On the Set with Bonnie Rotten: Elegant Angel's 'Busty Pin-Ups'

This article ran in the July 2015 issue of AVN magazine. Click here to see a gallery of on-set images from @IndustryByRick. It’s unseasonably hot today, but temperate in the rural house being used for a location for today’s scenes in Bonnie Rotten’s Elegant Angel production Busty Pin-Ups. Of course, the scene will be shot outside, in the unshaded direct sunlight, not in the air-conditioned house. The vintage fire-engine-red El Camino being used in the scene may have something to do with this. “I started my modeling career as a pin-up, so I have a lot of pin-up wardrobe. That’s where I got the inspiration,” Rotten tells me. “I was digging through my closet and I thought, ‘I have so much cool stuff, we should really do something with it.’ I haven’t seen too many pin-up movies in the gonzo format.” Mercedes Carrera is in the first scene today, dressed in retro black and red in front of the red El Camino, doing pretty-girl stills and pre-scene tease in the bright sunshine. Looking right into camera, she smiles and licks a finger, turning so her skirt, petticoat and well-rounded ass are all in frame. “I’m the only one without a camera,” Rotten says, as the guys who provided the vehicle snap away on their cell phones. You wouldn’t think it would take three guys to drive one El Camino, but what the hell. Directing from behind the video camera, Rotten mimes the moves she wants Mercedes to make. You can tell that she used to be a model. Alex Ladd, operating camera, crouches down to get an upskirt shot as Mercedes bends over, showing her ass to full advantage. “Go to the front of the car,” Bonnie says. As Mercedes moves to the front, the camera catches the stills guy, who thought he was safely out of frame. Oops. Cut. No big deal; it was a transition anyway. They move the reflectors and Rotten grabs some tape to cover the license plate. As Carrera poses, Karlo Karrera walks up, says hi to her. “That car looks like it belongs to you,” he says, taking in all the red on display. “Yeah, right?” she smiles. He pulls up her skirt and the bright red triangle of her G-string pops out, looking like pubic hair. “Grab your ass,” directs Rotten and she does, pulling the G-string down. “Wait! There’s a label!” Rotten rushes in with scissors to cut it off. Pull ’em up, start over. On the next take, Ladd says, “We have to light up her butthole” and moves a reflector to do that. Carrera struts to the back of the El Camino and strides up into the low truck bed, lifting her skirt. “Somebody used to be a stripper,” an onlooker says appreciatively. “A lot of boob stuff,” Rotten says, and Carrera ditches the corset and skirt, leaving her dressed in a scarf and flower in her hair. “Let me lube those up,” says Rotten, and applies coconut oil to Carrera’s front and arms. She gleams in the reflected sunlight. “A couple more minutes on her boobs, then get her down with some pussy spreading,” Rotten tells Ladd. “Nothing hardcore.” Carrera bounces her ass with her hands as Rotten brings bedsheets to put down on the trunk bed. Hands-on director. They suggest having her sit on the back of the cab. “It’ll be hot,” Carrera protests. Ladd responds with a laconic, “We burn asses.” Carrera cautiously sits on the cab, says she can do it. Camera rolls. She sits, opens her legs, rubs her pussy up and down, her 10 red-nailed fingers flanking her pussy. Still softcore. “Another minute and we’ll bring him in,” Rotten says, referring to Karrera. Rotten grabs her phone. “Can you put your buttcrack on the car? I want to get a pic for Instagram. Cover your nipple.” Under the hot sun the shiny coconut oil has evaporated, or been absorbed, or whatever coconut oil does. It’s gone. Karrera enters and they start shooting sex stills, previewing the scene to come. They whip through kissing, the blowjob, mish, spoon, reverse cowgirl, cowgirl and doggy, with the planned pop in doggy, “because you’ve got all that booty,” Rotten says appreciatively. As Carrera and Karrera get dressed to start the scene for video, Rotten confers with her female star: “Is there anything you don’t want to do?” “I’m okay for anything,” Carrera responds as she fastens the corset. Rotten looks at her players and at Ladd. “Okay, we’re going to do hard and soft at the same time. I want 25 minutes of hard sex,” Rotten says, emphasizing it by thrusting her fist forward. This is a tactical decision on Rotten’s part: It’s warm, especially where the sunlight is compounded by reflectors, and minimizing shoot time by not doubling back for retakes will make for a better scene. Carrera leans over and starts to suck Karrera, bringing him to erection before the cameras roll. Ladd confers with Rotten, discreetly letting the performers bond in a moment of private intimacy before starting the scene. The three guys who came with the El Camino shift restlessly, hands in their pockets, not sure where to look. “Are you ready?” Rotten asks, redundantly, because Karrera is certainly ready, rock-hard and locked in eye contact with his costar. “Let’s go.” “Rolling,” says Ladd, shouldering his camera. “Speed.” “Annnnnnnnd ... Action!”