I do think there was an "arc of hotness" that corresponded to the introduction of rougher sex in a stylized way across the realm of Evil Angel's releases -- Buttman/Stagliano, Rocco, Leslie, Christoph, Joey Silvera and, later on, with Jules's arrival -- but if you watch that stuff all the time, well, sooner or later, even crazy sex looks the same. Is that the filmmaker's fault? They're just trying to give you what you want. I think Rocco has definitely peaked, and it's clear that Stagliano is trying to develop his work in other ways. Guys like Jules and Darrko are the new generation of high-end gonzo, and a lot of their stuff is amazing.

RLD's movies have wildly IMPROVED in the last 2 years, so I don't know what your criteria is there. I'm 50/50 on their stuff, and I can detail their faults real easily, but again whatever the repetitiveness, scene for scene there's some really hot content coming out of there. I do get bored with the generic nature imposed by the heavy use of the same talent in the scenarios (in a real sense, even though directors are at the forefront of their corporate image, all the movies tend to look as though they were shot by the same people). But it's no different than when all those same guys worked for Anabolic back when everyone says they LOVED Anabolic. I know firsthand how hard some of their stalwarts, like Jake and Swine, work to create something fun and fresh, but porn is a total GRIND.

The most creative guy working in porn today is William H. But if you look around, he's got company. I agree with the thrust of what you're saying, but I think a) it comes with the territory and b) there are notable exceptions and c) it's cyclical and d) but the girls are cuter than ever!

Edited by - skronker on 4/19/2005 3:13:47 PM

[Link]

But I respect your opinion, maybe you should take a break for some months and see what happened. Good luck!!!!!

<<<<[[[[

[Link]

Whatever studio product you happen to be viewing, the freelance nature of the business so far as performers go, you're only ever watching a slightly different turn of the kaleidoscope.

All the same components reshuffled into infinity. Sometimes you get a pretty pattern, sometimes you just get a disconcerting blur.

More red wine anyone?

[Link]

I guess there is always a tendency to think things are in decline, mostly because nothing delivers like the original thrill.

Porn has never been better than it is today. So much to choose from, so many great, shameless girls doing the nastiest things imaginable, with gusto. Enjoy.

[Link]

So are these threads. I think I see them twice a week. If it didn't sell they would change it.

[Link]

"One factor that should be mentioned here is that 90% of the porn out there is coming straight from California. Whatever studio product you happen to be viewing, the freelance nature of the business so far as performers go, you're only ever watching a slightly different turn of the kaleidoscope."

I remember reading an interview with David Aaron Clarke where he said he sees a lot of fans nowadays who will make arguments like mine but not follow up their words. They'll cry about how bad current porn is but they keep paying in. Personally, the reason I've been randomly mentioning girls from the past like Juli Ashton, Siobhan Hunter, Taija Rae, Christy Canyon, Nikki Dial, Victoria Paris, Rachel Ashley, Joanna Storm, Samantha Fox, etc., is because my answer to my dissatisfaction has been to turn to classic porn. And some of that classic porn is crap (and when it's bad it's really bad), but some of the stuff I've seen has been amazing. Yet I do continue to pay into the current biz because the girls are just so hot and the sex, while barely ever erotic, is far more intense than anything I've seen when looking back. This is why I am looking forward to James Avalon's features from Red Light. It's always "just when I thought I was out..." I notice Karina Kay or Kinzie Kenner or Taryn Thomas, though certain companies and directors (robbie fischer!) have proven themselves so pathetic to me that it would take TSC being in their casts for me to check them out again.

Edited by - tscfan317 on 4/19/2005 5:58:21 PM

[Link]

-T.C.

