Jeffrey John Hart is racking up frequent-flyer miles at an impressive rate.
The director has spent the past summer flying around the world to shoot his new feature, “Cam Girl,” visiting six countries in one month, including Holland, Belgium, France, Cyprus, and Colombia. Today, on day 25 of the 30-day shoot, Hart finds himself filming in a more pedestrian setting: an office building in Burbank.
He’s joined by cast members Ariel Demure, Casey Calvert, Lumi Ray, and co-lead Lexi Luna. They represent a fraction of the movie’s all-star ensemble, which also includes fellow co-leads Alana Rey, Sally Dinosaur, and Hope Heaven, and features Jewelz Blu, Dali Churu, Genna James, Mia Love, Lovely Lilly, Marley Maxwell, Holly Randall, Hailey Rose, Bambi, Danja, Oshun, Shawn Alff, Max Fills, Isiah Maxwell, Mike Quasar, and Codey Steele.
Written and co-produced by Hart and regular collaborator Kyle McQueen, the project also boasts Randall as a third co-producer, and the release marks the first full-length project produced by her eponymous production agency, in collaboration with Stripchat.
Hart and McQueen previously worked with Randall on the XMA-winning featurettes “Hopeless” (2023) and “Broken Butterfly: The Perfect Shade of Blu” (2024). Their latest is a globe-trotting anthology that offers a raw, nuanced take on the camming industry, one Hart says is intended to reflect the unique life experiences of its cast and capture the humanity of the cam world. The four leads play characters heavily influenced by their real-life experiences.
Surrounded by a crew of trusted, long-time collaborators, Hart is also starting to trust himself more; his confidence has grown with each feature.
Hart, a Full Sail College film school graduate, cut his teeth as a crew member on commercials and mainstream movies before breaking into the adult industry by shooting ad content for Playboy, Brazzers, and Adult Time. Within six months, he’d decided to embrace shooting adult content, which eventually led him to directing for Randall.
The director admits that early in his career, he often tried to do too much. A decade wiser now, Hart knows that the key to making a good movie is surrounding himself with the right people and trusting them to do their jobs.
This was especially important during the days they spent shooting in Colombia, which necessitated hiring cartel members as fixers and paying for protection while filming at a real cocaine lab. The production needed permission from locals to shoot as well, including the police and the local favela bosses.
“We were the only ‘gringos’ down there, so we stuck out like a sore thumb,” says Hart, who relied on Colombian native Alana Rey, who grew up in the Medellín neighborhood where the scenes were filmed (a result of Rey being denied a work visa to come to L.A., and Hart’s determination to cast her anyway), to smooth over any rough interactions.
Rey, a veteran cam girl herself, was so excited to star in a movie role that echoed aspects of her life so closely that she accepted a leading role despite never having set foot on a movie set.
Back in Burbank, Lumi Ray is discussing her role as cam-girl Luna's assistant.
“She’s the only one trying to protect Lexi in an industry it’s easy to get caught up in, whether it’s the fame or the money that comes with it,” says Ray. “I’m there to keep her grounded and remind her that she doesn’t have to say ‘Yes’ to everything. She’s allowed to say ‘No.’”
Ray, who's worked with Hart before, took a smaller role than usual just to be a part of the film.
“I’m always so grateful when Jeff asks me to do his projects,” says Ray. “He gives me roles that require more of my acting skills, so I try to hone in on that, and I always appreciate the faith he has in me. Don’t get me wrong, I love doing short scripts and going on set with one page of dialogue, and it’s easy to keep doing those projects, which can be fun. But Jeff challenges me, and I like being challenged.”
Luna, also playing a somewhat fictionalized version of herself, was impressed by the movie's accuracy.
“With this script, Jeff has done a really good job of pinpointing exactly what I've been going through lately without me even telling him, which just goes to show how relatable this story is,” she explains.
On the office set, Hart is shooting a scene where Calvert and Demure have to deliver bad news to Luna about her career while Ray looks on. Calvert’s soft demeanor in the scene is quickly steamrolled by Demure’s no-bullshit talent agent, who tells it to Luna as bluntly as possible.
Demure is perfectly cast as a saucy, foul-mouthed talent agent whom she has decided to rename ‘Roz.’ To her, the name feels more appropriate for the character, whom Demure based on famed talent agent Sue Mengers — “the patron saint of brassy, ballsy women in power,” she notes.
When the scene, which Hart films on a handheld camera to capture the energy of the interaction (he says a tripod would be “too calm”), cuts, Luna expresses her appreciation for Demure’s take.
“I love a direct person, because I like to know exactly where I stand with people, just as they always know where they stand with me,” says Luna. “I loved Casey’s soft, feminine energy and her motherly tone in that scene. But Ariel’s delivery was great, too.”
