Sci-Fi & Sex in a Galaxy Ruled by Goddesses

By: Abby DivDate: June 18, 2021

In Le Sex Lab's podcast we are talking about planning, producing and casting an intergalactic sex odyssey, Valoria: Goddess of the Galaxy. In the lab to chat about his recent work is editor of Darkside Magazine and producer of the new web series, Paul Donnelly.

Abigail Div
Hello, everyone. We're going to be talking today about taking your kinks the next dimension. I'm your host, Abigail Div, founder of Le Sex Lab, an experimental Media Lab exploring sexuality. In today's interview, we'll explore the following: What makes the founder of a fetish magazine a great candidate for a new web series? Who is the Valoria: Goddess of the Galaxy, planning an intergalactic sex shoot? How do you make production come to life? And last, how much sexiness can we expect from Valoria with me to talk about his work as founder of Darkside Magazine and creator of Valoria, Goddess of the Galaxy is Paul Donnelly. Welcome, Paul.

Paul Donnelly
Hi, there, Abby. Thanks for thanks for your time. Thanks for having me on the show.

Abigail Div
Oh, well, it's my most pleasure. And welcome, of course, to the podcast. You come from a background that's particularly adapt for making a very kinky web series. You created a media company, as I noted, a magazine called Darkside Magazine. But let's talk a little bit about your background. Before we get into your most recent venture. You're a director by profession, and the cinematographer of a trade and also a kinkster. Of course, right? How did this all start?

Paul Donnelly
Well, that's quite a, that's quite a big question. But my career has always been involved in in one way or another in, in media. So I began working on various magazines and business publications, then progressed through to doing video production,which included various times, documentary production, some drama, production as well. So quite a quite a mix in the in the 2025 years or so that I've been involved in, in media. Now, when I started Darkside Magazine, obviously, that I was able to embrace my abilities in in publishing. So doing page design and putting a magazine together and getting that done and out. But it wasn't necessarily helping me with my creative abilities in terms of video production for a long time of the itching to do something creative. In terms of filmmaking, now, I've done a few little bits and pieces to tie in with Darkside Magazine in terms of doing some sort of BDSM and fetish clips and that kind of thing. And so those two have kind of worked quite well together. So the video clips that I produced help promote the the talent that's that's in it, but also helps promote the magazine as well. So that those two kind of work together quite well. But in the past few years, I've really wanted to do something a bit more than that, in terms of a series of creative films, kind of a longer, sort of a science fiction, slash BDSM kind of kind of theme so that that's kind of where we are today. That's how I came up with the idea of doing for the warrior Goddess of the Galaxy

Abigail Div
That's particularly well adapt given the nature of the web series that you are producing, which is this epically kinky name for a genre combines kink, BDSM, domination and submission as well as roleplay. In this very grandiose, epic tale of the Lauria and box a goddess and her trainee who rule the universe where men are their playthings as a university, I think I'd want to be part of personally as well. Of course, there's a little villain in this dark goddess who's trying to usurp them. As with such a grand storyline, and a nine segment series doesn't just pop out of divine inspiration, of course, how did you come up with the idea?

Paul Donnelly
Well, like I said, before, for a long time, I've been wanting to do some kind of fairly ambitious film projects with a science fiction theme. I've always been a fan of, you know, the Flash Gordon barbarella Star Wars. You know that that whole kind of kind of genre, but I'd wanted to do kind of something a little bit different and a bit more a bit edgier, I guess. So. When we had our first lockdown here in the UK last March, I just literally just sat down with a with a drawing writing pad and just started to scribble some ideas that sort of came to me. And gradually as I was jotting these ideas down this whole idea of how about a kind of a galaxy where goddesses kind of kind of rule and men are subservient to them. And that's kind of where it sort of started to kind of kind of developed. So from there, I came up with the principal character of Valoria, who is this goddess who is kind of at the top of the top of the tear if you like, and she's kind of called upon to, if you'd like to save, kind of save the galaxy, when, when things start to go awry. I started writing it very much with the the idea of Barbarella in mind. I'm sure people are familiar with Barbarella, queen of the galaxy. So hence his similarity with the titles there. And she was very famous in the 60s for the comic, the comic books, and of course, the the film starring Jane Fonda. So I had that very much in mind when I when I started writing it. But kind of bring it up to a sort of a modern day kind of contemporary kind of feel to it. But that very much kind of tongue in cheek was very much a big slice of Barbarella and Flash Gordon. And kind of thrown in there. So that's kind of really how it all came about, really, and then started to develop the idea of the script and introducing different characters and, and progressing it from there. So that's really how the the whole kind of project came about really just as a result of, of lockdown. And suddenly, just having that bit of time to start to think about ideas about what might make a good, a good film. Although I do say film, initially, I started writing it as a film, then I thought, wouldn't it be great if we just did it as a as a web series that we have, like, you know, nine 915 minute episodes that we'll we'll kind of trickle out every show every week or a couple of weeks. But each one and the other real kind of cliffhanger. So I kind of thought, actually, that that might be might be more fun than making one long movie, just just break it down and make it into a little, little serial, again, like kind of going back to the old Flash Gordon serials that they used to have in the 1930s were always kind of ended on a cliffhanger. So I thought that would be kind of fun today.

