A Best Practice Guide to Sex and Storytelling

A great deal of storytelling in film and television involves narratives that include sexual situations and nudity. The increased amount of on-line and streaming content outlets has in turn increased the number of narratives that involve these once-taboo subjects. Often, even though directors and producers desire to handle such issues with professionalism, sets become awkward when producing these scenes. A Best Practice Guide to Sex and Storytelling serves as a helpful tool for guiding creators through these waters. Even as the practice has become more common, the environments in which individuals on both sides of the camera work to create sensitive content have not become any more comfortable. To date, there have been no industry guides and little practical instruction on how to approach such important yet delicate scenes. Sex and Storytelling offers theoretical and practical approaches to creating the most effective content, while honoring the dignity and humanity of everyone involved on-set when sexuality and nudity is a part of the story being told. Drawing on John Bucher's professional experience in both high- and low-budget environments and including interviews with players from both sides of the camera, this book provides an essential guide to handling sex and nudity for film and television in a professional manner.

John Bucher is an award-winning writer and narrative consultant based out of Los Angeles, California. He teaches filmmaking at the LA Film Studies Center and has guided students, independent filmmakers, and professionals through the treacherous waters of bringing their stories to the screen, while continuing his own career as a content creator. He is also the author of several books including Storytelling for Virtual Reality, Master of the Cinematic Universe: The Secret Code For Writing in the New World of Media, Storytelling By the Numbers, and The Inside Out Story. He can be found on-line at his site, tellingabetterstory.com

PREFACE: A New Era INTRODUCTION: An Overview of How to Use This Guide CHAPTER ONE: A Brief History of Sexuality and Nudity in Film and Television PART I: NAVIGATING NUDITY AND SEXUAL SITUATIONS CHAPTER TWO: Sexual Situations CHAPTER THREE: Nudity PART II: A GUIDE FOR PRODUCTION DEPARTMENTS & POSITIONS CHAPTER FOUR: Directing Sexuality and Nudity CHAPTER FIVE: Producing Content with Sexuality and Nudity CHAPTER SIX: Sexuality and Nudity for the Cinematographer and the Camera Department CHAPTER SEVEN: Sexuality and Nudity Issues in Post Production PART III: A GUIDE FOR PERFORMERS AND PERFORMANCES CHAPTER EIGHT: Acting in Sexual and Nude Scenes CHAPTER NINE: Feminist and LGBTQI+ Perspectives