Dallas-based director Israel Luna strives to push the envelope with each one of his films. Over the years, Luna has written, directed and produced several LGBTQ-centric films, including Ouija Warehouse, starring Justin Armstrong, Chaselyn Wade and Abby Joy, as well as Dead Don’t Die In Dallas, which stars Krystal Summers and Willam Belli. In his latest effort, an adult film called The Boys of Summer, Luna takes things a bit further, creating the first ever porn movie filmed entirely using drones.
The Boys of Summer was filmed earlier this summer at Dragonfly, an area of land Luna and two other business partners purchased last year with the intent of turning it into a men’s campground. While construction on the campground is still ongoing, Luna figured he’d get creative with the open space in the meantime.
At the time of filming The Boys of Summer, Luna was also in the middle of filming a thriller.
“I had purchased a drone, and I had never owned a drone before,” Luna says. “I had another friend who had one, and coming off of [the thriller film], I was still on a high about the production value, because I had purchased a brand new 6k camera. It wasn't until that moment that I thought, ‘I love the drone footage. I would love to incorporate this into porn or adult films.’
"And then I started thinking about it, and I thought, ‘Has that ever been done before?’ I kind of checked around, and I know a few people that run a couple of porn sites, and they said, ‘We can't think of any, and I'm like, ‘I think this is the first.’ So when I realized all of that, I thought, ‘Yes, let's do this.’”
Luna recruited a producer who goes by the name Daddy Kris to help with The Boys of Summer. Kris organizes meet-and-greet events with porn actors, one of which took place the day before the shoot. For the film, Kris was able to bring in porn actors Scruffy Lobo, Sparky Baxter and Silver Steele, and he recruited friends including an actor who goes by Rugger and another who goes by Jimmy. While these actors have a following on platforms Twitter and OnlyFans, this was the first time for each to appear in a full-length porn film.
Luna’s 22 years of filmmaking, combined with Kris’ event production skills, provided a studio-like experience for everyone involved in the film.
As it goes with porn, the film doesn’t really have a clear plot, nor much dialogue, but Luna treated it as he would treat any of his other non-pornographic films. He gave his actors broad guidelines and allowed them to give them their own spin.
“I didn't want to have a film with, like, memorized lines, or, ‘Oh, there's this plumber, and he's coming in,’ and there's gonna be a part where somebody says, ‘Oh, I've never done this before,’” Luna says. “Because this is the first of its kind, I want people to talk about it, now and for years to come, I want them to see this as an art film that just happens to be porn."
“As soon as we started talking about what we had in mind and how we were going to execute the plan, [the actors] were all about it,” Kris says. “Especially when Israel and I made sure to let them know that it was going to be like being on a movie set. We did craft services so that they had food. I personally was spraying down all the boys with ice water when they would get off off set, making sure that they were hydrated, because it was 108 degrees that day, and we felt every damn degree. It was a fun process, for sure.”
Completing the studio film experience, Luna and Kris had a behind-the-scenes crew documenting the shooting and interviewing the actors involved. While the film came down to something less than an hour, Luna says it took about five hours to film.
According to the filmmakers and the actors, some of the challenges of filming with drones included trying to get the drones to not run into each other, as well as making sure the drones were able to get the “money shots” without being too invasive to those participating in the acts.
“From a performer standpoint, those drones are loud,” Rugger says. “We're trying to fuck, and we're having a great time, and it's just like that movie Batteries Not Included. You're trying to fuck and then you got this friendly little robot over your shoulder.”
Fortunately, the spinning rotors acted as fans in the scorching Texas heat."I thought, ‘I love the drone footage. I would love to incorporate this into porn or adult films.’ And then I started thinking about it, and I thought, ‘Has that ever been done before?’" –Israel Luna
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The Boys of Summer is an all bareback film. You know, raw-dog, nothing-between-me-and-my-Calvins bare.
“The latex would’ve melted right off in that heat,” says Jimmy.
The film features a variety of sex acts, including anal, oral, rimming, fisting and double penetration. While videos of all these sex acts can be found in abundance online, filming them from up above allows for the viewer to get a closer look at how to get into different positions.
“The shots and the angles that we got on this film are just not something that you see,” says Rugger. “There is a lot of fun and frivolity in it for a porn … I have a lot of emotional attachment because the experience was so amazing.”
The Boys of Summer is now available to stream as a pay-per-view film on Just For Fans. Luna hosted an exclusive premiere of the film at his private studio, which he converted into a ‘70s-inspired porn cinema for the night. Now that he’s filmed a porno using drones, Luna says he is feeling inspired to shoot for films with the technology, and has “more ideas up [his] sleeve.”
Both Luna and Kris hope that through their events and films, they can destigmatize the idea of pornography and allow the viewers and participants to find a sense of sexual and mental liberation.
“We're trying to set people free, sexually,” says Kris. “I think that Dallas has been really repressed, as someone who grew up here. But I learned from a young age that I don't want to live by anyone's rules. I've been through some fucked up shit, I think Israel's gone through some shit himself, and you learn that over time, you don't want to live by anybody's rules. You want to live your own life. That sets you free, mentally, to come up with great new concepts.”
