This article ran in the August 2014 issue of AVN magazine.
Downtown Los Angeles on a weekend day—not the upscale part with the Music Center and City Hall, but rather the downscale part east of Broadway near the bus terminal and the windowless brick LAPD police station—is a creepy place at best, but when a former hotel has its small parking lot filled with white production trucks and luxury cars while just outside the tall, fortified security fence street vendors cook bacon-wrapped hot dogs and pushcarts sell ice cream to cavorting children, the contrast is striking.
Brad Armstrong is using this hotel as a location for the climactic orgy in Aftermath, an original character-oriented drama starring Tyler Nixon as Danny, a young man who gets a vintage muscle car that belonged to his late father as a gift from his mother, and when he restores the car he finds pictures and love letters to his dad from a mysterious woman, Nina. He then travels to Manhattan from his upstate New York home to find Nina and get some questions answered about his dad's other life with her. Wicked Pictures is set to release Aftermath at the end of August.
The production has an expansive nine-day schedule, with two days of location shooting in New York for establishing shots and walk-and-talk dialog scenes. Wicked girls Asa Akira, Kaylani Lei and Jessica Drake are featured in the cast, with Drake as the “Nina” of the letters and photographs. Other featured players include Bonnie Rotten, Aubrey Addams, Vicki Chase, Xander Corvus, Ryan Driller and Brandi Love as Nixon's mother, and industry veterans Mike Quasar and David Lord are behind the cameras.
"Everything about this movie is twisting what you expect from Brad Armstrong recently and turning it on its ear," Wicked publicist Daniel tells me. "With the art direction to keep the illusion that we're in New York—the whole show is set in New York; we headed down here to keep that urban city vibe—and it's really an actors' showcase rather than a special-effects fantasy adventure, with gonzo performers doing dramatic stuff, and feature people doing great gonzo sex."
Nixon, fresh off his New Stud win at XRCO, has no history in acting. "It's funny. It pretty much started when I got into the industry," he says. "It started off with a few little roles, improv roles, and then it quickly turned into feature stuff, and that's when I really had the spotlight on me. I had to deliver dialog, not my own mannerisms. Never have I done anything like this before. I think the more challenging part is looking at Brad, and seeing that he's happy with what I just did. I know my lines and I have a good idea of the character background, but I look to him for the thumbs-up or thumbs-down. He does a great job telling me exactly what he wants and I do my best to give him that."
Before the 12-person orgy starts, Armstrong sets up an introductory shot with Nina bringing Danny into the swing club that she frequented with Danny’s father. A hallway is reconfigured into an entryway with a couple of curtains, and a glass-doored corner cabinet is turned into a display space for Asa Akira, who is ball-gagged and bound with her hands high above her head as a decorative accent piece right next to the neat sign with the name of the club and a directional arrow.
On "Action!" Nixon and Drake walk through the entry, giving expository dialogue. After one master take, one take favoring Nixon, and one take favoring Drake, Armstrong calls cut. As the lights go off and everybody relaxes, Akira, in the glass case, spits the ball gag out and asks in a matter-of-fact tone, "Can somebody untie me please?" as she looks up at her bound hands. She is released from the bonds and steps out of the cabinet rubbing her wrists, smiling, happy that the scene is over.
The orgy sets up in a long, narrow room with a stained-glass window at one end, strongly backlit from outside to compensate for the waning sunlight. Above the stained-glass window, handpainted lettering says "SIRS WE WOULD SEE JESUS" in neat capital letters. Armstrong will probably shoot around that. Six leather recliners sit along one wall, and three loveseats are on the facing wall. The 12 players, including Erik Everhard, Eric Masterson, Armstrong and Drake, enter the room dressed in fetishy red and black clothing. "Keep it on as long as you can, people," Armstrong says as he arrays the performers around the room in pairs and threesomes, mindful of camera access once the scene gets started. The action will take place on the loveseats, the middle of the room and the upstage wall with the stained-glass window, with the leather recliners out of frame. A table holds a supply of condoms and lube: With Wicked's commitment to condom use, the demand will be brisk.
Armstrong confers with Quasar and Lord, mentioning shots he wants to get. When the scene starts, he will be in the middle of it and not watching the cameramen. At the last possible moment, the lights are fired up and the air conditioning is turned off. The PAs and makeup people retreat from the shooting area, and the air is quiet with anticipation.
"Are we ready?" Armstrong asks, breaking the silence and surveying the faces of everyone in the room. Once it starts, there's no turning back.
"Annnnd... Action!"
