- - - B-I-G-m-i-k-e, over & out! - - -

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Seriously, who has the time or cash to enjoy the constant flow of hardcore goodness that flows out of the valley each month. Not me, that's for sure.

People who enjoy porno today have no idea how good they have it, even compared to just 5 years ago.

Aside from that, I think 2003 is the year of free agent directors.

Who follows companies anymore.

It's all about the directors, and the fan base they establish by creating their own shooting style.

CC

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BTW - A future installment is coming, solely on the topic of directors.

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DenverDon

Edited by - DenverDon on 1/15/2004 12:30:24 PM

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Maybe people just like celebrities, and vivid serves up the best mockery of hollywood celebs? In other words, if other companies just started doing that same song and dance, but without compromising their product......

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I saw a few stills from Axel Braun's "Cadillac Highway" and it looks very high profile and classy, the way you like it, abc.

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Anabolic? Who knows? BUt I may be one of the few here who actually enjoyed some of the weirdness of their more recent titles. There was some dissing of the company done by some of the folks I talked to on the floor. I'd say they have some lost ground to make up, but it looks like they have some exciting stuff in the pipeline.

I'm rooting for PXP, but I'd say the studios to watch in '04 are Sineplex and Evolution.

I still have to check out more from DVSX. But after meeting Constance and Sun at the ADT party, I can say I'm very inclined to do just that
I think they have a really cool corporate image, very friendly and not so intense and hyper-masculine.

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With regard to studios... _I_ still follow studios. Yes, the directors are equally important, but shooting style isn't the end all--be all of a DVD. Part of what makes Evil Angel so blindingly appealing is that I can ALWAYS count on excellent production values. Every time. That's just not the case with other studios.

Although I agree with Ayb about the hit or miss aspects of Platinum X, it's not for the same reasons. The DVD quality of their releases has been intermitten at best. On the other hand, I like the harder edge of porn, unlike Ayb--and it is only rarely the case when the most beautiful of girls are also able to turn in truly dazzling sexual performances. I position myself slightly more on the teeter-totter fulcrum--balancing the model-esque beautiful on one end with the magic of chemistry on the other, and waiting for that rare occasion when I get both at once. The thing is, because of simply who I am, I find women like Julie Night, Ashley Blue, Lauren Phoenix, and Christie FAR more beautiful than the Jenna Jamesons, Anita Blondes, and Nikki Andersons of the world.

That said, my number one studio is easily Evil Angel--no taking it for granted for me. They do their own thing--they seem to operate outside of this "latest craze chasing" that many of the other newer studios are relying on, and between their fabulously dynamic group of directors, they produce all varieties of porn in the gonzo spectrum--Joey Silvera obviously being my number on choice.

Anal Trainer is definitely on my list to take a gander at, but I'd also like to point out the work that Digital Sin has done with the Shane's World "reality porn" this year. Some very interesting and exciting stuff--with a lot of potential.

That's enough for now. :)

Mike L.

Edited by - MLyons on 1/15/2004 1:15:05 PM

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Porno for tourist....

Brilliant

CC

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I have said it elsewhere around here several times but again we must bow and acknowledge the accomplishments of John Stagliano and Evil Angel. I wholeheartedly agree that they were again #1 this year. It just seemed to go slightly un-noticed though, perhaps because everyone expected them to keep it up and they did.

However, porn in 2003 for me was the year that I realized that the industry is still highly troubled. There are still way too many compilations being made and boxes still intentionally mislead customers and whole entire scenes or anal segments are still accidentally edited out of tapes before they ship to stores, etc., etc., etc. It was the year that I realized that I think some people who work in the industry probably do not share the love for it that so many of us around here do. For instance, in a recent New Machines comp. release they have a picture of Rebecca Lord getting it from Vince Vouyer on the back of the box. That would be fine if the tape were not "Taylor St. Claire Exposed" meaning Ms. Lord and Vouyer are not even in the tape. It's little careless things such as this that still happen and it still surprises me. I just look at half-hearted efforts like that and think, "This is 2004. I thought porn would have this fixed by now."

Such is the way.

Kudos on the great post by the way. I did not agree with everything you had to say, partially because I would not give DVSX as much credit as you, but most of my disagreements were little.

Kelly

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I agree. The biggest mover of the year was RLD, plowing to the front of the pack with tons of releases and an infusion of great talent. Evil Angel still leads, but RLD's gains are truly impressive.

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John works very hard to keep Evil Angel a solid company both business-wise and sex-wise. Knowing that people acknowledge that is a very coolt thing.

That being said, there may be an interesting move happening in the next couple of months by EA. And from reading your 'pornspective' it seems like at least someone out there would like it.

