For a long time our friend Jahc has been trying to get us to come and do a performance at SWAMP in Bristol. A long time in this instance being believe it or not about 5 or 6 years. What with one thing and another the timing has never quite worked out. So it was good to finally be able to do it.
This was an unexpected little trip for us but a really nice one. We were asked to perform in Paris with Naka Akira in Paris. We live 15 minutes from an Airport but in usual style appropriate flights to Paris weren't available so we first had to drive to Birmingham to catch a flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Earlier this year* I had an amazing experience working on a new film. This full length feature thriller features shibari rope bondage. It was my great pleasure to be able to supply this for the movie. Significantly this is the first British 'main stream' movie to feature rope bondage in this way and it was a great honour to be the person providing it. I hope I did a good job. So to the story... A home invasion irrevocably changes the lives of all involved in ways neither victims nor perpetrator could have imagined. No, I'm not going to give away anything that happens in the film beyond what's in the trailer anyway. You'll just have to watch it and see. Exciting stuff there and it was an exciting project to be involved with. It was an amazing experience being involved in a project like this and to work with so many wonderful people. Looking back on this it's amazing how much my bondage has changed in the last 3 years. I would (at the time of writing) have tied very differently now. I've also got a lot more experience of tying in this context. Believe me you learn all sorts of considerations about continuity. Speaking of continuity can you spot the one shot where I changed a tie between takes? It was also quite an experience to work with a large crew of people. There's a lot going on on a film set and many people are working very hard (and very quietly) to make something like this come together.
Rope isn’t safe, especially not suspension. However having said that there are degrees of risk so it doesn’t mean that we should accept injuries as a matter of course, they should be few and far between. I'm always worried when people shrug off injuries to models with an ‘oh well, these things happen’. As above this depends on context, yes you're taking a risk so once in a while maybe but... When there are repeated injuries which shouldn't be occurring it’s time to ask yourself some serious questions.
