An Interview with Leland Zaitz

Leland Zaitz has written or re-written over two dozen softcore movies for Indigo Entertainment (a division of Playboy Enterprises), including Girl for Girl, Hollywood Sex Fantasy, and Dangerous Invitation. He served as Director of Development at Indigo, and has optioned several non-erotic features and TV projects to the major studios and networks. He lives in LA with his fiancée, an actress who has decided not to appear in any of Leland’s erotic films (to which Leland adds “Damn it.”)

Leland’s IMdB credits

I guess the first thing we should ask is how you came to be involved in the erotic film business?

I’ve wanted to be a filmmaker ever since I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey at age 12. I took a half-hearted stab at college, then decided to just start writing scripts instead. I spent years reading other scripts, watching movies, and reading books about screenwriting and screenwriters, trying to give myself an education in how to be a desirable writer in Hollywood.

During this time I took a lot of detours – the main (and most interesting one) is that I landed a job as a butler at the Playboy Mansion! It was a sheer stroke of luck – I heard from a friend that a friend of a friend of his worked there, and I tracked this guy down, begged for an introduction, and landed a job as a part-time bartender there.

In short order, I became a butler, and worked there for five years. I had so much fun that I got almost no writing done during that time, so the job probably cost me a few years in terms of my career, but of course I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. I eventually got fired, but that’s a whole ‘nother interview.

The fact that I was Hefner’s butler had nothing to do with the fact, strangely enough, that I ended up writing movies for Playboy. One of those strange coincidences (maybe because my last name means “rabbit” in Yugoslavian). And yes, I’ve considered writing a script about that period of my life.

Anyway, years later, I clawed my way into production assistant jobs on music videos and industrial films. I became friends with a director who knew I was a struggling writer. When he produced a Playboy Home Video erotic exercise tape, he asked me to write the script. It was a small job, just writing things like “Here is a good stretch for the inner thigh.” I guess I did a decent job because they hired me back to write several more how-to videos (”Sensual Fantasies for Lovers”; “Dr. Ruth’s 1- Secrets for Greater Sexual Pleasure”, etc).

I wasn’t particularly an expert in this field (though I’m no slouch!), but I did lots of research and tried to write stuff that would actually be helpful to people. My philosophy for success at the time was: Be as personable and agreeable as possible in meetings and on the set, so that you’re regarded as a pleasant person to be around, always deliver before deadline and give them more than they ask for. I quickly developed a reputation as a reliable, hard-working writer who was easy to get along with, so whenever they needed a writer, I guess my name quickly came to mind.

When Playboy started making feature films, I submitted some ideas, all of which were turned down. They didn’t think of me as a feature writer, they thought of me as a how-to video writer. I tried for a year to get them to listen to me, and finally I decided to just write a script and throw it on the desk of the executive producer. The response was, “No thank you.” Months and months went by, as I pitched more ideas. They either passed on them or never bothered to get back to me. It was terribly frustrating because I KNEW I could write movies.

Finally, there was a new director of development. She was looking to make a name for herself. She went through all the old scripts that had been passed over, came across mine, and liked it. She called me and said she wanted to buy it.

I was thrilled, because I figured that script was never going to be any more than a pile of scratch paper on my bookshelf, and now I was going to be a produced feature scriptwriter. Everyone liked the script, on second look, and I was invited to submit more ideas. One of them was selected, and I wrote the script. This became When Passions Collide.

I remember going to the set to watch the shooting of my movie, and everyone – the director, the assistant director, the actors, all told me how much they liked the script (and they meant it, because usually those people aren’t especially interested in talking to the writer! We get no respect.) It was a terrific feeling.

From then on, Playboy listened to any idea I offered them – and I offered a lot. In addition, they started calling me to rewrite scripts by other writers. So I became their premiere script doctor, too. In the next four or five years I worked on over 25 produced scripts!

I eventually became Director of Development, reviewing submitted scripts and hiring writers. It’s a very nice feeling to be able to call some young, unproduced writer and say “We like your script, we want to buy it.” You can really make someone’s day.

Playboy is a great group of people and the experience was great: No big egos, no power struggles, and no bullshit. Everyone was interested in making good movies, and we all worked hard to do it.

Most fans were surprised to learn that Indigo is no longer making films for Playboy. Can you give us any details on what happened?