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see ya

Edited by - bono-ONE on 1/15/2004 3:38:13 PM

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I GUARANTEE Evolution won't be overlooked in any way, shape or form in 2004! We've got some amazing things in store, I'm very excited!

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On the Evolution Erotica front:

I honestly haven't seen much of their product yet but the one I did see was "Teen Meat #1" from Timothy Tyler Thomas and I wrote a very in-depth review of it that is surely in the archives of this forum. I was quite blown away by it, with great scenes from the big 3 of Amber Rain, Haley, and Holly Day. I am waiting on a cast like that again in the new installments, with girls like Jennifer Luv, Aspen Stevens, or Katin being three suggestins. However, Tom Byron did direct the best gonzo tape I ever saw "Whack Attack #9" so I am kind of expecting Evolution to be one of those companies in 2004 that just blows up. Time will tell.

Kelly

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1. Directors changing studios.
2. Increase in number of premium titles released.
3. Increase in number of IR titles.
4. Increase in number of cum eating titles.
5. ADT (fan feedback) becomes a major industry influence.

Number five is the one that really leaps out at me. How many movies released this year, were influenced by forum post here at ADT.

When it gets to the point where specific types of scenes or specific performers appear in a movie, simply because
of being requested here on the board, we just have to step back and count ourselves lucky that the industry is so fan oriented.

There's no law forcing directors, owners, and performers to read and/or post here.

They do it out of their own dime and time.

It really is amazing.

CC

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;) (I am SO joking with you ayb!!!)

Selena Silver

FANS:
Selena Silver Yahoo Group
PRODUCERS/DIRECTORS:
Selena Silver Booking Info
SELENA SILVER ADT "PICK OF THE WEEK"
ADT Pick of the Week

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DenverDon

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For the kind words, it really means alot to me. And, I am glad to be put with like of such fine directors you mentioned. Your comments have be wonderful.

Thanks,
Jonni

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SNP.

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Great post, btw, aybesea. I don't think it comes as any surprise that you echo a lot of other posters sentiments where it concerns the year 2003 and the adult entertainment industry including my own. I like PXP more than you apparently, but I won't hold that against you.

Also, I told you my new avatar would r hex x0r your b hex x0rz.

Edited by - Crucifixio_Jones on 1/15/2004 11:55:57 PM

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There is great porn being made by European studios, in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy...

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Excuse me? We're creating titles that span the gamut of the gonzo world? That's our goal. RLD has a series called "One on One". Talk about splitting hairs. One girl and one guy used to be called "Porn". Apparently now it's a sub-genre, a fetish of some kind. I'm not bagging on Red Light at all. I'm simply pointing out that they also "run the gamut of the gonzo world" Most gonzo companies are running the gamut of the Gonzo world. That's why we're in business.

As far as Zero Tolerance avoiding "premature bankruptcy", your statement implies that there will be a timely occasion for us to declare bankruptcy. News Flash: We're doing quite well. Bankruptcy is pretty far down the list of concerns of the company at this time.

Quaze

P.S. Please ignore the bitterness of my reply. It's only temporary, I assure you :)

Edited by - Mike Quasar on 1/16/2004 2:59:39 AM

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It's cool to be able to find movies that have what you want in them, but when it becomes difficult to find a movie that's just about having some good old-fashionised sex and not about quantitative setups and statistics, I have to wonder if people are forgetting that it used to be about just having fun while fucking. Just my opinion.

I mean, I love Weapons of Ass Destruction and Anal Trainer and Euro Hardball as much as most men, and probably more than some men, but sometimes I just want to see something a little less specific.
Variety is the spice of life.

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Niche and Mainstream porn are the future, with not much else in between.

Or I could just be completely full of shit....

CC

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Fact is that it is extremely difficult to procure current Europorn here in America. Between the NTSC/PAL issues and the prohibitive costs involved in ordering, about the only Europorn that is readily available here in the States is Private and the Wicked releases of the Dorcel stuff. I addressed Private in the article. And Wicked only released a paltry sampling of Dorcel titles this year.

Too bad really, cause I definitely love beautiful porn.

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Let me start with the bankruptcy comment. It isn't rooted in some dark prediction or anything dramatic. It is really just a matter of economics. In 2003, the number of Gonzo companies increased dramatically. The number of Gonzo discs that hit the market was huge compared to 2002. All of this represents a massive increase in supply to the gonzo consumer. Conversely, while the demand from consumers may have increased, the difference from 2002 wasn't nearly large enough to absorb the new supply levels that were offered up.

