the guys in the canal below. The rope that Jenny dangled from ran down into the water to a metal eyehook concealed in the water, then up to the other side of the canal where two guys kept it taut or loosened it by pulling it or loosening it at his direction. For Jenny's big scene, Jack needed all the tautness he could get, so at his signal the guys pulled the rope as tight as they could and cinched it against a nearby post.
"OK," Jack said. "Scene's set up. Roll tape fast, I'm gonna have to let Jenny rest if you can't get it in fifteen minutes."
(Actually, Jenny, a trained stunt woman and very physicaly fit, might be OK for as much as 20 minutes up there, but Jack kept a fudge factor going to keep the director honest.)
The crew moved fast – most of them had had plenty of experience shooting scenes like this one already. The actors hit their marks. The cameraman put the finishing touches on their setups. The direction yelled "Action!" And suddenly the fight was on again. Until Jo reached up and grabbed Jenny's suspended torso and gave her a shove, causing Jenny to zip right down the rope and out the window.
Jo and Sharon leapt up to the window, tossed short lengths of rope over the suspension rope, and leapt out, sliding down the suspension rope. Jenny hit the water first, going in head first, unable to do anything but mmmph as she dove in, her huge breasts waggling wildly as she zoomed down the rope. Jo and Sharon let go of the ropes they dangled from after they were over the water but well before they reached the place where Jenny had landed, so they wouldn't hit her or any of the divers in the water.
There was a diver stationed at the eyehook, and when he saw Jenny break the water, he pulled the rope out of the eyehook so that it no longer pulled her down. Then he grabbed Jenny and helped her to the surface.
Two other divers were in the water, as safety for Jo and Sharon. They didn't need the safeties, they timed their landings perfectly and bobbed up quickly. When they surfaced and the diver surfaced with Jenny in his arms, the crew who had been manning the cameras for the exterior shot burst into spontaneous applause. It had gone off without a hitch. Now they only needed to do it once more, with the dolly camera in position for the following shot.
Shortly after lunch Jack was checking the suspension rope for signs of wear before setting up the s
hot. There was no reason to suppose the rope would have been worn, but there would be no sorrier feeling than watching three people get seriously injured because he had assumed the rope would be OK because it was new.
Jack was looking at the rope inch by inch and pulling it through his hand. He imagined everyone thought he was engaging in a kinky reverie, but in fact this was purely a safety check. Jack thought he was watching the rope carefully, but a length of rope felt strange as it passed over his palm. Jack pulled it back to look at it more carefully, and as he twisted it around, he saw that there was a fine layer of thread wrapped around the rope for a few centimeters. Jack casually unwrapped the threads and saw that the rope underneath it was frayed. Well, not so much frayed as ... cut.
Jack looked at the rope and felt a cold anger growing in his heart. It was cut all right. By somebody who didn't give a damn about the health and well-being of Jenny, Jo and Sharon.
Jack's first impulse was to call someone over and tell them what he found. But he didn't.
Instead he went straight to Gussett with it.
"You're sure it couldn't have happened through some kind of accident? Catching on something metallic?" Gussett asked almost hopefully.
"If rope frayed that easily, it wouldn't be very useful for holding things in place, would it?" Jack asked. "And while rope does occasionally fray, it looks frayed, it doesn't look cut. And most of all, it doesn't wrap fine strands of thread around itself so it won't look like it has been cut."
"True," said Gussett. "So we have a traitor in our midst."
"Yes, we do," said Jack. "And the traitor doesn't yet know that I detected their sabotage. So my thought is that we don't tell anyone about it until after the scene is through. And we have some spare videocams pointing innocently at the crew, as if for a blooper reel. Then we watch the videocams and see if anyone is the crowd looks surprised."
"Or disappointed," said Gussett.
* * *
The following shot of Jenny, Jo and Sharon sliding down another, uncut rope, came off without a hitch. They dove smoothly into the water once again as the dolly-mounted camera followed their butts into the water. Jack stood facing the crowd and kept his eyes on Jo and Jenny and Sharon as they went it, and he watched the crowd immediately after.
