On Spit, Blood, And Lenses

What do Gonzo Porn and Saving Private Ryan have in common?

Hint: It's a kind of abuse.

I was watching a Katie St. Ives scene the other night when a curious, but now-familiar thing happened. As she was giving dude head, the camera goes underneath her mouth and his junk and points up at them.

An already sloppy blowjob then becomes downright slobbery. Her saliva dribbles and hits the lens. The next few minutes is filmed through the refraction of her spit.

A Pavlovian response: I go wild.

Afterwards, I reflect. Spitting up the camera is a relatively new phenomenon. Unheard of before the advent of gonzo. More than likely, discovered serendipitously. An adventurous camera hitting up an obscure angle, perhaps trying to finally employ the Dutch Tilt he learned at Tisch. A porn starlet, maybe with a sloppy top style, maybe suffering a tired jaw after 30 minutes of blowing a dude, dribbles downward. A connection is made. Epiphany? Too lazy to edit it out? A desire to keep it authentic? Whatever the reason for its first appearance, it appears that it is here to stay.

I reflect further. Is there a mainstream counterpart?

Yes there is. It even has a name: Camera abuse.

Finally: Something I love, when a woman intentionally spits on the camera, my heart skips a beat.