First of all, it isn’t technically correct to say that Indigo made movies for Playboy. Indigo was basically a division of Playboy. My understanding is that Playboy Entertainment spent a lot of money buying harder-core TV channels, and just built a huge new state-of-the-art studio facility, so the budget had to be trimmed dramatically. Indigo made movies for a much bigger budget than most of the other companies producing softcore movies.

We took pride in making a better product, but in the end, I guess it wasn’t financially feasible to continue making movies of that caliber. I was chagrined that there wasn’t an attempt made to at least try to make the movies for less, but I guess in the end, no one was really excited about producing a product of much less quality. At the end of the day, you have to have at least a little respect for the work you’re doing.

With softcore being more or less a “formula” genre, is it difficult for a writer to keep coming up with original and fresh ideas for stories? Or do the studios basically tell you what they are looking for?

Personally, I’ve never found myself running out of ideas. Whether they are “original and fresh” I will leave to someone else to decide! Creating story ideas for Indigo movies was, for me, the same as creating stories for any kind of movie, in most respects. It’s all about character and conflict.

Now of course, we could never make a “Top Gun” kind of movie, for budgetary reasons, but I always approached our movies as stories first and foremost, and not as a thin excuse to get people naked and having sex as much as possible. Having said that, the one “formula” for softcore movies than can be challenging for a writer is that you have to have a certain number of sex scenes in the script. Usually, this means one every 8-10 pages, in a 100 page script.

It can be quite tricky trying to tell a story where the characters are having that much sex, without it seeming wholly implausible. What’s more, you don’t want the sex scenes to come out of nowhere, having little to do with the story. I always felt that a sex scene should either help contribute to the character’s arc (growth or change) in the course of the story, or else move the plot along somehow.

As a development person, I turned down lots of scripts in which the sex scenes weren’t integrated at all. You’d have a detective story, for example, and the detective would be interviewing some hot divorceée for information. They’d have a little sexual banter (usually with ostensibly clever double-entendres that you could just tell the writer was proud of), then get naked and have sex, and then continue with the story.

Now I know the fans of these movies probably don’t care that much – they’re probably just anxious for the actresses to get their damn clothes off – but as writers, directors and producers, we want to tell stories that make sense. Additionally, you want to have a script in which the sex doesn’t come off as utterly gratuitous, because the better actresses will balk. You won’t get the talent you want because the really good actresses want to feel that, if they’ve taking off their clothes, it’s part of the story, and therefore is necessary.

That’s why these movies often center on settings and lifestyles that support plenty of nudity and sex: Erotic photographers, strip clubs, sexual therapists . that sort of thing. But my standard for a good story has always been, “If you took out all the sex scenes, would you still have an interesting story here?”

How much does the heat of a sex scene depend upon the script and how much is generated by the performers or director? Are the scenes written in a choreographed fashion?

This is an interesting question, and the short answer is that script is not a big contributing factor. The “heat” of a sex scene can depend on a lot of things. Chief among them are the performers, their relationship to each other, the director, and the mood on the set.

If you’re shooting a sex scene early in the day, and your performers didn’t get much sleep, and aren’t especially interested in each other (no personal chemistry), the scene can become very rote. I’m sure viewers can tell when they’re watching a scene in which the performers are just going through the motions.

Sometimes it’s a new director and he’s a bit shy about asking actors and actresses to do specific things. Sometimes you’re just rushed for time, and you’ve got ten minutes before the crew has to go to lunch or go home for the day, and you just get the actors in there and starting rolling, and hope for the best. Sometimes, the actress just doesn’t like the actor.

I frankly don’t understand how you can do a scene with someone who you personally find distasteful, and being kissing them, letting them fondle your body, when you’d rather be anywhere else. I am fascinated by that, and perhaps someday you’ll interview some of the actresses to get the real story.

On the other hand, there are times when the director is directing a scene that resonates with his particular tastes – a girl/girl scene, for example. He’s paying particular attention to the specifics of the scene. And if he’s lucky, he has a couple of actresses who trust him, respect him enough to want to do well for him, and then the scene can get pretty . realistic. A director can create a mood on the set where everyone is just having fun, and they realize that they have the chance to make something really erotic – and they are able to quit being self-conscious about what they’re doing and really go for it.

We shot a scene for one movie involving two girls in a Jacuzzi. They were small roles, and the girls hardly had any lines, so their main job that day was to come to the set and make love to each other. Luckily, we cast a pair of girls who were lovers in real life. I’m told that they were “married.” And these girls really went to town. It was a night shoot, at the end of a long day, and the girls had been sitting around in makeup and bathrobes for most of the afternoon, sort of chomping at the bit.

