David Aaron Clark Shoots Asia Noir 5: A Lust Supreme For Video Team
David Clark, Frederick Cartmon Asia's thrilled to star in this movie Asia barely controls her excitement Asia Asia David, Asia David, Asia Frederick, David, Asia David, Asia Asia David, Asia David, Asia David, Asia David, Asia Black talent Nathan Threat (left), John E. Depth (right) Salidine, Asia Salidine, Asia Asia I try to recreate one of Holly's artsy shots but somehow fail? Holly's Zdenka shot Asia, Frederick Asia, Frederick David, Asia Asia Asia Asia Asia Asia Asia Asia Asia Asia Tia Tanaka Tia Tanaka Tia Tia Tia Tia
David Clark, please feel to use any of my photos on your boxcover. Holly's taught me her tricks.
Here's a .wav file of David interviewing Asia and Frederick.
10:20 a.m. Friday. I arrive.
David Clark says, "Go inside. I'll talk to you later. I've got to capture a shot."
I walk through the lobby into the theater.
Asia, the star of the day, is bored and contemptuous.
Orthodox Jews walk past. Many look in the window of the Beverly Blvd theater. Nothing nasty's going on in public view.
The first shot I see is Asia walking into the theater and this old black man (Frederick Cartmon) serving her popcorn.
Frederick: "I'm going to put down on my business card - pianist, singer, composer, actor."
"Can I say, 'Popcorn, dear'?" asks the old black man.
"Yes," says David. "Make it yours."
Clark wants more from Asia. "Every time you come do this, be more smiley and friendly. I don't care if you call him 'old man.' What would you do in real life if this was a guy you were seeing three times a week? You'd call him 'sweetie' or something.
"Live the role. I'm looking for method."
David improvises his movies, rejecting the restrictions of conventional filmmaking that so shackled Mission: Impossible 3.
Asia grew up in Philadelphia and she speaks with that North Philly accent.
There's a police siren.
Asia: "They're coming to get me. I'm not a citizen. I'm shooting a porno."
Asia keeps walking into the wrong seat in the theater, wrecking the continuity of David Clark's movie-within-a-movie.
Time is money. David's on a clock that ticks at about $10 a minute. He's employing about 30 people on this shoot. It's his highest budget ever.
Asia's easily distracted. She misses her marks. She doesn't move on "Action!" She doesn't pay attention. She tries to get away with putting in as little effort as possible.
David pleads with her: "Give me some personality to go with that ass.
"Really feel it."
The actors muff their lines.
David: "It does not matter. Tape is cheap. One more time."
He looks at Asia. "Give me more life. In your real life, you'd say, 'Thank you sexy.'"
Asia stumbles around on her high heels.
"This'll be the shot that makes the movie," says David.
He turns to me, "God, people hate you."
He turns to the old black man. "I want to get a close-up of you blowing her a kiss."
In porn for almost three years, Asia was featured on VH1's Video Vixens documentary. She's a major groupie of various rappers and some of them might pay her. She proclaims that she won't name names.
Black male talent Nathan Threat says to her: "You know enough names to write a book."
Asia giggles. "Yeah."
Luke: "Is it true that every girl wants to f--- a star?"
My question is prompted by a line in Tom Wolfe's superb book, "I Am Charlotte Simmons."
Asia: "No. I don't know. Is it? I'm a star myself so I don't know. Every guy wants to f--- a star. I'm a star myself."
There's not a trace of irony in her expression.
At 18, she got a tattoo of a babe on her leg that reads "Asia."
She pulls out a small version of a cigar (what do you call them?), unrolls it, dumps the tobacco in the trash, and then fills it with marijuana.
Brian, a still photographer, introduces himself to Asia and asks her if she's having a good day so far.
"No," she replies.
Inside the theater, David address the actors Asia, Nathan Threat and John E. Jump:
"The framing is going to be her coming into this theater looking for tricks of which you are one. While she's watching the movie, she's going to do you two guys. Not at once.
"This is probably past your era (David is 45), but back when porn theaters were popular, girls would come in and sit down. Guys who knew what was up would amble up and sit next to her and see if they were good to go. I've got to get a lot of soft footage too, her feeling you up through your pants. How would you get away with in a real theater, even in a porno theater where they kinda keep a blind eye... Instead of going into full porno mode, go into real life mode. You don't have to swing from the rafter to make it intense. You don't have to pull aside her underwear for a good ten minutes. Keep the best parts hidden for quite a while."
Male talent: "Should we keep a conversation going?"
David: "I like to improvise, so if you guys could get into the moment for me. Just imagine that you smoked a joint on the way over here."
Everybody laughs.
David: "It's Friday afternoon. I think I'll go to a porno theater. I wonder if one of those nasty girls will come. I'll smoke a joint first to get loose.
"I shoot hard and soft at the same time. I move the camera around to make the soft. I'm more interested in the soft but I definitely need some sex and a couple of pop shots.
"Then she walks up to her and kisses her and tells her, 'Movies are your best entertainment.' That's a stupid advertising tagline from the 1950s.
