LOS ANGELES—On a Saturday last April, at a nondescript apartment complex somewhere east of Hollywood, I attended my first adult shoot since the onset of COVID.
It was for the final scene of director/performer Casey Calvert’s follow-up to last year’s multiple AVN Award-nominated drama Primary, which drops today on LustCinema.com, bringing the second season of the nuanced ensemble dive into the world of polyamory to a close.
With the air of a subtly uneasy regathering of “the gang” after long deployments to desolate corners of the globe—all masked up for safety, natch—the general disposition of the cast and crew on hand was upbeat and casual ... befitting the scene being lensed, between returning cast member Kira Noir—who collected an AVN Best Supporting Actress trophy for her performance in Season 1—and new addition Victoria Voxxx.
Back as director of photography, AVN Hall of Famer Bryn Pryor was running through his carefully mapped out camera movements for the scene using a complex body-strapped Steadicam system as Kira and Victoria rehearsed their lines.
At the point in the story where the impending sequence would be unfolding, Kira has broken up with her primary (Small Hands), who just moved her into this apartment. The set-up was that Kira had brought Victoria here for a date—they were sharing pizza on the floor of the living room, which was strewn very convincingly with moving boxes and little else, save for a stained couch with a dirty blue blanket flung over it.
As part of the dialogue, Kira addressed the breast augmentation she’d gotten in real life between shooting Season 1 and now, saying, “I got boobs to try and save the relationship ... it didn’t work.”
Calvert was overseeing all on a handheld monitor from a squatted spot against the wall across from her actresses. The two ran through their entire exchange again and again, neither missing a word or a mark, while Pryor made small adjustments to nail the framing. After one final “safety” take, he announced, “That one was actually better,” to which Kira exclaimed, “Yay! We can make the love now?”
“No, you can make the stills now,” Calvert responded. “Then you can make the video where you make the love.”
Before any love would be made, however, the helmswoman briefed the two ladies on what she wanted out of them during said lovemaking ... which further hammered home the vibe of casualness permeating the entire proceedings.
Telling them there was no set amount of time she wanted the scene to last, she added, “Don’t need you to open up, don’t care about positions. Just have sex.”
After some discussion between Kira and Victoria about whether each other could cum from penetration (as Kira had brought along a new vibrator to use if all parties pleased, which they did), Calvert offered a few more words of guidance: “This is the first time your characters are having sex, so it makes sense there would be a lot of communication.
“My biggest ask is, just enjoy yourself.”
“I’m so happy this is my first scene back,” Kira beamed.
I couldn’t have agreed more.
See the finale of Primary Season 2—or the entire limited series, if you haven’t yet caught it from the beginning—now on the Lust Cinema membership site.