Abigail Div
Yeah, leave us at the end of our seats, if you will, at the end of each seats. But finding a cast of characters for this camp have been the easiest thing, especially in the middle of a lockdown. And certainly requires you know the right character, the right personality meets the right casting. How did you find your cast? Was it through referrals, casting calls, especially with ones with a little bit of a nuance or twist to what exactly you were expecting out of it?

Paul Donnelly
It was interesting because I first I approach that I went I went down the conventional avenues of, you know, casting websites. But given the the nature of the of the series that was fast becoming a no no, because I advertise for here's what we're doing. It's going to involve a certain amount of nudity, some simulated sex scenes, all and instantly, I kind of got shut down. Every time I tried to post something I got shut down. So dark just wasn't going anywhere. So in the end, what I did was I did various posts, through Twitter, through using sort of the Darkside Magazine connections, that kind of thing and just kind of putting the word out there. And just seeing who would, who was going to come come forward. I needed three main characters, I needed the main character of for Lauria, I needed her sidekick training goddess who is lucky in the series, and I needed someone to play the big body that the god goddess. So they were the first three that I needed to kind of find first. And if I did that failure fairly early on in the writing process, because I thought if I can't fill these three roles, then there's little point in me continuing doing the writing. So that was one of the first things I actually did. And and the response was pretty good. We auditioned everyone that came forward. And by that we did that remotely. So basically I'd send people snippets of script for them to to x out to interpret it as say, saw fit. They then send back their, the clips, and they just do it on their phone. And from there, it was kind of just a case of whittling it down to the final sort of part of the gusset and then sending them some more script and say, Hey, can you can you do? Can you just do this in a certain way. And that's kind of how it happened. And that's how we ended up with our, with our three main leads. Initially, I thought, well, we're going to be filming this in the UK. So I'm going to rule out anyone from from America, sorry, America, but I just thought the logistics of it, not going to happen. So I just focused on getting people from the UK. But as it turns out, our lead character is from the States. She said, Hey, I know you're not looking for someone from the States. But I'm so into sci fi and what you're doing, I look up for this. She did her audition, which was absolutely brilliant. And I thought, well, you know, she's willing to come over especially to shoot this for us. So hey, why not? So that's where we are. So we have an American lead, which I think is great, because that adds, it gives it a slightly more international kind of flavor as well to have someone from America and some UK actors as well. So that's kind of how we got our three principal leads. The other characters were kind of fitting in as as we go, really. So we're, we're doing some periodic casting calls and auditions as well to fill out some of the some of the other roles. And of course, we're going to need extras as well, which we'll look at further down the line. So that's kind of where we, where we are with the audition process at the moment.

Abigail Div
Yeah, it sounds like it's certainly developing. And given as you were mentioning, the tongue in cheek nature of the plotline a la Barbarella-style, which, as you say, is very intentional. You would need also a cast of characters that brings a bit of their own character into the casting as well. Right?

