Long's Day Journey
On the Set of Hustler Video's Young & Black

 
    In the back yard of a gorgeous West Hollywood house, first time director Sula Long is seated by a deep blue decorative two-foot deep pool overlooking a surprisingly-clear L.A. basin. When the wind blows, you can see the shadows from the ripples on the surface on the bottom of the pool. It's quiet and tranquil, only punctuated by the sound of a breeze. It is, it turns out, the only tranquil moment of the day, and I take a moment to talk to Long about this video, her first professional project.

    Long is an assistant to Hustler Video executive producer James Baes. "When he found out I was a USC film school graduate, this opportunity came about." she explains. "I had done short films for school and the more I thought about this opportunity, the more I decided that it was a good idea to make it." Long also tells me that she has admired the diversity of videos that Hustler produces ("I like the High Octane series and DJ Groupie. Pierre Woodman's XXX series is amazing.") and how it was important to her to "produce a black line that isn't about players, pimps, hos or prostitutes. My focus is on upper- and middle-class black people".

    During the time I am there, only dialogue scenes are shot with the female principals - Cashmere, Kiwi, Silk and Sky. The story revolves around Kitty (Cashmere), a college student home alone for the holidays who decides to par-ty while Mommy and Daddy are away. The dialogue scenes are shot with the female cast lounging around on brown leather couches in front of a marble fireplace, wearing micro-miniskirts. Kiwi's is so short and tight that she gets a minor seam rip. She shows it to me and giggles.

    I can't watch the dialogue scenes because they are being shot in a 360-degree pan, so I spend some time hanging out in one of the house's bedrooms where the male talent are lounging, waiting for the evening's orgy scene, set to shoot in a few hours. T.J. Cummings and Julian St. Jox take turns sprawling out on the room's queen-sized bed: I observe that Cummings and St. Jox are never on the bed at the same time. A football game is on TV (Green Bay vs. the Rams) and the men talk about how lame the recent L.A. car show was and gossip about other men in the business and how much they make doing scenes. Newbie male talent Xavier Ray questions me about why AVN doesn't give a Best New Male Performer award and lobbies intensely to receive the first one.

    I go back when I am told that they are through shooting the wide shots and see Sky having her skirt repaired with Scotch tape. At the beginning of another dialogue bit, Kiwi is cautioned against showing the cover of the book she is reading during her scene. (I check it out and it's Lady Chatterley's Lover.) One of the crew has told me Kiwi is like "a black Marilyn Monroe" and I can completely see the comparison. Long walks the crew through the script, showing them how she wants Cashmere to be followed with the camera. Cummings takes me aside and tells me that she does this blocking with them for every scene and that she even did storyboards for the whole video, including the orgy. Long is meticulous with the lighting, and setup for each scene takes a long time.

    During the wait as Long sets up her next shot with the cameraman, the house's resident black cat runs around, skittish from all of the people. Cummings and a lighting-crew guy pass the time playing eight-ball on a nearby billiards table. Cummings wins, dropping the eight-ball as his opponent shrugs. As more short bits of dialogue are delivered, I unobtrusively ease out the back door to go home and write about more porn.

- Heidi Pike-Johnson

Hustler Video's Young and Black will be released on April 2.