Comstock Films:Real Life, Real People, Real Sex

[Link]

I agree that we are at an end of a cycle. And the influence of the internet on the next one will be important. However, I think we are going to see a shift from companies focusing strictly on gonzo to marketing campaigns predicated upon the notion of diversity. I could be wrong or projecting what I'd like to see happen, but everyone copied off of RLD a couple of years ago so what's stopping them from doing so now if somehow these James Avalon RLD features are a big success. For example, new company Lava Releasing just signed Nicholas Steele to direct, tell me if this sounds familiar, a feature a month for them. And they claim to be aiming for a diverse product catalog. I thought they were just going to be a gonzo company.

Kelly

Edited by - tscfan317 on 4/19/2005 7:01:48 PM

[Link]

In all honesty I always thought 97-2000 produced some great Gonzo Porn. From Tom to Seymore to Stoney to Joey silvera, all were pretty good. And John Leslie's work was damn good. I didn't like the tease that dominated Jules and the rest of the directors after 2000. I really didn't think that Jules did alot pre 2000. So right there I disagree that 2001-2004 contained the best Gonzo.

As for today, I think that it has come around again. RLD is putting out some good materail (Anal Expedition #6). 3rd Degree is delivering some great porn and companies like Metro Fusion and Anabolic and others consistently put out pretty good materail. I don't need to see the circus stunts, but I don't mind it either. Just show me girls having sex that isn't vanilla and bland and I'm a happy Perve. I think Gonzo does this the best.

Just some thoughts.

[Link]

I disagree with this. I like Mike John's "No Cum Dodging Allowed" series. I also am a big fan of many of Jules Jordan's series.
I think Seymore went south when he started losing all his hot girlfriends ( Shane, Taylor, and Alisha)
There's so much porn out there, there is usually something for everyone.
This comment reminds me of an older person complaining about modern music.
Keep digging , the diamonds are usually buried deep.

[Link]

Addendum: Upon further thought, I think sensual sex and nasty sex have been separated into two distinct markets, couples porn and single guy's porn respectively. The best porn, in my opinion, successfully combines both elements. Some stuff out there today does this, like Van Damage's work for Pagan Pictures.

Edited by - The Pervert on 4/20/2005 1:29:27 AM

[Link]

There are directors who have their own instantly recognisable style, and that's great, but what I find annoying is when people are being paid and praised for essentially re-producing a formula.

Manuel's comments were interesting.

Red Light District is the Macdonalds of porn. Discuss...

[Link]

The people who complain about the over use of special effects in movies, the lack of believable characters, the cliched endings, are often the very people who queue up to watch these pop corn flicks.

If you want something different then you need to make an effort to look harder, visit a Film Theatre or Festival rather than your local multiplex, read some intelligent reviews.

Its much the same with porn. There is plenty of diversity out there if you look hard enough and the growth in new studios can only be a positive thing.

Try different studios and directors read the reviews and comments on ADT and I'm sure you will find porn that is both exciting and erotic. Keep buying the same old stuff and that's what the industry will keep producing.

[Link]

Is 90% really accurate ? Or does that only include American porn ?

[Link]

Of course I'm talking about companies like Zero Tolerance and 3rd Degree. These are people who know and love porn, who have paid their dues, learned the craft and take the time to do it right.

There will always be more and more crap because technology has democratized porn to the point that any moron with a camera, a computer and a few thousand dollars thinks he can produce porn. The premise of the post is, essentially, correct. But, as has been noted, porn is big enough for all of us to find what we like.

If porn ever reaches the point that all that is available is the circus freak-show crap -- with multiple parolees jerking-off and everybody trying to see how many cocks and/or objects can simultaneously be shoved into one hole at a time -- that's the day I drop out.

It ain't rocket science!
It all comes back to:
pretty girls...
handsome studs with big hard cocks...
fuck, suck & cumshot.
Some things don't need to be "improved" or changed.

[Link]

Not all customers are on auto-shipment with all studios. But I would venture a guess that most of the bigger retailers/distributors are on auto-ship with the bigger studios. I wish I knew what the ratios of revenues were for a studio's auto-shipments vs. orders placed to meet actual product demand.

The point being that there is plenty of financial incentive to simply crank out product because it's going to move out the door anyway.

