Isaac watched Moira's faux torture from multiple camera angles on several screens in the control room with a dark intensity in his eyes. In silence, he pondered how anyone could buy into the bullshit the first few episodes sold. They'd switched from stage blood to pig's blood in season 4 because the viewers had mentioned it looked off, not that the pig blood changed much. It was closer in texture to human blood, but in the wrong lighting, it was too transparent and watery, showing off the work of the special effects team.
No matter. They'd be switching to a more gruesome reality today.
"Take camera two," Isaac directed his technical director. "Push in on her face. Camera three, prepare to get the money shot."
The technical director chuckled, and pressed a couple of buttons on the switchboard. It was a little crass to be using porn terminology for this sort of thing, but it was the only way the majority of the crew could stomach it, so Isaac allowed the gallows humor. As long as they were on his side in one way or another, and as long as they did their jobs, they could do whatever they wanted as far as Isaac was concerned.
Isaac switched radio channels and moved the mouthpiece of his headset closer to his mouth. "Make the switch," he muttered. "I'll be out on set in a moment. And make it a good hit. The audience wants blood and I want a real scream. Deliver it."
The showrunner quickly exited the control room and walked on set just in time to see the masked torturer -- who had become a staple of the show -- walk towards Moira. The younger woman was already covered in pig blood and some carefully placed silicone makeup pieces, but this... this would be the first real act of violence on the show. This was the beginning of the end.
The masked torturer stood before Moira and spun a hammer in his hand like a tennis racket. Isaac bit his lower lip. He hated this part of the season. For all the horrible acts they would come up with and then commit over the season, Isaac had never enjoyed any of it. Physical torture was completely unnecessary, in his mind. All it did was destroy a perfectly good face -- the reason Isaac tended to step in if it ever got too bad. He couldn’t mount a fucked up face. That just wouldn’t do.