Secret of Joe Lonie's success

By CATHRIN SCHAER

The American porn star arrives on the Mt Eden film set close to midnight. Blonde and measuring 34-24-34, Shayla LaVeaux is perky, pert and pretty. At a tiny 1.55m (5ft 1in) the star of more than 100 adult movies - such as Midnight Librarians, Hell on Heels, Ooze and Floss - is a lot smaller than her lascivious on-screen personality would lead you to expect.

Smiling, chatting and shaking hands, LaVeaux, dressed in trackpants, a sweatshirt and running shoes, immediately puts everyone at ease. After all, the 30-something Hollywood resident is a pro; she's one of the biggest names in the industry, has been making adult movies for more than 10 years.

If she wasn't a porn star, LaVeaux tells two interested 20-something Auckland lads toting camera gear, without the slightest trace of irony, "I'd be a child psychologist or maybe a nurse. Or something helping people. And making people happy."

And tonight, at the closed Crystal Palace cinema in Mt Eden, she'll be doing exactly that. To be more exact, she will be making mild-mannered, award-winning local director Joe Lonie extremely happy. And no, it's not what you think. LaVeaux won't be taking any of her clothes off for his cameras.

Wearing blue velvet and an outrageously sparkly diamante collar, she's playing a starring role in Lonie's latest music video.

"Yeah, she was pretty much what I expected," says Lonie after the shoot. "I did quite a bit of research on porn stars beforehand. Shayla was great. She was a machine. We needed her only for about 45 minutes. In fact, lunch took longer than her."

As Lonie goes on to explain, for the story behind this song, an imported porn star was just right. The video is for local band Dead End Beat (risen from the ashes of Wellington rock band Breathe) and their second single, All My Riches.

"The story [behind the music] takes a lot of its cues from the song," Lonie says. "The song's got a good sleazy feel to it. I've been wanting do something a little more risque for some time."

The video follows the misadventures of a rich old man married to a beautiful but scheming porn star. The old man goes to watch one of her films but gets more action than he bargained for, locked in the cinema.

The final product, after a shoot running for an exhausting 24 hours, ends up something of a short film, a dark and dirty thriller in three-and-a-bit minutes.

Like most of Lonie's music videos, it looks like it took a lot longer to film and cost more than it did. It's also pretty different from the music videos Lonie has become better known for.

Last year he won Best Video at the New Zealand Music Awards for the clip he made for local band goodshirt's number one single, Sophie. Lonie has made the trademark videos for all of goodshirt's singles, as well as clips for King Kapisi, the feelers, Bic Runga and Shihad. And the unassuming Aucklander has won prizes for more than a few - Best Video four times as well as winning or getting an honourable mention in a multitude of other competitions.

The Dead End Beat shoot featuring LaVeaux was Lonie's 39th music video.

He's been making clips since 1993 - his first was for his own band, Supergroove. He was the bass player in one of the country's most popular pop groups.

"I was the quiet one with the long hair." He was also one of the group's primary songwriters. Lonie had been encouraged into music by his father, a professional musician who used to play in 80s art-rock group Stuffed Husbands, and who still makes a living as folk musician.

At the same time Lonie was a self-confessed movie freak inspired by Star Wars and Jaws, and had done a course in 8mm film-making at school. "And it was duly noted by the guys in the band that I had done this course," Lonie recalls. "So when I put my ideas forward they were very supportive, which I really valued because," he smiles, "I'm not the kind of person that would say, 'Hey guys, I'm going to make all our videos'." Lonie made Supergroove's first clip, You Gotta Know, at age 18. By their third video he was winning prizes, getting his first Best Video award for Can't Get Enough.

For a while it looked as if Lonie might be beginning a profitable career in film. He was hired to make minor commercials.

"But then the band really blew up," he says. "When we [Supergroove] released our album and it went straight to number one for a month, the band completely took over our lives. No one had time to do anything else really."

In late 1996, Supergroove came to an abrupt end. "I think that was because we started the band so young, so when we grew up we suddenly discovered we were all quite different people", says the 29-year-old. "Different to each other and possibly different to what we expected to be."

Bic Runga and the feelers were first to seek out his directing services. And since 1997, Lonie has earned a living making music clips.

He has also continued to make music. "I don't think I will ever be in a band again. But I have written about three albums worth of material. I guess I'd describe it as pretty mellow, mainly un-funky, vaguely sad and not particularly commercial. And I wouldn't be surprised if I end up having to press the CDs myself. Then I might just give them away to people."

Now he's putting out feelers for jobs off-shore.

The secret of Lonie's video-making success? It has to do with the fact he's a musician, too.

"It helps because you understand the structure of a song," he explains. And both Lonie and his regular collaborator, cinematographer Duncan Cole, are both deadly serious about the medium.

"You go round to his house and, if music TV is on, you can hardly talk to him," Lonie laughs. "I'm not cynical about music videos at all. Neither of us are. Some people use them to practise directing or as a stepping stone to something better. But I don't think of them like that. I see them as not so much short films, but little complete pieces of entertainment."

His clips use clever narrative, beautiful pictures and an offbeat sense of humour. These days Lonie turns down simple videos that involve shooting the band standing against a wall.

"A lot of music videos are full of stuff that looks cool but is meaningless. To me it's only worth doing a video that's original and shows me something different."