"Swingers"

Most filmmakers can't truthfully say they shot many scenes in their films while totally naked. But Dave Schisgall, director of The Lifestyle: Swinging in America, can tack that one on his resume.

When filming the swingers' party scenes, where the bulk of sexual activity took place, Schisgall decided to forego his own clothes in order to blend more into the atmosphere and make his subjects less aware of his presence.

"We did it to make them feel at home, Schisgall says, who also attended many swingers' parties for months before commencing the filming. "I actually found it very liberating. When you get naked with a bunch of people, your body is OK."

Filming Lifestyle, which was a labor of love nearly a decade in the making, took two years and a vast opening of the mind.

"It was a trip," Schisgall says. "The first time I saw people having sex, I couldn't have shot it. [But] after a while, it becomes just something people are doing."

He explains how, after months of hanging out with swingers and attending parties, the group participants became accustomed to Schisgall. They went about their sexual behaviors while talking to others about football games.

"It's a normal form of behavior for them," says Schisgall. "[Filming this] was an education and an experience."

When Schisgall was in college, he ran across a swinger magazine, or "people catalog," with couples advertising for other couples. This intrigued the young Schisgall, who admits he's always been interested in things "on the fringe." So years later, after working on various documentaries (such as Mr. Death) and with ABC News, Schisgall found himself with an opportunity to look further into this mysterious swinger lifestyle which is more prevalent than most believe.

As he first began filming Lifestyle, Schisgall says he tried vehemently to discover the "dark side" of swingers. He even spent countless hours trying to excavate some hidden proof that HIV runs rampant in swinger groups.

But none of that panned out, he says.

"I wasn't going to find [any of] that," Schisgall says. "The main reason I did this film was to get to the truth about swinging. I hope it normalizes swinging in society."