If you are a die hard GFF fan as I am I do not believe that you will be impressed with their new release,“Voilà” which I recently borrowed from a friend to preview notwithstanding the always enjoyable Dana DeArmond. The G/G aspect was uninspiring and the guys just got in the way if in fact you're reason for watching is primarily G/G.
It sounds like you were just prejudiced against the movie on principle before you watched it. What if it was exactly the same movie but released by Vivid Entertainment instead of Girlfriends? Would you feel the same way about it? Clearly the central theme of the movie is female bisexuality/fluid sexuality and the complicated effect this can have on relationships. And whether 'Voilà' is a good adult movie or not, I think this is legitimate subject matter for Girlfriends Films as a "lesbian studio" to explore. After all it's no secret that the vast majority of the women who appear in their movies are "bisexual" rather than actually "lesbian" anyway. Also, they've made it very clear that this movie features some B/G sex. So people who only want to watch G/G sex can avoid it. If a B/G scene had suddenly popped up in the latest edition of Women Seeking Women then you'd have something to complain about. As it is, I don't think you do. Edited by - Geri on 10/6/2012 2:10:09 AM
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Rosco Fuji Deactivated User
On the licking stick, Mr. Magic Dick! 3309 Posts 2/09
Posted - Oct 6 2012 : 10:37PM
It's a GFF release. Its going to be soft and lovey dovey. Its not like they are going to deviate from their style just because a guy is in the picture.
I don't think he's being prejudicial. I think he has the same view i have, this film should never have happened. GFF doing B/G, what next Digital Playground doing G/G? (yeah right pigs might fly). In my opinion GFF are taking a big risk going in this direction, a lot of fans could get pretty peeved. If that's a risk they want to take fine, but i'd have thought they might pull out all the stops to make the innaugural feature something special. Having seen it now, it's not. Far too much emphasis on the three B/G scenes. A lot more care and attention seemed to be applied to those three rather than the two (pretty lame) G/G scenes. I don't know, but i got the impression they were done just to try and prove GFF hasn't completely sold out. As for the solo shower scene, time filler. Uninspiring would probably be a good word to use. As i said earlier, if this is the route GFF wants to take in the future then that's their choice, but i won't be buying anymore of their movies.
^^^^^^^ Lezlover, If you feel the G/G scenes in Voila are not up to the usual standard you expect from GFF then that's a very legitimate criticism to make. Apart from that I think you're really overreacting. Voila was released in September. There are no GFF releases with B/G scenes this month. I'm sure they have no intention whatsoever of introducing B/G scenes into any of their long running lesbian series. And I'm sure that they are well aware that a significant percentage of their core audience are people who only want to watch G/G sex. They are still calling themselves a lesbian studio. Having said all that, I think B.Skow is kind of sticking his neck out on this one. He only recently came on board as a director for GFF and he really has no reputation as a director of lesbian porn - I think he only directed one all-girl movie before joining GFF - and then his first credited release for them turns out to be the very first GFF release to include B/G scenes. Apparently he is the director of Lesbian Psychodramas Vol. 11, but he is not credited as such. Which is a bit weird. But maybe the plan is to see if fans can distinguish at all between GFF movies directed by B,Skow & those made by Dan O'Connell, who usually doesn't give himself a director credit. I'm guessing that you are probably making some sort of bitter reference to the incomprehensible sacking of Kay Brandt (the director/writer of 2 award winning, best selling, all-girl Digital Playground releases who also started out in adult as a writer and then uncredited director for GFF)) but surely you must know Digital Playgroumd do actually have G/G scenes in a lot of their non all-girl movies? Their most famous contract girl, Jesse Jane, is a self described bisexual and has won 4 best all-girl scene AVN awards for scenes from Digital Playground movies. Kayden Kross, Riley Steele and Stoya have all won G/G scene awards for Digital Playground scenes too. Of course Digital Playground does G/G scenes/ G/G scenes are a very long established standard element of straight porn. What adult studio doesn't do them apart from all gay male studios? Finally. Surely when GFF inked the distribution deal this year with Viv Thomas Studios they committed themselves to distributing B/G content? It beats me how Viv Thomas can call themselves Europe's top lesbian studio. Viv Thomas has always produced large amounts of B/G content as well as high quality G/G content. And it's only within the last 2 years that they launched any all girl paysites - apart from "Lesbians At Home" which is something best forgotten about.
