Stranger Than Truth Ch. 05b

The second day of shooting focused on several of the outdoor scenes. They seemed to take forever to film. Not only were there the delays caused by trying to get the scene just right, but outside noises seemed to intrude at just the wrong times. Their first major confrontation with Barry occurred this day.

A two block section of city street had been constructed in the mammoth backyard that had once belonged to Francine. It was here that Tasha was to recreate Valerie's "whore walk" that was part of her second weekend with Charles. The walk and the safe word transfer were the only two parts of that weekend's submission that Samson had felt needed to be included. Barry was telling Tasha how to make the walk.

"Okay Tasha. Your Master has dressed you like a cheap whore and ordered you to walk several blocks through prostitute row to a seedy dive. You're turned on. You like the idea of being taken for a hooker, that every man that sees you is driven wild with lust for you."

"Barry, that's not what the script says. I'm supposed to be mortified, ashamed of how I look and how people are reacting to me."

"I don't care. We need to be believable. Remember, you're a pervert who gets off on being humiliated and degraded. What's one more degradation?"

Valerie lost it. "That's a pretty asinine thing to say."

"I don't recall asking for your opinion, Ms. Burbon."

"You still need to hear it. This is me you're talking about. I was mortified by the way I was dressed and how I was being reacted to."

"Do you actually expect me to believe that you have no problem letting yourself be used as a sex toy by your 'Master'," Barry quipped, venom dripping off the word 'Master,' "yet you are horrified at the thought that total strangers might think of you as a whore? Give me a break!"

Every eye was focused on Valerie and Barry, waiting to see how the fight would end. Valerie felt Sally's hand on her shoulder, a reminder to hold her temper. "I appreciate the compliment," Val responded after a few seconds of thought. "It's nice to know that you think I'm incapable of hypocrisy. After all, that's what it was. I thought there was something wrong with selling one's body for money while I was giving myself fully to someone for free."

Barry looked at Valerie with a smoldering anger. He turned away, ignoring her. "Tasha! We'll go with how it's written. Let's see some fear and humiliation." He turned back to his chair. "Places everyone! Let's shoot this thing!"

Valerie knew that things would only get worse. Barry Gaskin's prejudices were making themselves felt in the production. Not every disagreement would be solved with a clever turning around of his meaning. Valerie's stomach began to knot up at the thought of what he would do to this film. Val knew that she had to talk to Milton Freeman again.

The shooting day went long again and the two lovers did not arrive home until after 9:00. She left a message with Milton, letting him know that Barry was actively trying to change the focus of the film. Noticing signs of nervousness in Sally, Valerie had Sally sleep with her hands bound to the headboard of their bed. For her own part, Valerie tried to ignore the ever increasing need she was feeling. The next morning came all too soon.

After making sure she had what she needed for her presentation that afternoon, Valerie, along with Sally, left for the house. This day's shooting schedule was probably one of the ones most prone to Barry's hostility. Many of the morning shots were expositional scenes where the nature of BDSM was discussed on screen. These included two of Valerie's interviews during her initiation and her talks with Lilly both within the mansion and outside it.

The first of Valerie's interviews went well. Of the scenes, this was one of the most straight forward, being primarily Valerie explaining to Charles and the others how and why she came to be there that weekend. There were some dialogue changes, but the effect was minimal enough that Valerie did not feel like challenging them. She decided to limit her battles to ones that were critical.

During that scene, her cell phone vibrated and the caller ID indicated Milton was on the line. Valerie left Sally on the set and walked to a private place to return his call.

"Milton, this is Valerie."

"Val darling, what have you done to upset Barry so much?"

"Me upset Barry? Milton, he is trying to ruin the film, change its focus so that the entire D/s community is shown to be deviants that any rational person would avoid like the plague."

Valerie could hear the exasperation in his sigh. "Tell me what you think he's done this time."

Val did not like the sound of his request. She explained the change Barry tried to make yesterday and how it changed the very nature of the scene. She emphasized the condescension and venom in Barry's voice whenever he talked to her.