When it was finally time to do their scene, they really got into it – to the point where we couldn’t use a lot of the footage, because it was too raw! Scenes like that are fun to watch, because you see the director and the crew sort of looking at each other sideways and going, “Jesus! Can you believe this?”

The scenes are not typically written in a choreographed fashion. When I first started writing these movies I put a lot of work into choreographing the scenes – “he slides a hand down her thigh, she arches her back, he kisses her on the shoulder blade” but I quickly learned that when it came time to shooting the scene, those pages were tossed aside, and the director basically choreographed things as he or she went along.

Some companies don’t ask you to write anything more than “They then make love.” But at Indigo, writers were asked to fill three and a half pages with description, so the director knew how long the scene was supposed to be. After a while, realizing that no one was actually shooting the specifics of my sex scenes, I started writing in a very conversational, wry style, just having some fun. I’d write things like “She reaches for him like a refugee in a bread line” – just to amuse the crew.

It was a common experience for me to be on the set, and hear, suddenly, a grip or sound guy sitting in the corner somewhere and suddenly laughing, because they picked up the script and happened to start reading one of my sex scenes. I kind of got known for that. Maybe I should publish a collection sometime.

You’ve written a large volume of erotic shows and films. Do you have a favorite character(s) you’ve created? Which movie(s) are you most proud of?

I don’t think there is one particular character who is my favorite. I like to write characters who are “tricksters” – funny, slightly illicit, fun-loving schemers. I’ve written several “buddy” stories (Girl for Girl, Hollywood Sex Fantasy, Sexy Movie) in which one of the two buddies is a wisecracking opportunist, and often a very laid-back dude, as well.

In terms of female characters, I’ve written some great roles (great to me, anyway) that haven’t gotten made, yet. There isn’t one in particular among all the movies I’ve written that I’d consider my “favorite.” The movies I’m most proud of include several on which I didn’t receive credit. As a script doctor, I was often called in to take a script that had the seed of a good idea, and then totally rewrite it. I never took credit on these projects, mainly because I know what it feels like as a writer to have someone else put their name on your script, and most of these scripts were by first-time writers, and I wanted them to enjoy sole credit (even though they probably hardly recognized the finished movie!). So I won’t name those projects.

Among the ones I wrote by myself, my favorites are Girl for Girl, Hollywood Sex Fantasy, and Dangerous Invitation. Girl for Girl has a nice storyline, and has gotten very nice reviews, thanks in large part to director John Quinn.

The two lead actors had great chemistry, and they were good actors. Same with the actresses – Tracy Smith and Kelli McCarty (one of the best actresses I’ve worked with). I thought Hollywood Sex Fantasy had some good performances, and good laughs. Dangerous Invitation was a pretty tight thriller, which I thought was well-directed.

Fast Lane To Malibu and Fast Lane to Vegas were fun to work on because they were comedies and we had some laughs coming up with comic bits. There are other scripts that I was quite proud of, but ended up being revised so much that I felt my original idea had been badly diluted. But that’s part of the business, and I spill no tears over it.

You mentioned that you are often on set as the movies are being made.can you give us any glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes?

I guess there aren’t many jobs in the world where you get to meet very attractive young women, and then watch them take off their clothes. But being on the set of a softcore movie isn’t especially erotic. In fact, it normally isn’t arousing at all, believe it or not.

I hope I’m not shattering any illusions, but the truth is, at least in my own experience, everyone who works on these movies is there to do a job, and most of them, cast and crew, behave very professionally – or they would never be invited back for a second project.

You quickly get used to seeing a naked girl on the set, especially if she’s comfortable with it, and so there isn’t that kind of illicit edge to the experience, as if you were peeking through a door at someone getting undressed, or something. It’s like being at a nude beach or seeing your wife walk around naked. You get used to it. It’s still nice, but it’s not something that gets you really excited. I hope I am explaining this the right way.

There are exceptions: When two performers seem to be really hitting it off, and their “sex” scene looks very hot and very realistic, then it can be arousing to see, because you’re seeing something real, and intimate. But normally, the actresses are sitting there in bathrobes (so that they don’t have elastic marks from bras and panties) until it’s time to roll camera; then the wardrobe person steps in and takes their robes; and the director calls “action!”

