Jules is great because when I worked for him he brought out the best in me as he was really cool and down to earth and very professional. He made me feel sexy and I wanted to do good for him.
Ayn Rand is the Jesus in the religion of Libertarianism. __________________
One her her biggest weaknesses as a human being was her overwhelming need to be worshipped.
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TonyC wrote:
I'm having trouble squaring this with her choosing to be a Hollywood screenwriter.
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I've struggled for many years with the precept that we as filmmakers want nothing more than to be loved. Any Rand, Quasarman, Jules Jordan, John Stagliano, Jewels, TonyC, Tricia, me...we're all looking to be loved. (Which is a damn good thing actually.) Putting up our existential or not, view of our over intellectualized objective perceptions (like Ayn rand did) does not sound contrary to our desire to profit from making porno (or making it as a mainstream screenwriter). Thank god I figured that out. Though the nuns that trained me for ordainment would be truly pissed.
I knew about some of this stuff, but there's lots of fresh material here, too. The author of the article, Murray Rothbard (the great anarcho-capitalist intellectual) is no left-wing hatchet man.
That's not the issue I was adverting to, so I'll make it plain:
In "ATLAS SHRUGGED", two men compete for Dagny Taggart's love: John Galt and Francisco D'Anconia (I think we can leave Hank Reardon out). Both are Rand "heroes". Galt wins, D'Anconia loses. D'Anconia doesn't go on to seek happiness (that being the proper purpose of his life, according to Rand) with another woman. Instead, he lives alone in a state of perpetual mourning, in a shrine he built to Dagny.
Interestingly, at the time she was writing the book, Rand was married to (her longtime husband) Frank O'Connor but having an open love affair with Nathaniel Brandon, her younger protegé -- an affair that was intensely humiliating to O'Connor, but one which Rand succeeded in convincing him was appropriate given Brandon's quasi-heroic status and her status as an . . . er . . . Über-Wench.
I agree. He gets the best from the girls, and makes them look their best. I think Joey does that, too, which is probably why I have more Joey and Jules (and older Buttman and Rocco) titles up on the shelf than anyone else.
Don't be too quick to despair! () Here's some feedback from an executive at one of the biggest (if not the biggest) porn mills in the country:
"I loved it[M&K]. You could totally tell there was real lust between them. They were sucking face, which I love, because you don't se passionate kissing anymore. The style reminded me of stuff from the late 70's, back when people actually made LOVE in porno."
Patience is a virtue, but who wants to be virtuous? 4283 Posts 4/00
Posted - Jan 28 2007 : 1:18PM
Tony - I (and a few others in conversation) have noticed that you didn't really answer my question about whether you're movies have broken even.
Whether or not you can pay your mortgage on whatever properties you owned before you even made your first 'porn' movie, has no bearing on how financially successful your movies are. The same can be said of your ability to buy new camera and post- equipment, as those would be needed for your non-porn ventures also. Whether or not the movies are liked by critics is also of no importance to this thread. This thread is about cold, hard cash.
Without knowing the amount of discs pressed in a run, I have no idea what your actual sales are. It could be runs of 100 pieces or runs of 10,000 pieces. Do I really care? Not really. Without knowing if your accounts receivable that's fat represents $1000 or $1 million, I have no idea what "fat" accounts receivable means to you. Again, don't really care...
What I do care about is how quick you always are to bitch and moan about this business that gives you "fat" accounts receivables. You've also questioning exactly how much people make, attempting to make them seem pathetic in the wake of your high-end mainstream friends, yet refuse to put a dollar amount in this thread of what you yourself make. Again, no bearing on me. Just seems kinda unfair to me.
As one of my best friends (who directors for another company) said to me after laughing about this thread... there's nothing else he'd rather be doing at his age (mid-20s) where he makes $5K a movie. Hiring hot young girls to come to a set location at a set time, so that he can direct them into having great sex in front of his camera lens. Fuck - most people would do that as a hobby.
