A nasty jailhouse orgy, Jason Ridge tied to a spinning cross, spanking, Rod Barry's filthy mouth... who else but Steven Scarborough could be responsible?
"It's kind of a recurrent theme with us. I began with The Abduction, then Conflict and Redemption," says the Hot House owner of his famous Falcon films. "We knew we wanted to make a leather movie, we had this location available to us, so once we looked at that, we started to write a story for it."
Scarborough and crew shot a lot of the film at the world-renowned Mr. S Leather in San Francisco. "We shot at night, which is always a challenge. There's the promise you're going to sleep during the day, but we didn't sleep." In addition to its win, The Missing was also nominated for Best Direction and Best Threesome, and gained critical acclaim for its polished look, thanks to the effort from Scarborough's team.
"It was really tremendous. Take the dining room table scene. Having that thing lit from beneath was really a stroke of genius on my cameraman's part, Richard Board. I think it's one of the takeaway images from the movie, just absolutely gorgeous" — as were the men in the entire cast, which resulted in one of Scarborough's favorite scenes, the opening jail cell group. "I thought it was almost ferocious in its intensity, and it came busting out of the gate. It was one of those rare moments in porn that we could barely shoot fast enough, because what they were doing just took off. They were so real and authentic in their actions that we didn't have time to coach or position them, we just shot."
Scarborough also got to introduce Hot House star Kent North to a wider audience, and push Jason Ridge: "He asked me to push him, sexually. So we had him tied up on that spinning cross. He was game for it; a lot of what you see is really authentic, because Robert would spin him upside down, and he comes up spitting and saying, 'Fuck you!' Really belligerent. It was perfect."
Scarborough notes that a sequel is in the works, but probably won't be shot until next year. In the meantime, the award sits on his desk at Hot House's new office, right next to a big purple orchid sent by distributor Paladin.
"It's wonderful. I really meant it — when I had that privilege to go up on the stage — that this was a tremendous year for gay porn," he says. "All the big companies and little companies, everyone is producing to their potential, and we were really pleased to be acknowledged. It was great to come home with it."