Often, there is music playing to establish a mood (often very loud rock music, which is edited out of the final film), and the director sits several yards away, watching the action on a TV monitor which is hooked up to the camera. The director will give the actors directions during a love scene – often shouting it out over the music: “Debbie! Arch your back a little. Doug! Kiss your way down her neck. Kiss her breasts. Go to position four. Faster. Debbie, smile, you’re loving it . now here comes your orgasm . five, four, three, two, one – orgasm!

What is a typical writer’s day like?

There isn’t a typical day. A writer usually works at home. Or in a coffee house on the corner, or something. In fact, these days, you can write your script and e-mail it in and get notes over the phone and never even meet the people you’re working with.

But I like most of the people I work with and I enjoy having meetings face-to-face. It’s always a good excuse to have lunch somewhere and bill it to the company. But some typical experiences for a writer are to meet with the development person and other executives, receive “notes” on your latest draft of the script, like “We can’t shoot on a farm, can you change it to a house” or “I don’t think she would tell him the truth in that scene.”

Writers aren’t normally invited to the set, for a number of reasons. First, there’s no reason for the writer to be there. If the script is tight, his work is done. Second, some directors don’t enjoy having the writer looking over their shoulder. A writer who doesn’t know his place might start talking to the actors about their roles and give them different ideas than what the director wants. Third, when you have actresses doing nude scenes, it is considerate to not have anyone on the set who absolutely does not need to be there.

In my case, since I have worked with so many of the same people for so long, I am often welcomed (at least I think I am) on the set, and I am smart enough to stay in the background and not gripe when I see an actor misreading a line or a director tearing pages out of the script to get back on schedule.

It is often a very boring experience: You sit around and wait…and wait…and wait…for lighting to be fixed, for the camera to be loaded, for a set to be arranged. You eat all the free food that is always available on a film set. You joke around with the crew. You smile at the pretty girls and pretend to look away when they take their clothes off.

Have any of the performers “gone too far” or gotten carried away? Any anecdotes you could share?

As far as actors “getting carried away”, it can happen. I’ve heard actresses complain when their male co-stars get erections during a sex scene. The guys are supposed to be more professional than that. But hey, sometimes it happens.

On the other hand, I remember we were shooting a scene set in a “sex club” once, and there were about fifteen actors and actresses lying around pretending to be making out with each other. They were a pretty crazy bunch – strippers, porn actors, whatever. Not our regular cast members. Suddenly, at the end of one scene, an actress jumped up and proudly announced to the room that she had made her male partner come! This was an embarrassing moment for the more professional actors and crew members, because we are not in the sex business, we are in the movie business. She was asked to leave.

During one scene in one of my better movies, the male star was in the middle of a sex scene with an actress had done hardcore movies. Again, I hate to shatter any illusions for your readers, but when we shoot our movies, there is no real sex going on. The girls are often wearing a kind of patch between their legs and the guys are usually wearing a kind of sock over their privates. “Oral sex” scenes are faked by camera angles. But in this one scene, the actor was supposed to be going down on the actress, and, as he reported to me later, she whispered to him, “It’s okay if you really do it.” The actor had a girlfriend, so he politely declined.

I could give you more anecdotes, but I think I’ve already overstayed my welcome with this question. Suffice it to say that most of the things you might imagine would happen on a softcore shoot, do happen at one point or another. But the one thing I want to leave you with in this regard is that almost everyone I know who works in the business is very professional, very hard-working, and very respectable.

Do you have any advice for writers who might be trying to crack into the erotic movie business? Any thoughts you can share on script formats, agencies, submission guidelines, and so on?

My advice to anyone who wants to crack into ANY business has been stated earlier: Be a nice person. Be likeable. When someone with money or power is looking to hire someone, and they have several choices, my feeling is that they will go with the person whom they feel will be most pleasant to work with. If it’s a case of uncommon talent, you can get away with being an asshole, but you have to really deliver something that can’t be gotten anywhere else, and in my experience, talent like that is fairly scarce.

Speaking specifically about the erotic film business, I would say this: First, make sure you have something to offer. Just because you’ve seen a bunch of these movies, and think that you love sex, and have lots of kinky thoughts, doesn’t mean that you will be able to write a good erotic script. Believe it or not, it’s not as easy as it looks.