Milton's response was not encouraging. "Val, Val, Val. You're overreacting. The change you described would not have a significant impact on how the film, or your character was perceived. There are lots of women who fantasize about being prostitutes. That's why Pretty Woman was so popular. I've worked with Barry Gaskin on several films and he is a master at translating a writer's and producer's vision to film. He will do the same for this film."

"Damn it, Milton! He flat out told me that he intends to make a cautionary film about the dangers in BDSM and the people who are part of it. You have to do something to stop him."

"Valerie Burbon, I have known Barry for years and the man you're describing is not the man that I know. If you can't work with Barry then maybe I need to replace you."

"Then you don't know him as well as you think. He's sabotaging the film. He had two of his goons buy the wrong whip for the whipping scenes. It would have left your actresses a bleeding wreck." Valerie interrupted his attempt to answer with, "And I know it was deliberate because he gave specific instructions about which whip to buy without telling your prop person what he was doing. If you don't believe me, just ask Melanie White. She was there."

"All right! I still think you're overreacting, but I will talk to Barry and remind him that this movie will be to my and Samson's vision or it will be reshot."

"Thanks Milton, that's all I'm asking."

By the time Valerie had returned to the set, shooting had stopped and Barry was on his phone. From the look on his face, the director was livid. Valerie smiled as one of his responses was a little too loud.

"She's a lying bitch cunt!"

His voice dropped in volume as heads swiveled to look at him. Soon, he was off the phone and stomping back towards the set. He made no attempt to hide his anger towards Valerie. Tension filled the set for the rest of the morning. Valerie, with her experience in filming ads, could see that something had to give. Barry, whether on purpose, or simply as a result of his anger, was not putting any effort into his directing.

Many people do not realize how important a director is to a film. It was the director who made sure that all of the cast and crew were on the same page during a scene. He provided vital feedback to the actors. Without that feedback, they could never be certain if they were achieving the affects they were shooting for. If Barry Gaskin's refusal to actually direct continued for very long, the movie would suffer.

Tasha came over to the couple during the break between two of the scenes.

"Valerie, do you know what that phone call was? Why is Barry so mad at you?"

"The call was probably from Milton. He called me and I told him how Barry is trying to ruin the film."

"Ruin the film? What are you talking about?"

"Tasha, he is trying to make changes that will change the entire focus of the movie. Do you realize that he sent two guys out to specifically buy a whip that would have bloodied you?"

"Oh my God! Why would he do that?"

"He wants this movie to be a cautionary tale, warning against the dangers of D/s."

"It's his third wife, isn't it?"

"Maybe, I couldn't say for sure."

"Whatever, if he doesn't start taking hand in things again, this picture will be ruined anyway. It seems like his anger is focused on you. Can Sally handle things today?"

"Sally? Can you keep an eye on things, push when Barry gets it wrong?"

"I don't know, Mistress. I'm not sure I'm up to confrontations right now."

"Actually," Tasha interrupted with a raised eyebrow at the honorific Sally used towards Val, "it would be best if she didn't push. We need Barry to calm down and any push from either of you will prevent that."

"Then what do you want me to do?" Sally asked.

"Brief us. I've seen Barry like this before. We'll be breaking for an early lunch soon. Sally, can you give us an idea of how to present the scenes for today?"

"I think so. Valerie and I have talked about the events in them enough times: I know how she was feeling and thinking." Sally's relief at not having to be forceful was palpable.

"I guess that will work. I'll head to the office and see if I can catch up on some work there. I'll leave you the car, Sally. I have to submit tonight and will not be able to give you a ride home. I'll take cabs. Wait up for me, okay?"

"Yes Mistress."

"Has something changed between you two? I thought Sally was the dominant partner."

"Yes, though it's hard to explain. Suffice it to say that Sally is my submissive right now."

"I had no idea that these relationships could be so fluid."

"D/s relationships are just that: relationships. They are defined by different dynamics than a vanilla relationship, but they have all the qualities of any relationship, including the mutability. It does keep things from being boring."