Demure has such a strong handle on ‘Roz’ that she has even taken to improvising a few lines here and there, something she knows she can do because of her own history with Hart. Though she does have an ulterior motive.
“It's a defense mechanism I use when I actually have no idea what my line is. But it worked,” she says with a smile. She goes on to praise the tight work Hart has done during trans shoots she’s worked on.
“Everything he shot was so beautiful, so I’m really excited to be back on his set,” she gushes.
“He knows what he's doing, which is really helpful, and his time management is solid. A lot of pre-production work happens before I even arrive, so I don’t feel like I’m under pressure to overcompensate. I just have to show up and do my job.”
Hart also has a knack for solving problems. Originally slated to be entirely filmed in L.A., an issue securing work visas for some of the international stars forced him to extend the shoot by weeks, while still on a shoestring budget. For example, he couldn't secure a visa for the Cyprus-based Dinosaur, who was supposed to fly to L.A. to shoot her scenes with Blu. Luckily, Blu was attending a rave in Europe, and Hart decided to fly her to Cyprus and film the scenes there by hopping over himself.
Blu arrived at her Airbnb shortly before 7 p.m. and, jet lag be damned, she was on set within a few hours.
Fourth co-lead Heaven, meanwhile, filmed her scenes in Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris, necessitating even more location trips. The final script is an ambitious 135 pages, with 167 separate scenes.
According to McQueen, who began collaborating with the director in 2014 and editing some of his work in 2015, Hart’s ambition is no surprise, and certainly not a shortcoming.
“Even back then, Jeff told me, ‘Kyle, these are all steps in a process. We're going to get where we need to go.’ And we both remind each other of that when we’re down, and it’s like, ‘Everything fucking sucks.’ That’s when we think about where we were, and where we are now, and how it gets better — just incrementally,” says McQueen.
Hart acknowledges the magnitude of what he’s taken on.
“This has been, by far, the hardest, most draining project I’ve ever done, and I’ve done a lot of crazy shit,” says Hart. “But I couldn't have done it without the support of my cast and crew. Everyone came together to make this thing happen, and I’m so proud of everyone — especially Kyle, who was with me every step of the way.”
Hart credits Stripchat not only for funding the film, but for backing the concept, even when it showed some of the less glamorous aspects of the industry.
“They got it right away," he says. "I know most companies don't want to show that side of things, but I want this to resonate with people, and to do that, it has to be as real and honest as possible.”
Luna, who started her career as a cam model, reiterates her admiration for the script.
“This whole thing has been so on point that it very much imitates life,” she says.
In the office scene, Demure’s talent agent tells Luna that if her audience wants to watch her play with a dildo, she should give them what they want. To Luna, the scene rang eerily true.
“It can very much be that way,” she says. “And when you do more, they want more. The fans are like, ‘Okay, now that you’ve done this, let me see you do this.’ So you do more and more, and it’s never enough. So I learned as a cam model to set limits and respect them, because then fans will respect those limits and remember, ‘She doesn’t do that.’ You just have to show them the point where you stop, and then, eventually, they learn.”
“I still have fans from those camming days nearly 10 years ago, and they’re just so excited to see me grow and change and get the career I’ve always wanted.”
Luna, who has also worked with Hart on his previous featurettes, will join him in Vegas the following week, where the director plans to rent a helicopter if he can find one that’s available. The night before, the team took a helicopter ride in Los Angeles to prepare for the shoot.
“It's going to be really exciting to see those beautiful shots that we got at sunset last night and watch them piece it all together,” says Luna. “I just love the way Jeff tells stories.”
Though Luna didn’t have any sex scenes in Hart’s earlier projects, “Cam Girl” sees her partnered with Codey Steele, whom she’s worked with many times over her career.
“It’s really nice to be paired with somebody who feels very familiar and comfortable. We have really great chemistry,” she says.
Once Hart wraps the office scene, production moves to a soundstage in Glendale, where the cast and crew enjoy lunch and use the break to wish Hart a happy birthday before things get too busy later that afternoon. Hart takes time to reflect on the movie that’s becoming his epic.
“I wanted to tell a story that didn’t overly glamorize the camming industry; I wanted to show it for what it’s worth,” he explains. “We work in a wonderful industry, and it’s given a lot of girls absurd financial freedom, but it comes at a cost.
“When you go live, or you’re on set, everyone praises you, but when the cameras are off, you still have to go home and deal with your day-to-day shit. Life still hits you in the face sometimes. So how do you deal with all that and still manage to smile and have a great orgasm because you’ve got bills to pay?”