Geri, Picking up on your points regarding Digital Playground. You say they do G/G scenes in a lot of their non all girl movies. Considering DP have only ever done 2 all girl movies (Cherry & Cherry 2) it wouldn't be difficult to beat it, but lets look at the numbers. In 2008 DP made 34 movies; 6 G/G scenes. 2009; 34 movies 0 G/G scenes. 2010 42 movies; 4 G/G scenes. 2011 44 movies; 3 G/G scenes. 2012 36 movies so far; 1 G/G scene. Add all that up and what have they done since 2008. 190 movies = 970 scenes (give or take). Of those scenes 14 were G/G. That is prejudicial. Their attitude in putting their own personal preferences above those of the paying customer is nothing short of selfish. I love watching Viv Thomas films. He does more G/G movies than any other non-specialist adult studio and the big difference between him and the likes of Vivid, Wicked, DP, Elegant Angel and others i can't be bothered to mention is that he actually cares about G/G and he cares about G/G fans. An average Viv Thomas G/G scene runs at about 20-30 mins. An average Wicked G/G scene, 10 minutes. When Viv thomas does a G/G scene he does it properly, not to beef up the running time. Even on an off day a Viv Thomas movie is still a cut above anything Wicked, Vivid or any of the other studios can produce. The minute GFF decided to do B/G they ceased to be a 'lesbian studio' so they should change the name to BFGFF. Don't treat this as a rant against you Geri because it's not, but as you can probably tell i'm pretty passionate about G/G and it pisses me off when companies use it for agendas other than the enjoyment of fans.
1st-Digital Playground-There lack of g/g scenes is simply a waste. When Vivid had the best contract girls, they put them all together in the Where The Boys Aren't series. Those are among the most impressive cast of any lesbian porn ever made. No idea why DP never did this. The 2 Cherry movies had mostly outside talent. 2nd-Girlfriend film issue-Disagree that their brand is compromised by shooting b/g films. Unless there is a drop off in the # of lesbian releases, no harm is done. By the way, thought the cast for Voila wasn't anything special.
I certainly don't seek to defend Digital Playground regarding their approach to G/G. They clearly don't really get it. Their general approach to it is to treat girl-on-girl action as an hors d'oeuvres to the main course of B/G. But I question your figures. For instance you say 2009; 34 movies 0 G/G scenes. I looked it up and they released at least 55 titles on DVD in 2009. Including 3 Jana Cova titles - Jana Cova: Scream, Jana Cova Belle & Jana Cova's Juice. Not surprisingly as she has hardly ever done B/G all the scenes on those DVDs which actually have Jana in are G/G or all girl group scenes. But all the scenes on those DVDs that don't have Jana in are B/G scenes. Which is just plain stupid marketing. Ninn Worx released a DVD called "Exposed Featuring Jana Cova" in 2008 which is all G/G. Good marketing.
Jana Cova was a DP contract girl for about 2.5 years. She was a G/G and solo only performer and they released a number of DVDs with her name in the title, but they never released a single All Girl Jana Cova DVD, they always stuck B/G scenes in between her G/G scenes. I doubt she could have been happy about that. It seems like DP were applying pressure to her to do B/G when she clearly didn't want to do it, and that's the real reason why she left them.
My bad Geri, you are quite right about the figures in 2009. What i forgot to mention was that i was only referring to Robby D movies. Am i right in saying that celeste directed the jana cova titles? I don't think she has done anything for DP since then. You are also right about her quiting. I'm pretty sure the official line was that she wanted to expand her career elsewhere. Un-officialy i suspect that when Robby D took control of directing she wasn't gonna get much work.
^^^^^ Yes, Bunny Luv (aka Celeste) directed all the Jana Cova titles for Digital Playground. She didn't do any All-Girl releases for DP but there are G/G scenes on most of the titles she directed. She did about 60 DVDs in total for them. The last was released in June 2010. Sophia Santi was also a Digital Playground contract girl for awhile. And although she has done a lot more B/G in her career than Jana Cova. I think she was only doing G/G and solo while she was contracted to them. Bunny Luv/Celeste directed Sophia Santi's "Belle", "Erotique", "Scream" & "Juice" - and just like with all the Jana Cova titles the title star is doing all G/G scenes and the other scenes are nearly all B/G scenes on these Digital Playground Sophia Santi DVDs. It is certainly true that Robby D does far fewer G/G scenes for DP than Bunny Luv did. However he did direct several All-Girl titles earlier in his career when he was with Vivid. So I'm not sure this apparently rather dismissive attitude that Digital Playground displays towards G/G is all down to him. Edited by - Geri on 10/29/2012 8:10:35 AM
Perhaps their crappy attitude towards G/G stems from the fact that DP is or was owned and operated by women. Samantha Lewis, CEO. Kay Brandt, writer. Scarlet L, writer. Weigh all that up and i guess it's no surprise.