I don't expect you to answer the question. I'm just pointing out how quick you are to judge, and how quick you are to side-step questions.
Tricia, if it gives you some comfort to believe that the proceeds from my films (Marie & Jack, Xana & Dax, Damon & Hunter, and now Matt & Khym) are insufficient to pay for my lab and telecine bills, my mortgages, my health insurance, my equipment upgrades, my retirement savings, my rainy day fund, my boat building habit, and my taste for Florida premium citrus , I shant disabuse you of your misapprehension. Indeed, even if I were inclined to, how would I? How could I?
I will take some small comfort in knowing that if it might take an extra thousand dollars to make one of my efforts look every bit as good as my meager talents as a filmmaker allow, I am, more often than not, able to scrounge together the funds.
Cold comfort perhaps, but then we all have to learn to make the best of the hand we're dealt, no?
She said I'm sorry baby I'm leaving you tonight I found someone new he's waitin' in the car outside Ah honey how could you do it We swore each other everlasting love She said well yeah I know but when We did - there was one thing we weren't Really thinking of and that's money
Money changes everything Money, money changes everything We think we know what we're doin' That don't mean a thing It's all in the past now Money changes everything
They shake your hand and they smile And they buy you a drink They say we'll be your friends We'll stick with you till the end Ah but everybody's only Looking out for themselves And you say well who can you trust I'll tell you it's just Nobody else's money
Money changes everything Money changes everything We think we know what we're doin' We don't pull the strings It's all in the past now Money changes everything
Money changes everything Money changes everything We think we know what we're doing We don't know a thing It's all in the past now
Hey thanks Jacco, with a virtually non existant porn production industry here it's hard for me to understand where a director fits in regarding salary.
I haven't been around for a while, but since this is a topic that i was always looking for and meanwhile i am one of those directors as well I thought I'll give you an inside view as well...
Before I started with my directoral debut (going to be released this week through the German label Magma), I had no clue what I could expect as a directors fee. And it was really hard to find out, because people just don't talk about the money part or I just didn't trust them.
But apparently I fit in quite good in the system with what I got so far. I have chosen a simple deal as a beginner. Get a budget, produce as cheap as possible so I can keep the rest and get 50% of the sales on the TV (soft) version. Actually pretty good. But: I was way over my budget, which was kinda tough, cause it took me half a year to make this movie and didn't do anything else than working on this movie during this period. Fortunately the soft version was accepted by a TV station right away, so in the end there was some money left for me.
Since I am not making that many movies (and as some of you might now, I quit as a performer with some expections), i would not make any money, if I would not make a soft version as well. Just because I am a perfectionist and also spent a lot of money on the crew, equipment and locations. It’s probably a bad business attitude, but I wanna pay my crew a fair fee, so they are motivated to work for me and give their best to make a great product.
For me this is way more important than the money factor. I could also do more productions, but probably within a year it would look just the same as any other porno flick. And that was definitely not my plan.
I do not own my movies of course (I am shooting 2 more for Magma this year), and I am somehow sad about it, but I made sure that this movie looks exactly the way I wanted it. I supervised the editing, i did the layout and everything, so actually Magma is just distributing it. Since it was my first movie, we promoted it like hell and they probably earn way more with it than with their regular titles. But that's cool and not getting a percentage is fine, cause I found a great company I am trusting and they are well established at the market, which gives me a great perspective for my future as a director.
And to all performers: You have a damn easy life in front of the camera! :) But still, I don't wanna switch anymore. I am really glad that I got the chance to direct whatever I want now and finally realize all my ideas...
Ok, that's it for now. I hope this was helpful post for you. ;)
There were probably more things that I liked in this trailer than I've seen in the last 20 porn trailers I've watched. The director and editor obviously have an eye for the meaning-making importance of reactions shots.
But the (too obviously for my taste) "opened up for camera" standing doggy gives me a cold chill.