Paul Donnelly
Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah, we want them to be able to convey their own kind of characters, obviously, they need to fit in with the, the guidelines about who the characters are. But obviously, we want them to be, in a sense be themselves as well. You know, it's it's going to be, it's going to be fun to see how that kind of kind of plays out, especially with the character of Luxx, who's the, the trainee, who kind of finds herself with, with some this awesome kind of mission that she's got to kind of go on with the help of Valoria, she has quite a big kind of character arc. So that's going to be kind of fun. So she starts off really quiet, kind of ditzy and a bit kind of unsure of the world, I'm sure of her surroundings, and suddenly she has to become this kind of like, almost like a kind of a warrior thing as she kind of progresses. So just can't wait to see what happens with that with how what they what the actors bring to the table and see how they, they kind of develop as the show goes on.

Abigail Div
Yeah, but there's definitely a difference, as you were saying, between having the vision and the evolution. And then of course, bringing it to light. Not only is there the expenses and the resources, but of course, as you were mentioning the logistics in terms of getting everybody together in one place at one time. Add the global pandemic on top of that, and you've created this perfect storm of challenges to getting this off and running. If I may say so.

Paul Donnelly
Yeah it's not the ideal time.

Abigail Div
That's probably why the series has a trailer right now. It's just literally a teaser to the content that's coming in 2022 as of course, timelines have been pushed back because of all this current global circumstances. But let's say that you didn't have these worldly restraints or current circumstances, let's live in our own fantasy, if you will. How would you foresee the Laura being set up? Are you shooting on green stream a full set design? Are you doing location shoots?

Paul Donnelly
Okay, well, yes, the answer to that bit of everything. In the ideal world, of course, we would have entire sets built. We'd have you know, I'm a great fan of the Star Wars series, the Mandalorian, where they're making use of a 360 degree screens for locations and all that kind of thing. But obviously we don't have that kind of budget, so we're having to be quite creative. So we've got a great set designer who's going to be building the various sets or parts of offsets. So basically, we want, we don't want just don't just want to shoot on the green screen. Even though that might be the easiest thing to do, because so many times I've heard how actors need at least a little bit of an idea as to what they're working in, and what they're what they're actually seeing. So, as far as set design goes, we're going to be doing partial sets with green screen to extend the steps add extra elements as well. We're also going to be using some quite old school techniques as well, which is stuff I used to do when I was a kid, which was, you know, you'd build a partial set. And then you'd have that you'd build a sort of a model, the foreground model that goes in front of the camera, which you claim to live in the same way as you would do the second you shoot the whole thing together. So it's going to be a combination of lots of different elements plus compositing in post as well. So it's going to be a mixture of the old and the new, basically. So any, any creative ways that we can, we can get around things, we were going to we're going to be using it. Location wise, yes, we are, we are going to be doing some location shooting as well, both indoors and outdoors. So in terms of outdoor shooting, we, we have the need to find a few, a few locations that will that will kind of set the scene really for the in terms of the script of what the script requires. But also making use of existing locations, interior locations as well. And adding to those again, digitally afterwards. So a whole variety of different techniques and different technologies and skills, we've got a one part of the team is actually used to work for the for the BBC visual effects department. And his skills are very much along those lines. So he's he's bringing to the table lots of different ideas about, Well, hey, this is what we want to achieve. This is what we want this particular scene to look like and this is how we can do it. So although we don't have the the massive budget that we'd love to have, we do have, I don't think we have we do have the skills and the know how to kind of do it. We've we've broken some of the the major set pieces, for example, for Valoria's starship, we've we've done some concept art for that, what that might kind of look like and, and how we can, how we can actually make that look, you know, bring that into a reality without without it costing years. So I'm pretty confident that with the with the various techniques available to us that we can what's in my mind what's on the screen, I'm confident that we can actually bring that to the screen without having to have a massive budget because I think creativity goes a long way. You know, you don't necessarily have to have a huge budget to make these things happen with today's technology.

Abigail Div
Yeah, it sounds like there's a combination of DIY, talented friends and family, a few tricks of the trade in production and post production that are all coming into play to making your vision into a creative reality. And it's not about big budgets. It's a lot of you know, making making things work, if you will. And as I've seen from your Indiegogo campaign, this is very much a bootstrap project for you. And you recently are just launching a Patreon page to help also to self-fundraise. Have you ever done any of this before?

