LOS ANGELES - North of downtown Los Angeles, through the auto wreckage yards of Sunland, past a series of strip club billboards and down unpaved roads suitable only for rugged 4 x 4 vehicles and horses, lies a cozy equestrian neighborhood. Nestled in the hills above the concrete jungle, it's the kind of place you don't come across by accident - a place where screams are easily muffled.
It's the perfect setting for the second volume of director Mike Ramone's new BDSM series Slave.
"Were you in the neighborhood?" asks cameraman Jim Powers when I walk into the location house. Apparently, no one expected the press to actually make the Discovery Channel journey to this hilltop hideaway.
Inside, Amber Rayne is tied with black rope and sitting on the toilet. Ramone puts the finishing touches on his star, Jim Powers gets ready to roll camera, Gia Jordan snaps photos...and Otto Bauer lurks in the hallway, getting ready for the action.
When the camera rolls, Ramone is quick to push his actors.
"Let's get the energy up," the director says. "Start gagging."
Slurping and choking sounds echo down the hall, punctuated by the loud slap of Otto's hand cracking across Amber's face.
"Keep that fucking tongue out!" Otto barks at her. "Look at me!"
At the end of the hall Otto's significant other, Audrey Hollander, sits primly on the couch, wearing a kerchief around her neck and looking like she's ready for a full day of shopping in Beverly Hills. The house, it turns out, belongs to Otto and Audrey.
"Our neighbors consider us a progressive couple," Audrey explains, "because we conduct ourselves in a mature way. When I'm not on camera, I act like a lady."
Meanwhile down the hall, Amber works breathlessly on Otto's cock as he continues to order her around, physically punish her and verbally degrade her.
"Otto, stick your boot on top of her head," Ramone commands.
Next thing you know, Otto is pushing Amber's head into the toilet bowl - and flushing.
"Now you're clean," he says. Then he ejaculates on her.
Amber finishes the scene by blowing an enema out her ass for the camera, then crawling out of the bathroom on her hands and knees.
"Amber is such a happy-go-lucky submissive," Gia cheerfully says as the scene concludes.
When it's all over, Amber looks like she's been through the wringer. She's naked except for a blanket wrapped around her and a smile on her face.
"I'm a lifestyler," Amber says. "I take part in the BDSM scene both on and off camera. Today's scene is up there among the hardest stuff I've done — and I haven't gone this hard in a while."
What makes today so hard?
"It's the incorporation of hard, rough and nasty sex mixed with BDSM," she says.
Off camera, Amber is "collared" to a real-life Master.
"I belong to somebody, in a sense," she says. "It's sort of a romantic thing."
"Slave is [JM Productions owner] Jeff Mike's conception," says Ramone. "Each release in the series features one male dom and one female sub, shot in a documentary style to make it feel real. Jeff knows my reputation — my BDSM background — so he called me to direct. And the idea is to cast a wide net — to the audience that is curious, or just getting into BDSM, in addition to the more hardcore crowd."
Each volume in the series depicts a day in the life of a sex slave.
"Today's shoot began when Otto woke up, took a morning shit and realized he ran out of toilet paper," Ramone says. "Luckily, he had a toilet whore to substitute. The second scene was a severe face fucking that ended with an enema. Next is an outdoor fucking scene — but without a pop. She doesn't get the cum, leaving her unsatisfied. And the final scene is anal — with a pop — as well as sick little surprises throughout."
At the end, of the movie, Amber is put back in the "underground creepy space" where she lives.
"Do you want to see the creepy space?" Ramone asks.
It's a question that would cue some people to run for their lives. But I go along, anyway. In the backyard, a small wooden slat door opens to a water heater closet underneath the house. It's dark, dingy and small.
"This is where the slave lives," Ramone says.
Soon Amber, Otto, Jim and Gia are outside getting prepped for the next scene. Ramone ties Amber to a chain link fence. She's still naked except for the blanket that's falling off her shoulders. Ramone puts a pig mask over her head and a "For Sale" sign around her neck.
"When it's all over," Ramone adds, "Amber gets put back in the creepy space. And tomorrow it starts all over again. This is the sex slave's ritual every day."
And for some, it's entertainment.
Slave 02 is scheduled for release March 16. Visit jerkoffzone.com for ordering information.
