Eli Cross

Eli has shot lots of movies that he's not even credited on, and was responsible for the good camerawork and lighting on those. Of course, I can't give a definitive answer, but I just wanted to chime in and say that I know for a fact that Eli is very capable of good lighting.

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Trish, with truly all respects, welcome to the current state of porn outside of the anointed at Wicked or the committed-to-quality crew at Evil Angel. My production budgets, whether feature or not, have NEVER run over $25k (that's including my own director/camera/writer fee) & most often are under $20K. I shot, for instance, ASIA NOIR 2: RISE OF THE ASIANATRIX (one of my AVN Awards, BFD for what that's worth) three years ago for less than $20K.

& I don't think Eli or I are in a place any different from the vast majority of directors trying to make a living in what's becoming an increasingly hostile environment for quality-conscious pornographic filmmakers.

Trouble is that when exploitative companies regard the director as a necessary evil to be compensated as little as possible -- & Mammon forbid he should ever get a bonus or a raise -- the incentive is NOT to put real effort into the lighting, editing, et al -- not when you have the Skeeters, RLD clones, etc, who will happily make three times what you do because they have no issues grinding talent & crew on prices & churning out one-day wonders at the speed of light. Even the budgets a certain corporate giant gives me to do an all-Asian line these days pale in comparison to what you, Jules, Joey, etc, are able to spend on a simple gonzo, much less feature.

The shame of it all is that EA has proven that in both the short AND the long run a commitment to quality -- & what it sometimes costs -- can be the basis for financial success, but this industry continues to attract carpet-bagging "entrepreneurs" who take nothing but the low road.

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