"I shoot in a freeform way. I have a story in my mind. I have some shots I want but I'm not one of those Nazis with a check-list.
"What works for you guys. You guys aren't robots and I'm not going to treat you like that.
"Hi Luke.
"I can't believe I have a monitor, a video tech, a gaffer. I feel like I've died and gone to movie heaven."
David tells the tech: "I'm here to learn from you guys as well."
Luke: "Is this movie recreating many of your experiences in this theater [at 7165 Beverly Blvd]?"
David takes many of his dates here (such lucky girls they are). "As a compleat pornographer, there has to be an innate urge to take whatever is precious and pure and meaningful in your life and find some way to defile it in front of the camera."
Clark proclaims Brokeback Mountain a great film to take chicks to but he has yet to see the film. "I wish Ang Lee would make more films with Chinese people in them. I don't like gay cowboys. They don't resonate for me."
Luke: "If they were female lesbian Oriental cowgirls?"
David chuckles. "Who told you about my next movie?"
Luke: "You've employed many people today who would otherwise be out on the street committing crimes."
David: "Are you making a racist statement? Can't your people and my people live together in peace?"
12:10 p.m. I hit the snack bar and get latched on to by Frederick who tells me how great he is and how many wonderful talents he has. He unloads joke after joke on me while I hurriedly swallow a granola bar and brownie.
After each joke, he says, "Isn't that a good one?"
I say yes.
To get away, I throw open the door of the theater and blunder into a shot. David yells at me and then announces to the room, "This is why I don't let the press on my set."
I yell at David during a break: "You're like Stanley Kubrick. You wield your own camera. The parallels are frightening."
People stare at me and then look at David. He warns everyone: "This is Luke from Lukeisback. Be careful what you say. He's a living tape recorder. Anything you say may end up on his blog."
Later, he adds: "Journalists are an important part of the democratic process."
"Did you say demonic process?" he's asked.
I introduce myself to a tall black guy, Brian, who's a still photographer. "How long have you been in porn?" I ask.
"I'm not in porn," he replies. "I'm just shooting behind the scenes. I'm a mainstream photographer."
"How long have you been shooting behind the scenes on porn sets?"
"I've been a photographer most of my life."
"Is this your first porn set?"
"No. I saw my first porn movie when I was 15."
I give up.
After a take, David tells the theater: "Outstanding acting, all of you. Give yourselves a hand."
Asia munches through her popcorn and it has to be continually refreshed or it will wreck the continuity. I hate to think what's going to happen when she does her gagging scenes.
She chokes and sputters. A man jumps up and brings her her soda.
"It's just like Hollywood," someone says.
"I normally do have an assistant," says Asia. "I am a star."
Several times during the day she says with complete sincerity, "I am a star."
Her belief in her star factor shines through all her yawns, whims, chokes, coughs, sputters and lack of enthusiasm for her work.
David instructs Asia to take off her jacket "in a slow, natural and casual way."
He has to shoot about ten takes because Asia has a hard time removing her jacket without getting tied up.
She protests the many takes.
"Art is pain," says David.
When you see the final product, you will understand that it was worth it. Great art does not always come on the first nine takes.
Her popcorn's refilled.
An assistant says she needs a spit bag. She looks blank. "You probably don't know what that is," says the former child actor in TV commercials.
"She never spits it out," says David.
She laughs.
David tells a muscular bald black guy: "Your head gleams nicely."
The man smiles.
David, in case the guy doesn't know what "gleams" means, says: "Your head captures the light very nicely."
David interviews Asia and Frederick for the BTS (Behind the Scenes footage).
Frederick grins. Asia looks bored and contemptuous.
David: "I seem to have made a love connection here."
Frederick grins more broadly. Asia laughs.
David: "I had you guys doing a little dialogue earlier. He has stars in his eyes."
Frederick laughs.
David: "Could each of you give me just a little bit of your background. Ladies first."
Asia has nothing to say.
David, speaking from his journalistic roots, says: "You can make it all up."
Asia: "What do you mean by 'background'?"
David: "Where you're from. How long have you been acting? How old you are. Your ethnic background. We want to know almost everything the FBI would want to know.
"Give us the official version."
Asia acts like she's too much of a star to talk about herself. We should already know her story of relentless triumph. "I've been in the movie business for almost three years."
Her ancestry is Laotian and Thai. "I'm a mutt.
"I'm hip to the world."
David: "What's better? East Coast or West Coast?"
Asia: "East Coast. West Coast is better for the money. East Coast is better to live."
Fred: "I'm proud of myself."
He goes on and on about his accomplishments and talents. "I've been doing film and TV work since 1971. I've got a fantastic theatrical agent. I'm going to Los Angeles City College and studying music."
He says he has lots of women. "I'm the happiest guy in the world. No drugs or alcohol."
David: "We're going to sending you two on a vacation toBermuda together courtesy of the show."
David turns off the camera.
Fred: "Did I do a good job?"
David: "You did great."
Fred collars me. "I do it all. I'm going to make it big. I'm going to Europe too."
David interviews Nathan Threat, who's been in porn for a year.
Nathan: "I've always been a horny and combustible individual."