^^^^^^^ What!!! Seriously, you couldn't be more wrong about Samantha Lewis and Kay Brandt. Scarlet L, I believe was brought in as a writer after Kay Brandt & Samantha Lewis were pushed out in a takeover. Kay Brandt, as I already mention above I believe, started at Girlfriends Films. First just as a writer but then went on to direct (uncredited) several titles for them. She's written some scripts for straight porn for Digital Playground, but her passion is quite clearly for lesbian porn - I'm pretty certain all the movies she's directed to date are lesbian movies. It was Kay Brandt who wrote and directed Cherry 1 and 2 for Digital Playground. And she has gone on to write and direct "Here Comes the Bride" for Filly Films and "Against Her Will" for New Sensations Sappho Series. Kay was fired without warning from Digital Playground when Manwin took them over. And Samantha Lewis and her sisters were pushed out too. In Kay Brandt's own words: "It was Samantha Lewis, the former CEO, who believed in me and these movies and pushed me forward and blessed the budgets and supported Jewelbox as her own baby. She was indeed drinking the buyout kool-aid when she sold the company, her own baby, and was assured that I and my line would be safe and secure in the takeover. But she was very wrong, about many things, unfortunately, and when she was removed, so was I, as were her sisters." It was a male boss at DP who didn't get G/G and plotted to oust the women. Kay said: "Cherry 1 and 2 made MORE money than most DP releases. The presales were much higher than expected. Cherry 2 made it to #5 on the Top 200 charts for all sales and rentals...which doesn't often happen for g/g titles. There's only one reason why I was let go: one of my bosses didn't like the films and doesn't care for g/g in general and another director at DP (won't name names) was totally and completely threatened by me...and that is no secret...most everyone that knows me and especially those who worked inside DP know this to be absolutely true. The deal to oust me during the takover was made by one of my bosses and not to the knowledge of anyone, in fact, most were convinced that the takeover was going to be a GOOD thing for me and Jewelbox...because Manwin was supposedly buying the best of the best, and to date, do not own a g/g line. But now what I've found out is that they have no interest in owning ANY g/g line at this point...and certainly not one that my former boss (and former long time friend) wanted nothing to do with, even with the high sales and awards. It's head shaking, crazy making bullshit, without question." So quite on the contrary - the crappy attitude towards G/G all seems to be coming from the men involved. Obviously the director at DP that Kay didn't name who: "was totally and completely threatened" by her must be Robby D. These statements from Kay Brandt are all copied from another forum belonging to a website dedicated to lesbian porn and erotica.
Very intersting Geri. Reading your comments, it all sounds very sleazy and backstabbing. Were the knives being sharpened for Sam Lewis before she created Jewelbox? If so then I take back what i said previously. From what you say it seems like Robby D was calling all the shots over at DP. Surely he doesn't have that much clout? Sour grapes perhaps because Cherry 1 & 2 did better than most of the snooze-fests he was making. So Sam Lewis creates Jewelbox, hires Kay Brandt, makes Cherry 1 & 2, both make a heap of cash so everyone's happy right? Or so they should be. But apparently not. Robby D gets his nose put out of joint because a female director might actually be better than him, the men aren't happy because they don't like G/G so conspire to get rid of the girls, Sam Lewis, her sisters and Kay Brandt get fired, end of Jewelbox, end of any more G/G. If that's the case then it stinks. If that's the case it makes you wonder what sort of idiots are running DP. Laurel and Hardy maybe. Seems like no one with any conscience or financial sense that's for sure.
^^^^^^^ Another quote from Kay Brandt regarding her former male boss at DP. "As far as my former boss not being into g/g, he had no idea about what was happening in the g/g market at all until I brought my GFF titles into his office summer of 2010 and made him watch them. He had heard of GFF, but had no idea how successful they has become. To him, g/g at it's best is an orgy on top of a fire truck. And, that scene did win for best all-girl group scene AVN 2011."
Well, GFF release their 2nd B/G DVD this November. It's a Viv Thomas movie called Touch Of Spice. As I already pointed out, regardless of B.Skow's new B/G inclusive series for GFF, GFF committed themselves to distributing B/G content when they signed the distribution deal with Viv Thomas. They are also releasing a new Viv Thomas G/G title - Tides Of Lust. Much more interestingly to me personally is that they are also releasing a new Madison Young movie - "Female Ejaculation" - which features a cast of queer women, the like of which I doubt we'll ever see in a Viv Thomas production. I hope we will see Madison making many more films for Girlfriends. She is also busy directing lesbian stuff for Filly Films.
