School's Out: On the Set of Blake Lovely's Directing Debut

This feature appears in the October issue of AVN magazine. LOS ANGELES—Performer Blake Lovely is wrapping up her first directing project, Once Upon a TS Summer, here at this familiar location house with a three-way scene with Aubrey Kate and Sage Roux. “Getting to be in the director’s seat for the first time, especially this early in my career, is incredible. It’s such a blessing. I’m so lucky to have the people involved in this project sign on to be a part of it,” Lovely says. “I wanted to tell a story, while making some hot-ass porn [chuckle], that sheds a human light. It’s a real summer coming-of-age story. Each scene connects, every bit of dialogue leads into the next. People will mention other characters before they appear. We wanted to make it feel as grounded and real as possible. It’s going to feel like a ‘90s coming-of-age throwback movie. I’m even driving a bright-red Dodge in the beginning shots. “I have a little bit of jitters, directing and performing. I’m just used to being a performer and a model. I’ve done a lot of work this year for big studios—I’m super-blessed and honored that they come to me, thanks for doing that, please keep booking me—and now getting to do this on top of that is a dream come true.” Lovely wrote the initial story for this Grooby production, about her character coming home and taking a summer job as a teaching assistant before her senior year in college. She collaborated with AVN Hall of Fame producer/director Andre Madness on the script. “He came up with the dialogue, the story was me,” she says. “He brought his own flair, which is incredible. I found myself laughing out loud.” Madness isn’t the only Hall of Fame veteran supporting Lovely’s maiden effort: producer Brah Bones is production manager and director/performer Aiden Starr is director of photography. “She basically came up with this idea. I love the humor in it,” Bones tells me. “We scouted every location, and went over our shot list: she’s in front of the camera, so we went over how we wanted to shoot it ahead of time. Now she can focus on the acting. “Aiden and I wouldn’t put our name on something if it wasn’t something special.” In the schoolroom set, Kate and Roux sit at a desk, filling in paperwork, as techs set lights. A globe a little smaller than a bowling ball sits on the desk next to a nameplate that says “Ms. Kate.” Fresh from wardrobe, Kate walks in wearing a half-fastened corset. “Can you help me with this?” Starr helps her secure it, and then Kate pirouettes for inspection, returning a minute later with the corset peeking out from under a pink jacket, along with a short pink skirt and spiked heels with nerdy horn-rim glasses counteracting the open jacket for the pretty-girls. “I would love you to stand by the Ms. Kate plaque,” Starr says from behind her stills camera. “Should I be professional or porn-y?” “You can be a little porn-y, but don’t overdo it,” Lovely says. After Kate’s solo shots, Lovely comes in for two-shots as Kate slaps a ruler in her hand menacingly, getting into character as the mean taskmaster of the school. Roux joins the shots, insolently putting his feet up on the desk. Starr finishes her still shots then declares “Done. Moving on.” The set is reconstructed to its original configuration as Kate and Roux run lines and Starr and Bones inspect the stills Starr just shot. Starr sets the video camera for the master shot, placing the actors for rehearsal and asking Lovely, “How do you feel about this? Are you ready to fire it up?” Lovely approves, and the slate clacks. In the scene, Kate leaves Lovely to supervise Roux with a warning: “Don’t let him talk you into anything stupid. And if he does—don’t get caught.” The master shot complete, Starr moves to two-shots and close-ups, pointing out details for continuity: “The door is in the frame, you have to go out.” Spotting me taking notes, Starr says, “You’re going to say how I’m terrorizing everyone, aren’t you? [grin] You can.” As the scene resumes, Lovely walks in on Roux as he discovers a hidden stash of BDSM gear and dildos. As they inspect the stash, Kate walks in, saying, “Laugh while you can” and telling them, “I hate excuses, and I adore obedience,” before ordering Lovely to “Strip. Slowly. Show me that you can follow directions better than you follow orders.” Starr abruptly calls cut, saying, “I need to change the battery. Nobody moves, nobody gets hurt.” Starr returns and holds her camera at hip level, pointing out, “Blake, your tits were out” and Lovely de-tops as Kate orders her to her knees and Roux drops trou, driving into Lovely’s mouth as she sucks and Kate encourages her: “Litte slut.” Kate tosses off her jacket, pushes her cock to Lovely, who ping-pongs between Roux and Kate, jerking and gagging. Roux pulls off his shirt, tosses it across the room, grabs Lovely’s head and starts face-fucking her before Lovely turns to suck Kate and starts rapid-jerking Roux, who grabs a ball gag out of the BDSM gear, fastens it on Lovely, then bends her over the desk and goes in as Kate sits in front of her face, jerking. Lovely’s long legs make connecting tough for Sage, standing on tiptoe to reach the target. Kate fastens a leash around Lovely’s neck, removing the gag so Lovely can suck her. Water break. Lovely stands up, pulls nipple clamps off her breasts—where did they come from?—and all three converse casually, drinking water with one hand and stroking with the other to maintain their edge, before Blake re-clamps and bends over the desk, mouthing Kate as Sage re-inserts. When it’s over, Lovely sums up her first directing experience. “I learned a lot,” she says. “You can plan as much as you want, and try to have things go according to plan, but sometimes you gotta go with the flow and realize that things happen for a reason. I am maybe a tenth of this production: I wrote the original story, Andre Madness wrote the script, Aiden had a huge, huge role in this, and Brah... I couldn’t have done it without those two people. Everyone we brought on counted. That is the reason this project is succeeding. It’s a community project. It takes a village, and the village was involved.” Photography courtesy of Grooby