"I see. You'd better go, Valerie. The sooner Barry cools off the better."

"Okay. I'll see you tonight, Sally."

"I'm looking forward to it, Mistress."

Valerie left with four hours before her meeting at Yara's Leather Emporium. When she walked into the Delgrasi building, Erika looked up with surprise.

"Valerie! I thought you were going to be out of the office all week."

"I was. The director and I are so not getting along. He wants to turn the movie into some sort of warning about how sick and dangerous D/s is. That's not the movie that Milton Freeman and I talked about."

"That sucks. So you were kicked off the set?"

"Not exactly, I called the producer on him and now he's so mad at me that his anger is affecting the movie. I'm letting Sally watch over things while I give him a chance to cool off."

"Sally? Aren't you dominating her right now?"

"Yes. It's tough, not what I'm used to."

"Master Damien has us dominate each other all the time. Would you like some help sometime?"

"Maybe, I'll keep it in mind. It's made more difficult now that she doesn't have a safe word."

"You know I don't have a safe word, right?"

"I know. In fact, I should pick your brain about that."

"How about lunch tomorrow?"

"Sounds great. I'll pick you up at noon."

Valerie spent the next three hours going over an accumulation of correspondence. Fortunately, all of it was routine and had not suffered from the delay in her responses. Included was an ad from Hellfire Pictures promoting one of their new movies. Valerie nodded to herself, pleased that her association with the film was having at least one benefit.

At 2:30, Val took a cab to Yara's and was shown into the meeting room ten minutes before her presentation was scheduled to start. She went over her material one more time and verified that the interface in the room was online and talking to her computer. Harmony Anders led five other people into the room precisely at 3:00.

"Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Valerie Burbon of Delgrasi Publications. Ms. Burbon?"

"Thank you Mrs. Anders. Ladies and gentlemen, Delgrasi publications represents access to a vast untapped market for Yara's leather care products. Leather products of various types are a staple in the fetish world. Naturally, like leather enthusiasts everywhere, the leather fetishist wants to take the best possible care of his or her leather. So far, however, the sexual leather enthusiast has had to deal with the twin demons of restricted availability and predatory pricing.

"There are very few businesses that a person can walk into and find sensual products for sale. Additionally, most of the stores that do carry, and let's be honest about what we're talking about here, sex toys, are not places that most people, not even most fetishists would want to walk into. I know I would not want to. That means that the vast majority of fetishists buy most or all of their products online. If I can bring your attention to the survey data on the screen?" Valerie called up the first of her graphics.

"Delgrasi conducts periodic surveys of its readership in an ongoing attempt to make our magazines just what the readership wants. These include determining their buying habits. I've included data from six of our magazines; Second Skin, Leather Digest, The Sensible Submissive, Mastering, Bondage Monthly, and The Pony's Paddock. As you can see, Leather Digest readers have the lowest percentage of readers who buy all of their leather care products online at 47%. The over all percentage is 67% including 90% of the readers of The Sensible Submissive. The next screen translates these percentages into actual numbers of readers. These six magazines represent a potential market of 560,000 customers for your products, and this is only the readers who buy all of their care products online. If we add the readers who buy some of their care products online, as is shown by this graphic, the potential customer base is well over 1,000,000 people.

"Yara's is poised to snatch up these customers and make them a committed clientele. Take a look at this next graphic. Here we have a closer look at a subset of the survey data, specifically, for this city alone. Notice that less than 25% of the combined readership in our city buys their leather care products online. Instead, they use a local business, and list both price and quality as the reasons. The store they list is overwhelmingly Yara's Leather Emporium. The fetish community has already sampled your products and voted with their money." Valerie was especially proud of suggesting that the survey data include zip codes and written in sites/stores. Changing the online survey to include those fields may well have been worth it, if she could land this contract.

"Let's look at the reasons why this might be. This is an ad for leather care products in a competitor's magazine. I'm sure the incredibly poor quality and taste of the ad is glaringly apparent to you. More importantly, notice the prices."