Paul Donnelly
No, to be honest, this is all completely completely new to me. Never having done any kind of fundraising before. So it's a learning curve. Yeah, it's it's the learning curve. And I find that the the the fundraising is probably the hardest part of it, because in a sense, that's that's kind of the foundation and that determines exactly what we can do and when we can when we can do it. Because although I believe we could, we could do it on almost a zero budget there are certain things that we do need finances for particularly in terms of trying to find some studio space, or some kind of some kind of space, even if it's, you know, even if it's a barn or something, we still need kind of electricity, that kind of thing you need food for, for people, because you've got to feed your cast and your crew of three main leads are going to be are going to be paid, because they're getting up full time work for a couple of months, in order to shoot the series, so it's only fair that they are, that they're paid for what they do. And all sorts of other things that I probably haven't even thought of, you know, other cast members, perhaps there's travel, there's probably going to be accommodation or this there's a whole myriad of different things that that, that do need some kind of finance. So that's why we've done the Indiegogo campaign, which when went okay, but we feel that the Patreon is probably a better fit for us because there's no time limit on it. So, so hopefully, we can keep drawing in the funds right up until the moment that we that we start shooting and then then even after we started shooting, hopefully we can keep getting funds to pay for additional additional things. For example, visual effects, we can do a lot of it kind of in house there are there are certain elements that only an outsider can do. So we are talking with one or two visual effects companies about doing some of the some of the effects. But of course, again that that that kind of cost money. So yeah, it is a learning curve raising funds. I don't expect it to be easy. But we'll we'll just kind of see how, how that pans out in the coming in the coming months.

Abigail Div
Yeah, it sounds like the the flexing and expanding and the the adjusting, of course, given current circumstances makes it have to be so much more flexible to change and adapting to that, of course, so you wouldn't have to otherwise have not to mention that this is very different in terms of the the nature of the project. From more mainstream work. Well, it wouldn't be a lab podcast, if we didn't talk about sex. The trailer that you have up on YouTube appropriately doesn't show any of I say the good bits. Maybe it maybe it skirts the line of what is safe for work, but it's like pretty tame in the spectrum of sex and sexiness. Keeping that in light has its benefits, of course as well as its takeaways, but how much sexiness can we actually expect to see in Valoria?

Paul Donnelly
Short answer, probably quite a bit given the kind of given given the the nature of the show, which is essentially a galaxy ruled by, by by goddesses who, who really, I guess kind of take men in and use them for whatever so whether that's just as a mountain mount, slave or assignable, or sex slave, all those kinds of things really kind of are in the story. But right from the right from the word go, we've got some, we've got some nudity in it. We've got some, you know, floor Valoria and Luxx in particular, or always kind of getting themselves into some kind of sexy scrapes. And quite often that involves, you know, some kind of some kind of sexy sex scenario, I guess you could say, to kind of help those kinds of story to go along. So yeah, it's difficult to say without giving too much away, but in short, there is a lot of nudity. There's quite a bit of sex in it. There's lots of kind of almost like weird sex as well if you like given the given the fact that they're going to be colored like aliens in this and different species. I can't say too much. But what I will say is that we it was in writing this it was kind of thinking well, how far do you kind of go with that kind of thing? Do you kind of like do you kind of like go, like hardcore on this? Or do you kind of dial it back a little bit? Is the sex in there for its own just for its own sake or does actually help the the story move kind of forward so that those were the kinds of things I was kind of thinking of, quite early on. So what we've kind of aimed for is if for people that are familiar with like, kind of Game of Thrones, that they had sex scenes in there, and nudity and all that kind of stuff in there. But none of it was like, really, really gratuitous. None of it was hard core. And that's kind of what we're kind of

Abigail Div
A sprinkling of sex as opposed to

Paul Donnelly
Yeah, yeah.

Abigail Div
A dedicated cake.

Paul Donnelly
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So sprinkling is probably quite a good way to describe it. And also, in terms of Valoria and Luxx. They're in it almost almost every episode. So you know, do you have them? Get their clothes off right at the beginning? Or do you do tantalize your audience a little bit? You know, do you just show glimpses, and then, you know, go from there. And again, I don't want to I don't want to give too, too, too, too much away. But we like to think that we want to, we want to kind of keep the audience kind of hooked in there. So you know, they want to, they want maybe they want to see more in the next episode. And they might well do it in terms of the sex teams that are in there. They are just there just for, you know, just just for a bit of, just to tantalize your audience. So the, the, I think every scene that we've got in there generally helps to move the story along. So there is a point to it, rather than just, you know, just include, oh, let's just throw in a sec scene here. It'll be fun. We've not kind of done that. We just stopped. we've put in, we've put in some very sexy things to kind of move the story along. If Luxx, for example, has to, you know, have sex with someone because it helps her and Valoria on their mission, then that's that's kind of what they'll do.