How do I figure this? Simple... the addition of RLD alone, with its huge number of titles allows me to easily gauge the supply (besides, as you know I maintain the release thread and can see how many new titles/studios are around). But the number of posts here at ADT, the number of fans at AEE, etc. don't point out nearly as dramatic a rise in consumer levels.

So what does all of this mean? Economics tells us that one of two things will happen (or a combination of the two).

1) If consumers see all gonzo product as being created equal, they will simply buy the cheapest thing out there. This is the Leisure Time mentality. I personally don't subscribe to this line of thinking, but there are those who do. In any case, a small upstart studio is not in a good position to win this battle. Besides, your product is far too high quality to succeed in this kind of marketing.

2) If consumers see differentiation in the gonzo products, they will purchase the titles that represent the greatest perceived value for them. This is exactly what I believe is happening, and this is where my other thought comes into play.

Two years ago, simply putting gonzo on DVD was enough to guarantee that it would sell. There was so little stuff out there that you were assured of selling DVDs.

One year ago, it was enough to make sure that there were at least a couple of good scenes on DVD. As long as guys could get off from the DVD, life was good.

But not any more. With the increase in competition, consumers now demand consistently high levels of not only good scenes, but scenes that tickle their fancy. The huge proliferation in niche titles (anal only, dp only, internal only, etc) tells you that there are markets for these kinds of gonzo, and that they are being served. Success of these series tells you that they sell. And the selling of these series tells you that consumers want to be able to specify their desired kink at the time of purchase. Not only that, but since there are many studios making each of these micro lines, consumers will only purchase those that represent the best of breed (at least if prices are comparable).

So, my comments regarding ZT were meant to reflect this. I respect your company and truly enjoyed talking with you at the show. I wish you nothing but success. I simply observed that you have not yet established a lineup of series with a strong affinity to various niches in the market, and that I hoped you would do so soon in order to be competitive in a very heavily supplied market. If I hadn't genuinely respected ZT, I would not have even mentioned them in the article.

You may or may not agree with me on my assessment. That's cool by me. But hopefully you can see that I wasn't attacking you or your company. I'm genuinely sorry if you perceived it that way. But I still think that my assessment holds merit and bears scrutiny.

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Quaze

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Quaze

Edited by - Mike Quasar on 1/16/2004 9:41:11 AM

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SNP.

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That's fine by me if RLD does this, but for every other studio to follow suit would be a disaster. There are only so many niches out there, unless they really start splitting hairs for sub-niches like offering interracial double penetrations with new talent, where you have guarenteed female squirting in every scene, but no tattoos or breast implants allowed.

My other pet concern is the catering to fan requests, which on the surface seems like a good idea. But, do studios realize that only a couple hundred to a thousand people log on to this message board everyday (usually there are 50-90 reading at any one time). That's only a small percentage of the total number of porn viewers out there. Having the studios/directors focusing on such a small slice of the porn viewing public sounds way too narrow.

Sir Noel mentioned about Vivid/ Wicked et al, and them not caring too much about ADT. I would think they get most of their customers from either cable/hotel viewers, and also from the Adam and Eve catalogs that are sent out to thousands of households across the US. I know I've gotten these without asking, but once you're on their mailing list, you're on for a long time, and nearly all that they sell are compilation and feature films, not too much in the way of gonzo. Why cater to ADT'ers, when you can reach way more people in the mail?

For what it's worth, I've liked what I've seen from Zero Tolerance and PXP, as much as anything from Evil Angel. Frankly, I haven't watched anything from RLD, because I don't want the same thing in every damn scene.

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My advice : check out the international shopping forum regularly.

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I also actually don't see the narrowness of ADT forums as a particular problem. To go back to the gaming analogy, gaming forums tend to be dominated by hardcore gamers who play certain types of games to a greater degree than the casual gamer. This is no different here, hardcore hardcore fans tend to watch certain types of hardcore more than the casual hardcore fan and there is no way of getting round that. What I think you end up with is an environment where ADT feedback is useful for some types of product for some studios but not for other types of product for other studios. It could perhaps further be argued that if your product tends to appeal more to the casual porn fan and is perhaps even aimed at such then feedback is maybe not such an important thing to you anyway?

SNP.

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The only "niche" I'm really addicted to is the blowjob niche: "Feeding Frenzy," etc. I find it really frustrating when fans harp on and on about the primary importance of acts so far down the scale of specificity that they start sounding like some wine connoisseur describing the temperature of the breeze grazing the vineyard where their favorite vinatge comes from.

Where will it all end? Heel-Grabbing Teenage DP Nostril Sluts ?

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Quaze

Edited by - Mike Quasar on 1/17/2004 3:43:34 PM

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