Valerie paused as the board members reacted just as Harmony Anders had. Expressions of disbelief abounded and one of the men asked, "Ms. Burbon, do you expect us to believe that anyone would charge such a price?"

"No sir, I don't expect you to believe me. I have brought copies of the magazine in question. I've blacked out the cover and marked the page with the ad with a paper clip." Valerie handed out the copies of the magazine to the members of the board. She smiled (with her back turned) when she saw the male members of the board perusing the other pages of the magazine, several pictorial bondage spreads.

After giving them a chance to view the ad and comment among themselves, Valerie continued with her presentation. "The last question to answer is whether Delgrasi's readership is the kind of customer that Yara's wants to attract. The simple answer is that they already are your customers. As I've already shown you, when Yara's is a choice, it is overwhelmingly the choice of fetishists. I dare say that they have not been noticeably distinct from your other customers.

"Even given that you already cater to fetishists, does Yara's Leather Emporium want to seek these customers out. I contend that not only do you want to, but you have a moral obligation to do so." Valerie pulled two whips out of her briefcase. "These two whips are typical of those used in Bondage, Discipline, Sadism and Masochism or BDSM. One has been treated with Yara's signature leather oil. The other has been treated with the leather oil that was advertised in the magazine I showed you. Examine the strands of both whips."

Valerie passed the whips around. She watched as looks of disgust appeared on faces at the rough and cracked leather on the whip treated with the competitor's product. Once all the board members had had a chance to make their comparisons, she went back into her presentation.

"If these were leather jackets, the condition of the one would simply be sad. With whips, on the other hand, the poor condition could very well lead to injury to the person being whipped. Trust me when I say that no submissive is looking to be injured by our dominants. Yes, there is some pain involved and some marking, but we are not looking to be permanently scarred. There are an untold number of fetishists out there for which this," Val held up the ill kept whip, "is the best leather care they have available. By advertising in our publications, you stand able to make the fetish lifestyle that much safer than it already is. That you can make a profit while doing so is just so much better. Are there any questions?"

"Ms. Burbon," asked an elderly gentleman at the end of the table, "can you address the moral issues involved with seeking out people involved in perversion for our products?"

Valerie cringed inside at the word perversion. She took a deep breath and gave the response she had prepared. "No, I cannot. Simply put, the moral issues are not clear, not for fetishes. If someone chooses to view the private sexual activities of consenting adults, activities that endanger no one else in any way, as immoral, there is nothing I can say that will dissuade them. The simple fact is that none of the readers of our publications are any more predatory than those most people in our society consider normal. Those of us who choose to live a fetish lifestyle are no different than anyone else. We go to church as often as so called 'normal' people. We have families. We run the political spectrum from flaming liberal to stuck in the mud conservative. We eat out, go to movies, take walks in the park, fall in love, and yes, we have sex. The only problem the moralists have with us is how we choose to express our sexuality. If this company's corporate judgment is that there is something inherently evil in those choices, then perhaps I was wrong, and Delgrasi does not wish to seek out your advertising business after all. Does Yara's ask its customers if they're adulterers, or if they've broke any law? No, you would never do so, and it would be inappropriate for you to do so. Yara's is in the business of selling leather goods, not policing morals and lifestyles."

The man who asked the question had his lips pressed firmly together, his hostility and anger obvious to any onlooker. The other people around the table showed varying degrees of firmness and thoughtfulness. Valerie knew that the decision would be close. There were several other questions about advertising rates and the like. Valerie was able to answer those questions easily, but could not shake the nervousness. While she had invested months of preparation in this pitch, she could do nothing but stand by what she had said. If Yara's chose to reject advertising with Delgrasi on moral grounds, then good riddance.

"Ms. Burbon," Mrs. Andres said, "thank you for your presentation. The board will take your request under advisement and let you know of our decision by the early next week. Let me show you out."

Harmony led Val out of the room. Once they were out of earshot, she added, "Valerie, that was an excellent presentation. Your answer to the morals question was gutsy, but I can see how it would be the only answer that would be honest. The vote will be close, but I think you will have your contracts. I'll be in touch."