As a writer, it is a common experience for me to visit a set and have half the people there – from the actresses to the cameraman to the guy who keeps the coffee fresh – come up to me and say “I have an idea for one of these movies.” Everyone’s got ideas. But can you develop characters? Tell a story with a good conflict that develops and pays off in a satisfying way? Can you write good, naturalistic dialog? If you can do these things, I can almost promise you, you won’t have any trouble getting work as a writer. So, that’s number one. BE SURE YOU HAVE THE GOODS.

Number two, in terms of script formats: Each company is different. If you haven’t written for anyone yet, you can submit a treatment (3-10 page synopsis of your script idea), and, if they are even slightly interested, you can ask the development person for an example of a script they’ve produced. Often they will send you one.

Otherwise, if you just want to write a script, write it in standard screenplay format (any good screenwriting book will tell you how to do this). The production company will inevitably ask for revisions anyway, so there will be an opportunity to transform your script into the format they prefer.

Regarding agencies, I would only say that, there isn’t a great amount of money to be made by writers in the softcore field, unless you can write in quantity (as I have). Therefore, I doubt that agents would be excited about representing scripts for which their commission would only be a few hundred dollars.

I suppose there are some agents who will submit this kind of work to the right companies, I really don’t think it’s necessary to get an agent first, if you have a good script to submit. I never worked with an agent, either as a writer or as a development person, in this field. The few times a writer did ask me to go through their manager or lawyer, it was a pain in the ass, because there’s just not enough money to make it worthwhile.

An agent may try to get you more money, but he won’t succeed! There is only so much money available for a softcore erotic script, and if you aren’t willing to take it, there are plenty of others who will. That’s just the fact of the matter.

My chief piece of advice, once you think you have a script or treatment that someone will like, is to find the companies that make these kinds of movies, and send a polite, casual, hopefully humorous and attention-catching letter, asking if you can submit something. Ask for a standard release to submit along with your material. This is a legal form stating that you agree to assume that they will not steal your idea, and that you will not try to sue them if they make a movie that is similar to your treatment.

If the writing in your treatment or script is good enough, they will buy it from you, rather than stealing the idea. Bear in mind that lots of people get exactly the same idea – a serial killer is targeting strippers, for example – so production companies have to protect themselves from writers trying to claim that “I sent my idea about a sex therapist to you two years ago, and now you just released a movie about a sex therapist!”

Anyway, do some research into which production companies make these kind of movies, send them a letter that they will enjoy reading, and ask if you may submit a treatment or a script. If they don’t respond, wait a month and write again. And a third time, if you want. Sometimes your letter will land on a desk at the precise right time, when someone’s looking for a new script.

It’s common for busy development people to have a tall stack of letters that they haven’t gotten around to replying to, so sometimes, a fresh letter arriving on the right day will do the trick. Be mildly persistent, but after three letters, give up and go somewhere else. No sense in being a dick about it.

Tell us about your current projects, and where you think the softcore genre might be headed.

Currently, I am developing erotic projects for other companies, and writing some things for Playboy TV. I’m also developing TV series ideas for network TV, and completing a non-erotic (big Hollywood) script. Indigo has kept me very busy for the past few years, so I’m taking advantage of some time off to complete a lot of projects that have been on the back burner.

To answer the second part of your question: I have no idea! I think that someone, perhaps one of your readers, will discover a new approach to softcore entertainment, and end up making a bunch of money for themselves. The trend in the years that I was working for Indigo was steadily toward harder and harder stuff. Never erections or penetration, but a little more.intimate, especially with female body parts. Frankly, I always felt that what made these movies more erotic than anything was good characters and good acting.

If you care about the characters in the movie, if you identify with them as fairly realistic and empathetic people, you will become more interested, and aroused by, the sex they are having. And if the acting is good, it only contributes to the audience’s ability to lose themselves in the story, so to speak.

Bad acting will immediately take you out of the movie, reminding you that you’re just watching some bad actors pretending to have sex with each other. If you’ve gotten involved with the story, and the characters, and the actors help you believe it, my feeling is that the sex scenes will be that much more erotic. I think that’s why the “Red Shoe Diaries” series is popular. Intelligent stories and good actors.

If you don’t have that, the only other way to make your movies worthwhile is to offer a ton of hard sex and nudity, and then you start drifting toward XXX, which is another kettle of fish entirely, if you ask me, and if you will excuse the malodorous allusion.

As I said earlier, I think the industry is kind of waiting for someone to come along and re-invent the genre. So, where is the softcore genre heading? Readers, you tell me!