David: "What would you do if sex got old?"
Nathan: "I'd blow my brains out.
"Life after porn? I'm a screenwriter. I've written a couple of scripts. I'm working on a book or two. I'm going to write a book about my experiences in this business too. I've got stories.
"I've worked with Asia many times. She was my first scene -- a gangbang. The first six or eight months in the business, every time I worked with an Asian girl, it was always Asia. I've worked with her probably ten times."
David: "It must be fate.
"Any words of worldly wisdom for the audience?"
Nathan: "Just find something that you love and do it. If you can get paid for doing it, that's better."
Nathan says he's from Victorville.
Luke: "Are there a lot of black people in Victorville?"
Nathan: "Growing numbers. People come from the 'hood to get away from gangs."
Luke: "Are you starting your own gangs?"
Nathan: "They try. Nobody is ripping up Victorville. VV (Victorville Valley) doesn't hold the same weight as Long Beach Crips."
I try to throw down rap signals or gang symbols with my right hand.
Luke: "Word!"
David: "He's so embarrassing."
David looks at me. "Go ahead. Ask him a question."
Luke: "How do your parents feel about your career in porn?"
David: "Oh God."
Luke: "Well."
David: "He asks everybody this."
Nathan: "At first, my mother's exact words were, 'Shocked, appalled, and disgusted.' Then I dropped five grand on her lap and she shut the hell up and opened up a bank account for me. She's managing my money. She keeps telling me, 'Keep sending the checks home. Do I need to do this for you?'"
Luke: "And your dad?"
Nathan: "He's begging me for a lick-on role. A guest role where he comes in and licks the girl and leaves.
"I was eight when they divorced.
"It didn't affect me that much. He doesn't like the term 'alcoholic.' He prefers the term 'drunk.' He's a funny drunk."
Luke: "How does he financially survive?"
Nathan: "I take after him in that light. He somehow manages find how to get a lot of money for little work. Now he's on disability. He's a master at that."
Luke: "Does he live off women too?"
Nathan: "Yes. I think I get my lustful ways from him.
"I do gravitate to older women. They have more sense. I can actually talk to them. I'm a very intelligent individual and most people don't understand what I'm talking about. Older women, they know who they are and what they want and there's no bulls---.
"I'm seeing this girl [for the past week], she's 20 years older than me [and behind the scenes in porn]. I'm 25. She has a 26yo daughter.
"People in this industry will understand what I do and won't have a problem with what I do and they'll have the sex drive and depravity that I'm used to in my life.
"Most women in this business, it's sad to say, are emotionally unstable and mentally unbalanced and their intelligence is on the low side.
"Women outside the business are more stable but they wouldn't understand what I'm doing. It's a Catch 22."
Nathan's appeared in about 100 scenes. He says he works five times a week.
Luke: "Do you prefer to get with a white girl, a black girl, a latino girl, an oriental girl?"
Nathan: "All of them have their advantages. I love latin women. In their scenes, latin women have this vibrant lust. They have a spice. They go for it.
"White women are uninhibited. They don't complain. They can get hammered and slapped around and tossed around and they just need to take a minute and they're fine. They're honest. Black women are beautiful but they tend to be more temperamental. You can't do as much to them and they complain a lot and then they wonder why they're not making as much money."
Luke: "What about relationships?"
Nathan: "It's the same. What a woman does sexually, that says a lot about who she is."
Luke: "If she's a slut, what does that say?"
Nathan: "It means she's adventurous. She'd be more willing to follow me on some of the more crazy ideas I have."
Luke: "What about a woman wh's very restrictive? Won't have oral or anal sex?"
Nathan: "I wouldn't mess with her. I don't like restrictions. I don't like borders or boundaries. That's imprisonment.
"For black folks, there's a long list of things we just don't do. We won't go bungee jumping. White people don't have that core cultural..."
Luke: "List of things they won't do."
Nathan: "They don't have that."
Luke: "They don't have a culture."
Nathan: "Pretty much. They're more free to do what they want. White women do more. They're more likely to have more fun."
Luke: "What would happen if you started listening to Barry Manilow, Air Supply, the Bee Gees, mellow white groups. How would your black friends react?"
Nathan: "They'd be like, 'What the hell are you listening to? Turn that s--- off.' I get a lot of flack for listening to [heavy metal] and banging my head like a mad men."
John E. Depth has been in the industry since 2000. He started on the East Coast.
Hardcore hearkens. I flee the set at 12:45 p.m. I was only here to see the acting.
Though Asia's a porn star she's adopted a mannerism from much of the young female population -- she wears a skirt that barely covers her crotch and then she spends all day pulling it down.
Video Team's Christian Mann writes: "Your photo skills are… improving. I do see why hate-gossip does better than fluff pieces. I almost fell asleep reading the minutes of the shoot, and it’s my movie."
James DiGiorgio writes: "Sewage flows downhill in the XXXbiz. DAC can't get Drew Rosenfeld to return his phone calls and I can't get DAC to call me. I find myself almost wishing Lance (the Hungarian/Amish Guy) would call me so I can have the pleasure of NOT returning his call."
