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. International locations included Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, Medellin in Colombia, and Limassol and Paphos in Cyprus. 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 includes fellow co-leads Alana Rey, Sally Dinosaur and Hope Heaven, and also 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, with Holly Randall also co-producing, the release marks the first full-length project produced by Randall's eponymous production company, in collaboration with Stripchat.
For Hart, working with Randall is about much more than logistics.
"This entire film, my career... everything is because Holly Randall trusted me and gave me a shot," he says. "For that, I'm forever grateful."
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 main characters are heavily influenced by the real-life experiences of the performers portraying them.
Surrounded by a crew of trusted, longtime collaborators, Hart is 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 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 local favela bosses.
“We were the only ‘gringos’ down there, so we stuck out like a sore thumb,” recalls Hart. Fortunately, Colombian native Alana Rey grew up in the Medellín neighborhood where the scenes were shot, and was able to help smooth over any rough interactions.
Although Rey was denied a work visa to come to Los Angeles, Hart was determined to cast her anyway. A veteran cam girl herself, Rey was so excited to star in a movie that echoed aspects of her life that she accepted a leading role despite never having set foot on a movie set.
Back in Burbank, Lumi Ray discusses her role as cam girl Luna's assistant.
“In an industry where it’s easy to get caught up in the fame or the money, she’s the only one trying to protect Lexi,” Ray explains. “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 took a smaller role than usual, just so that she could work with Hart again.
“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 home 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. Those projects can be fun. But Jeff challenges me, and I like being challenged.”
Luna, also playing a somewhat fictionalized version of herself, says she is 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 shares.
On an office set, Hart is shooting a scene where Calvert and Demure must deliver bad news to Luna about her career, while Ray looks on. Calvert attempts to break it to her gently, but is quickly steamrolled by the blunt, no-BS Demure, perfectly cast as Roz, a saucy, foul-mouthed talent agent. Demure renamed the character and based her portrayal on famed talent agent Sue Mengers, whom she hails as “the patron saint of brassy, ballsy women in power.”
To capture the energy of the interaction, Hart shoots the scene on a hand-held camera. A tripod, he says, would be “too calm.” When he call "cut," Luna expresses her appreciation for Demure’s take.
“I love a direct person,” confides Luna. “I like to know exactly where I stand with people, just as they always know where they stand with me. Ariel’s delivery was great. I also loved Casey’s soft, feminine energy and her motherly tone in that scene.”
Demure has such a strong handle on Roz that she improvises a few lines here and there, something she knows is OK with Hart due to their history — though occasionally it serves another purpose.
“It's a defense mechanism I use when I actually have no idea what my line is,” Demure admits with a smile.
She praises the tight work Hart has done during previous shoots she’s worked on.
“Everything he shot was so beautiful, so I’m really excited to be back on his set,” Demure gushes. “He knows what he's doing 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.”
Indeed, Hart seems to have a knack for solving problems. The project was originally slated to be shot entirely in LA, but issues with securing work visas for some of the international stars forced him to rethink that plan and extend the shoot by weeks, despite a shoestring budget. As with Rey, he couldn't secure a visa for the Cyprus-based Dinosaur to fly to LA and shoot her scenes with Blu. Luckily, Blu was attending a rave in Europe, so Hart flew her to Cyprus and shot those scenes there.
Blu arrived at her Airbnb shortly before 7 p.m. and, jet lag be damned, was on set within a few hours.
Meanwhile, Heaven shot her scenes in Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris, necessitating even more location trips.
The script is an ambitious 135 pages, with 167 separate scenes. According to McQueen, who began collaborating with Hart in 2014, Hart’s ambition for this latest project comes as no surprise.
“Even back then, Jeff told me, ‘Kyle, these are all steps in a process. We're going to get where we need to go,’” McQueen recalls. “Whenever we’re down and it’s like, ‘Everything sucks,’ we both remind each other of that. That’s when we think about where we were, where we are now and how it gets better — just incrementally.”
Hart himself readily 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!” Hart laughs. “But I couldn't have done it without the support of my cast and crew. Everyone came together to make this thing happen. 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 though it touched upon 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. To do that, it has to be as real and honest as possible.”
Luna, who started off her career as a cam model, reiterates her admiration for the project.
“This whole thing has been so on point,” she attests. “It very much imitates life.”
In the office scene, Demure’s Roz tells Luna that if her audience wants to watch her play with a dildo, she should give them what they want. For Luna, the scene rang eerily true.
“It can very much be that way,” she says. “When you do more, they want more. The fans are like, ‘Okay, now that you’ve done this, let me see you do this.’ You do more and more, but it’s never enough. So I learned as a cam model to set limits, because then fans will respect those limits and remember.”
Luna, who has also worked with Hart on his previous featurettes, will next join him in Vegas to shoot a scene involving a helicopter, if he can find one available to rent. The team already took a helicopter ride in Los Angeles to prepare.
“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, with whom she’s worked many times during her career.
“It’s really nice to be paired with somebody who feels very familiar and comfortable,” she says. “We have really great chemistry.”
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 in the 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,” he explains. “I wanted to show it for what it is. 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,” Hart notes. “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?”
