I had never felt so frightened in all my life. I had always had a secure job and now I had been told I was unemployed! It was so sudden it came as a shock to all of us. I have been chief cameraman for this large film studio for the past 7 years and I had always thought my position was there for as long as I wanted it. The stupid major shareholder of the company had decided he didn't want to be encumbered with the company when his very messy divorce came through and so he sold the company to a consortium of owners. This meant the film studio was essentially broken up into smaller bits and pieces and there were lots of casualties - and I was one of them!
I am 30 years old and although I have been married and divorced I felt so lonely at the time of my dismissal that I thought I would die. My wife, my ex-wife, had been a lovely girl and I had loved her with all my heart but she thought the grass on the other side of the fence must have been greener because I came home one day unexpectedly and found her fucking a delivery man! She said she was sorry but that just didn't ring true. In fact, it came out later that she had been fucking a lot of different men and really she didn't have any respect for me at all.
My first thought after my dismissal was to go to a bar and get myself thoroughly pissed and try to forget my troubles but I decided to head for home early instead. I had a couple of bottles of beer at home and had to settle my woes with them. I decided I would sleep on my problem and perhaps stay in bed all of next day. I guess I had dropped off to sleep about 9.00 pm when the telephone rang. It took me a little while to realize where I was but eventually my head cleared and I answered the phone.
I was quite surprised to find the phone call was from an old friend, Steve, whom I hadn't seen for perhaps 4 years. We had been very close a long time ago but had drifted apart as our jobs took us to different walks of life. Steve was a cameraman just like me but he had opted to work with the smaller studios whereas I had looked to the bigger outfits. Steve told me he had heard I was out of a job and wondered if I would like to talk to him about a possible position with his outfit! Of course I couldn't appear too excited but gladly accepted his invitation to lunch the next day.
After rising early and getting dressed and making myself look as respectable as possible, I headed off to our luncheon appointment hoping I would be able to get the position he was talking about. Steve looked good and seemed genuinely pleased to see me again. He was interested to hear of my divorce because it was he who had introduced me to my wife. He was happily married and it seemed to agree with him. Once the lunch was out of the way Steve broached the subject of a position. I was surprised to learn he was the owner of the studio he worked at and although he owned it, he preferred to work as he loved his art. He explained how they had opted for the lower budget films and had left the costly stuff to the studios like I had worked for. He asked me if I would really like to work with him and, of course, I said I would just love to test my skills with his. I knew he was an excellent cameraman and I would have to work hard to equal him.
He continued to give me a background to the company he owned and what they were doing. He also asked me if I had any aversion to working in low budget films or erotic films. Of course if you haven't a job at all it is easy to want to do anything to get another position. I told him I was very enthusiastic about all sorts of film work and would be prepared to do anything he wanted. I guess that last statement clinched the deal because he told me I could begin working with his company in two day's time. He gave me the address, told me to be on time, and he would provide all of the equipment needed and I could start straight away after that. Boy, I was relieved and after lunch headed for a bar for a celebratory drink. Commonsense sometimes prevails and I stopped myself and headed for home instead. I realized I had to keep a very clear hear and drink wouldn't be any help to me there.
On the agreed Wednesday morning I arrived at the address he had given me and was surprised it wasn't a larger film lot. It was certainly neat and tidy looking but seemed to be very small. Upon entering the front door I was greeted by the receptionist who directed me to Steve's office. He welcomed me aboard and told me we could start work on a new film straight away. He led me into the studio and, although it was reasonably large, it was certainly much smaller than I had been accustomed to using.
The studio was made up with 6 different sets around the walls and they varied from kitchens to bedrooms and were quite large which meant, in cameraman's talk, that they were built for close-up work where the cameraman could walk around the set without disturbing the actors. He walked me over these sets and explained we were going to make a porno film and this would take up most of our day. He wanted to know if I would be comfortable with this sort of work and I couldn't agree any quicker without sounding too anxious. I had always wanted to see a porno film made and now it looked as though I would be playing a very important part in this one.