Abigail Div
That's what I like to hear sex with a purpose.

Paul Donnelly
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Abigail Div
Multivariate purpose. But speaking to which lead, there is a lot of as you were saying, of Luxx and Valoria together, and how much of that dynamic are you playing up in the storyline?

Paul Donnelly
Okay, again, it's one of those things about, you know, gosh, how much do we say? But what I will say is from from the outset, when for Valoria meet Luxx, there is a definite chemistry there, there is something, something there between them, you can as it's called, or written in the script, there is flirtive kind of glances theories floating around. Words said between them. So you know, there is something there. As to will they will they actually get it get it on? I'm not gonna I'm not I'm not going to say, I'm not going to say but you'll, you'll, you'll you'll find out in due course.

Abigail Div
But there's an ultimate teasers

Paul Donnelly
there's a different definite chemistry, chemistry there.

Abigail Div
Well, speaking of chemistry, and you're mentioning nudity, and sex and all these great words that are verboten on most social platforms, what platforms are you planning to put this on?

Paul Donnelly
It won't go on YouTube. Because for a start, so that that that rolls out went out, but we are initially planning on putting it on the, on the Darkside Magazine website for free. We'll see what other platforms are around. By the time we finished putting this together, because new platforms are coming out all the time, which are more specifically geared towards an adult audience. So we'll wait and see what platforms are around then and then we'll we'll kind of make a decision but it will be available for free for people to be to watch.

Abigail Div
But in speaking of platforms, which also speaks to audiences, who is the audience for this? How deep into the lifestyle of BDSM and kink do you intend to go with the series and how late or vice versa? How light do you intend to keep it?

Paul Donnelly
I think really, I would say if you if you're into Star Wars, Flash Gordon and Barbarella that's for you. If you're equally into fetish BDSM you know, if you're into the kink lifestyle to some degree doesn't have to be deeply into it, if you perhaps maybe you're just slightly fascinated by it, then it is for you as well. If you like all those things, combined them, that's, that's kind of even even better. When writing it I kind of had those those things in mind about, you know, what kind of audiences is, is going to like this. So I very much wrote it playing to people that like Star Wars and Barbarella, hence, there is quite a lot of action and drama in it as well. But also, again, with we're doing like the sex scenes, the domination scenes, and the various kind of, you know, the sexual stuff over again, I had very much in mind, people that are into fetish and BDSM. But also, you know, just just just people that just like their science fiction with a with a good smattering of, you know, adult content as well. So, it's, it's very much it's hopefully, it's got a broad appeal. And of course, if you if you just like looking at hot women, and hot guys, we hope to get some hot guys in there too, then, you know, it's it's a no brainer, really something something highly entertaining to watch on lots of different levels.

Abigail Div
Yeah, it sounds like the a there's definitely an adult audience aspect for everyone, if you will, in what you're trying to present as cinema meets with narrative needs with kink and sex and BDSM. So there's, again, like that sprinkling on the cake, and they you can get a taste of everything in one bite. And not one solid flavor.

Paul Donnelly
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And we try to make each each although each episode carries a story along, you know, some one episode is going to have more action and another another is going to have more you know, sex in it than another another is going to feature more on fetish of BDSM than another so we kind of we don't want each episode to be a kind of like carbon copy of the of the last one in that. You know, we had, you know, we don't we don't want to have the same ingredients if you like in each in each episode. We want to keep the the the audience engaged in an interested in and keen to find out what happens at the end of one, one show and going into another but but the idea really is to really just keep, not only to keep the story interesting, but to keep the audience interested and engaged in it. enough to want to find out what happens at the very end.

Abigail Div
Ooh, that is the ultimate teaser. And thank you Paul for joining me today to talk about Valoria Goddess of the Galaxy.

Paul Donnelly
You're welcome. Thank you for your time. It's been a been a pleasure to speak to you.

Abigail Div
Wonderful, if you like what you hear. Join me again next time for another feature on Le Sex Lab.