Count me as curious about this film.
Also count me as curious how you can make a living when you spend a year working on one film. It just doesn't seem possible.
Renee, I think you might just be a better director than you are a performer...and considering that's coming from someone who has always rather liked you as a performer, that's saying something!
Thank you, guys. I really appreciate your feedback.Viennese has been an experiment, it's a vignette film. It took me half a year because I had no experience and had to learn every step. Also I had a crew that was new to the business (I made that decision on purpose), so we had to get to know each other first and find out about our skills. Of course my next movies will only take me half the time, They are going to be features with dialogues and stuff, though. I see it like going to University, with a film beeing the result of it. Fortunately I had some sponsors as well. ;)
Regarding the "standing doggy" - I know what you mean. Well it's still a porn movie and if all the people in there would have sex just the way they have it in private life, you wouldn't see a thing. But interesting point. ;)
Nothing wrong with experiement. Our first film was an experiment as well, and it probably took three years to go into the black (I think we sold 100 copies the first year.) No longer our fastest seller, it's still a good seller, and still our top-grossing title to date. It also helped us prove there was a market for what we do.What I liked most about your trailer was a genuine feeling of heat, connection, and desire on the part of the players. That's rare and it made the trailer stand out from the last 20 (or 200) trailers I've seen. When I see that, i don't need to see a lot of in-out-in-out, just enough that I believe that the feeling of heat and connection is coming from the slippery friction of cunt and cock.
Then *bam*, the classic one hand on her hip prying her ass open for the camera, the other on your own because you don't know where else to put it to keep it out of the way of the camera. That's just not hot, not to me at least.
Yes, I know, it's a porn film and people expect to see sex. But I'm of the opinion that (some) audiences don't need to see as much as most producers think they need to see, provided you give them something to feel. That trailer had some real feeling to it. I'm curious to see if the film has more of that feeling (!), or if it's mostly more the same old for-the-camera sex-pantomime.
I must say, the EA model seemed to work well for Jules.
"Jules Jordan is a great example. Before joining Evil Angel, he was working for Pleasure Productions where, as a director, he was making $2,000 per movie. He recently left Evil Angel to start his own business. At the time he left my company, he was making one movie a month. Between his catalog sales and new titles, he got over $100,000 a month."
Another thing I don't see very often in European porn is the actors/actress' talking to each other during the act. I wouldn't say go overboard with it, but little comments here and there can also bring "heat." The act of speaking just seems to move both men and women into another realm beyond mere voyeurism into exhibitionism.
In other words, a transition from "you're watching and we don't care" to "we know you're watching and we want to get you off as well."
I guess the act of speech can sometimes transform the scene and the performers from just two/three "models" to "some form of reality/verité." Does that makes sense?
There might be a very simple reason for that in a lot of European movies: the actors don't speak a common language! Look at the behind-the-scenes of an average Dorcel movie, they are speaking 6 or more different languages and half the conversation is by gesturing.
You're right Jacco and I understand completely. I've always felt that when there is any conversation between the actors/actress' (in euro porn) it becomes so awkward ( a kind of what (?) /confusion, weird body movements, etc.) that disrupts the whole scene. That's why I've always felt that directors put a gag on the performers during the sequence (the female performers become "deer in the headlights" types whenever speech is involved and I understand why).
But it just seems that there should be some communication. The actor is one who is suppose to "control" the scene. Can't he learn a few helpful phrases/sentences (I don't care about subtitles, just action)? Am I asking to much of him?
Patience is a virtue, but who wants to be virtuous? 4283 Posts 4/00
Posted - Nov 26 2007 : 12:42PM
Len - it says that on the cover of the main Evil Angel line too. We own the copyrights since we are the distributor and we're the ones who go after piracy. If a director leaves, the copyright is refiled and transferred to their name.
Posted - Jan 25 2007 : 11:58AM