Content is made up of a story, the performer and the background. The story itself is the idea, theme or scenario behind the video and the background can be understood as the piece of paper that the story is told on. The performer then combines both, telling the story in its surrounding. The background is basically a trellis for your creativity and for the viewer a set becomes the visualization of his/her fantasy.
For sure, some might not have the space or budget to create 50 sets, and so they need to get creative in order to compensate. Some creators might even use green screens. When it comes to the set, though, it’s not just about the look, it’s also about how the performer can physically feel the room and act within it. This helps a performance be more authentic.
Designing sets and building new props can be a very satisfying creative process, but keep in mind, the best set is nothing without a good performance.
Having a physical set makes it a lot easier for me to include the surroundings into my story, as well as be able to improvise. I do create a lot of content improvising; I know the direction and form of the content ahead of time, but I love to play around during the actual filming of it. With an old basement and a zinc tub full of water and potting soil as the set, sometimes the only thing you need is a playful piggy that wants to be taught for a scene to unfold.
Creating sets on a budget can be very fun, too. If your space is limited, you may choose decorative elements that can be easily turned into something new. Once, I used an old lamp housing someone threw away because I needed the headpiece for an electric chair. I painted it and hot-glued soft tubes onto the housing and connected it to a fog machine. Painter foil and led lights, depending on the LED colour, can turn your room into an infernal world or into an ice cave. Cotton wool and a chain of LED lights can turn your bedroom into heaven. If you take time and effort, it can look very realistic.
Having a variety of sets also gives you the opportunity to build up unique personal brands that are related to a certain set. A prison for instance can not only be used for arresting scenes, but also for a bunch of other content like ballooning or cat fighting, bondage, POV content from inside the prison or outside. Even cosplay can be easily realized in a prison cell or interrogation room. Just imagine what you would do if the officer in charge is a vamp and seductress ready to take every step to deprive you of all your secrets or being the guard and having imprisoned Poison Ivy or Harley Quinn in front you.
Splitting up a room into different areas can also help to tell a huge story. A set becomes more vivid with its details, so if you create something more vintage, then you have to make sure that you hide modern elements. Either you hide the power outlet or find an outlet appropriate for that era. For a prison set, I’ve installed bakelite switches and old bunker lamps. I have a variety of antique or modern handcuffs and shackles, a typewriter, old telephones, a super 8 camera, a photo camera and even a tape recorder in a suitcase ... and, of course, uniforms. The more details you can add, the more stories you can tell. If you are going for the real fans or fetishists for your content, these tiny details make the difference and your set more authentic.
When you build sets, make sure you have sufficient power outlets (if you think you have enough, double the number) as well as a LAN connection. Try not to build your set for only one camera angle, but instead consider it from 360 degrees of potential. This way you can ensure that you have a lot of possibilities. You can even hide a few voyeuristic cameras so that while you’re shooting, you capture different angles that can be edited in later, either as part of the same scene or packaged as separate ones to cut your shooting time in half.
I’ve also built a farm with a barn, peasant’s bedroom, a blacksmith and a stable, with each set connected to one another. For instance, the barn is full of hay and has two fake windows and a barn door that connects it with the peasant room. With the right lighting, you can let the scene take place around noon with the “sun” shining through the wooden slats and onto a cute cowgirl that plays with herself or the farmer who milks his cow moo(an)-ing with lust, or a swineherd chasing after her piggy. With a change of lights and some blue foil, it can also appear to be in the middle of the night where a witch gives a farmer’s wife a fertility potion, which later the woman confesses to during an inquisitor-style interrogation scene. For more taboo-loving creators, a stable or barn are awesome for blasphemous content.
Now, while lighting helps diversify your sets, it is also crucial to talk about material for the backgrounds like wallpaper. For example, I have four Baroque and Biedermeier sets, all in different colors. The selection of wallpaper was not just a question of style, but also of the material. Since buying props on a budget can be very tricky, it’s important to remember that whatever wallpaper you use shouldn’t reflect the light, but instead carry it. You don’t want to end up seeing yourself in front of a burnt white area, or only capture the patterns on the edges of your image. I would also suggest taking a flashlight with you when buying wallpaper to illuminate your future background from different angles.
Also keep in mind that if you use rich patterns and colors on your wall, carefully select your furniture so that all the decorative elements fit together. Too much going on visually is not ideal, and often less is more. When it comes to content, you can work well with contrasts. Single-colored latex catsuits fit nicely with a vintage set, but also a lot of other fetishes and fantasies can be shot in such a surrounding. For example, you could roleplay a mistress reprimanding her maids for being negligent and licentious, punishing them as hogtied damsels in distress, to play into vintage stocking and garterbelt fantasies. If you have a good set, you can unleash your creative spirit.
Designing sets and building new props can be a very satisfying creative process, but keep in mind, the best set is nothing without good performers, is invisible without the right lighting and is useless without a story.
Cruel Alice is an AP Clips content creator who can be followed at APClips.com/CruelAlice and @CruelaliceO on Twitter.
