“WHAT THE F@CK?” Moments While Making Scott Master’s LIFEGUARD ON DUTY

By Josh Eliot 

In 1990, Scott Masters was finally ready to put Matt Powers in front of the cameras again for his next big star vehicle movie. There was a lot of hype, mostly from Scott Masters, about “Jimmie’s return.” Jim was Matt’s real first name. We were under no illusion that things would run smoothly on this project, because when Scott Masters was in the director’s chair, things were always twice as hard. Lest you forget my previous blog, “We Waited 8hrs for a Cum Shot. Is That a World’s Record?” Scott Masters and Matt Powers were in a dysfunctional relationship and the crew saw first-hand how bad things could get between them. I should preface this by saying the GM at Catalina basically forced Matt Powers to make this movie or else his days of being financed by the company would end. He was probably the most expensive exclusive the company ever had, because his expenses were covered all the time he was “not shooting movies.” The crew and I thought of him as Scott Master’s concubine. It wasn’t like Matt was a pain in the ass or anything, he was actually a really cool guy. The real problem was that Masters treated Matt like a child, micromanaging all his behaviors and even forcing him to wear identical shirts when they would go to porn industry functions. Scott was obsessed with him and didn’t want to share him with anyone and was actually very uncomfortable when Matt was sucking dick or fucking a hot ass in front of him. It made us uncomfortable to shoot the scenes, seeing Masters discombobulated, and he always had to go up to him and be affectionate after each take.

Okay, so the story is set up, and we are now ready to start this big, honking overpriced project. A lifeguard chair and fake backdrop was rented for the box cover (which is beautiful, by the way) and was photographed in an L.A. studio. Then we took off up the California Coast to Morro Bay and Pismo Beach. Things started off smoothly, the drive was nice, lunch in Morro Bay was civilized and then we arrived at the beach house rental.

I was actually very impressed that Scott Masters had the budget to get us a beach house right on the sand! Not that you ever see that in the finished movie. Albeit small and not very nicely furnished, it was an actual beach house on the beach. I didn’t even care that photographer Jeff Burton and I had to share a room that happened to be the laundry room with two twin mattresses on the floor. Upon arrival, we immediately set up to shoot a sex scene between Matt Powers and Ted Cox in possibly the ugliest room in the house. I might have shot it on the beach, since it was so desolate, but totally the director choice. Not really a “What the fuck?” moment.

The oral went okay, then we started with the fucking and Matt was having hard-on problems. By this time, we were all tired from the drive up from L.A. and we wished this scene had been scheduled after a good night’s sleep. After getting nowhere with the fucking, Matt Powers told Scott Masters that he needed something to eat, the hunger was keeping him from getting hard. I’m not sure why, but our producer/director hadn’t accounted for the fact that we needed food on the set. I assumed his vehicle was filled with groceries like we always pack before heading out. Well, it wasn’t. I suggested that we keep shooting and have some pizza delivered. Masters bit my head off, yelling back: “Jimmie’s Hungry! He’s on a special diet, he can’t eat pizza!” He decided that he and Matt Powers would make a shopping list and Jeff, the make-up man, and I would go to the nearest supermarket. So typical. I think Scott Masters somehow always got off on delaying shoots and dragging things out. This was my first real “What the fuck?” moment on this movie. Luckily, good ol' Jeff had a bag a weed with him. We both walked out onto the beach and got stoned while they made their shopping list. Once we finished the joint, we looked around and said why the fuck are we shooting in that tiny ugly room when we have this secluded beach all to ourselves, without another soul in sight?

The scene finally resumed after we shopped, ate and smoked more weed without Masters finding out. Matt Powers did realize we were sneaking out and getting stoned, and he followed us. All it took was a few hits of our joint to get “Jimmie” in the mood, and we finished the scene around 1 am. We were beat and finally got to go to bed in our laundry room/bed room. It was fine as long as we could get some sleep, but don’t you know it around 6 am Scott Masters just had to come into our room, tip toeing, and started loading and running the cum towels into washing machine. I couldn’t believe it, I mean, “What the fuck?” The only time I was more pissed was when he came back and woke us up again by moving everything from the washer to the dryer and starting it up.

The next location was for shooting some B-roll at a marina, where he had Matt Powers jumping on and off a boat, in and out of the water, take after take. In the movie, he was boarding the boat to find smuggled drugs. Jeff leaned into my ear and whispered, “You know, they say that the most polluted water is within the marina, because of the all the boat fuels.” I thought, “Eww, what the fuck!” It actually made me think of another “What the fuck?” moment on a Chi Chi LaRue movie we shot in Palm Springs. Chi Chi had the model, in a public jacuzzi, obviously filled with “jizz,” open his mouth underwater, get a mouthful, then spit the water on his co-star’s ass. Over and over again! Jeff was with me on that shoot, as well, and we were both gagging.

Finally, the big fight scene on a secluded cove. Scott Masters told me that we were going to load our equipment in this rubber motorboat, the boat owner would take it over to the cove and we would meet him there. I didn’t want to load the video equipment onto the boat, and we got into an argument. He kept saying the path to the cove was too steep to carry the equipment down, but I held firm. It was grueling carrying everything down the cliff, but all the models helped and we finally made it, generator and all. We started setting up the lighting and cameras, when we saw the motorboat arriving with its headlights on. Suddenly and without warning, when it got close to the shore it flipped over. That would have been a disaster if all our equipment was on that capsized boat. What the fuck!

It took a layer of flesh to finish this movie, which ended up being Matt Powers' last with Catalina. They fought constantly throughout, as expected, and it really didn’t deliver the punch it should have at the “box office.” The supporting cast was just downright weird; for example, a young long haired blond, looking around 18, played the head of a cartel. Just weird shit-casting. But the strangest thing didn’t happen on the set - it was on the drive home. Just as we were leaving Pismo Beach and about to get on the exit to the freeway, we saw a hitchhiker. He was bearded, disheveled, psychotic looking and his outstretched arm, to “hitch” for a ride, had a hook on the end of it where a hand normally is. I mean, “Seriously, What The Fuck!” He had about as much chance of scoring a “ride” as Lifeguard On Duty had of being a smooth, successful shoot.

Last Monday night, I met up with Jeff Burton to celebrate his 61st birthday and the release of his new Louis Vuitton Fashion Eye book entitled Las Vegas Jeff Burton. All photos by Jeff. Most of the original Catalina Crew will be there, including Brad Austin, Tony Fontana and Peter Romero. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that one of them was going to say “Jimmie’s Hungry” at that restaurant table! Jeff did, and we all laughed our asses off. It was a thrill reuniting with them again, non-stop banter.

Bio of Josh Eliot:

At the age of 25 in 1987, Josh Eliot was hired by Catalina Video by John Travis (Brentwood Video) and Scott Masters (Nova Video). Travis trained Eliot on his style of videography and mentored him on the art of directing. Josh directed his first movie, Runaways, in 1987. By 2009 when Josh parted ways with Catalina Video, he'd produced and directed hundreds of features and won numerous awards for Best Screenplay, Videography, Editing, and Directing. He was entered into the GayVN Hall of fame in 2002.