[Link]

and thanks for the props BigBobxxx !

Quaze

[Link]

A lazy person would use this surety to cut corners.

A prudent person would use this surety to buy t-bills.

-T.C.

Edited by - TonyC on 4/20/2005 8:49:27 PM

[Link]

I agree with this statement. But the thing is, porn is like pizza, even bad porn is still alright.

I would like to see changes made in the industry, heck, I wish I was a director to make my own changes. But I'm not gonna bitch about it because quite frankly, smut is smut, and it satisfies. In due time things will change, you just need to wait for things to evolve a bit. Directors and studios are afraid to take risks, but each small step will build on the next.

[Link]

"Directors putting pen to paper" ... Love it. There's only about three of the latest class that can even do more than sign their names on the back of a check ...

[Link]

I long ago gave up on porn with stories, Private, or anything that wasn't gonzo.. These days I'm struggling to find anything I want to see.

[Link]

LIVING IN THE ASHES: What Will Follow Gonzo Gold Rush?

Pioneered by John Stagliano, and then fueled by the sudden availablity of cheap digital cameras and even cheaper talent, gonzo quickly rose to prominence in the porn world, virtually displacing features from the minds of dedicated hardcore porn consumers.

"It was fantastic," said Stephen Dollhair recalling the sudden flood of gonzo titles "There were dozens, even hundreds of titles featuring the beautiful young girls doing the nastiest things!"

And what was good for Dollhair and other masturbators was even better for pornographers. Gone were the days of scripts, locations, and other trapping of filmmaking.

"When you get down to it, making money in porn is about showing girls that you can't have doing things your wife thinks are disgusting." said Spike Gonzar, a director who made the transition from feature-style porn to gonzo in the mid-nineties "It turns out that all feature stuff did was slow us down and cost us money. Our core consumer didn't give a shit about it all, and it turns out most of them don't care much about framing, focus, or color-balance either."

But what started as a bonanza for a small group of pornographers quickly turned to a land rush, as hundreds of would-be pornographers, wielding Sony VX-1000 cameras and catchy domain names rushed in to stake their claim.

"It was a crazy time," remembers Daniel Andrew Clerk, "suddenly girls were cheap, cameras were cheap, and the fans couldn't get enough. I was cranking out two titles a week, and driving an lowered a F-250 crewcab with spinners."

But like day-trading internet stocks, or flipping condos in Florida, the boom is almost always followed by a bust, and gonzo porn was no exception.

"Two things caused the gonzo meltdown," says Tiny Cumstick, industry gadfly and remarkably slow-working pornographer. "The first was that they ran out of nasty – after double anal creampie ass to mouth throat fucking, where do you go? You've run out of nasty. I remember when I saw a blowjob video being sold as having the 'nastiest bitches'. I mean sucking a guy off and making him blow in your mouth hasn't been nasty since about 1973. It's 2005, brother, eating cum is soccermom stuff now! That's when I knew the end was in sight.

"But more importantly were the simple economics. You can't make a lot of money doing something that anyone can do, and let's face it, the basics of gonzo porn are not rocket surgery. Getting started doesn't take great creative genius or a daunting amount of capital. Sure, there were the masters of the genre, and they did well right up until the end. But with virtually no barriers to entry, more and more the work-a-day gonzo directors were getting squeezed by the glut."

When the meltdown came it wasn't pretty. Almost overnight a $40B/year economic powerhouse became a $1.2B cottage industry. When the bottom fell out, prices for spinner hubcaps and frankenhooker shoes couldn't help but follow – there just weren't enough hip-hop videos being produced to make up the lost ground. And without porn's weight to decide the issue, the HD-DVD vs. Blue Laser question remains unanswered to this day.

Says Wango Chic, once fabled gonzo ringmaster, "I remember when RLD announced they were going to start producing a feature a month – that was a warning, but I couldn't hear it. Then almost overnight gonzo porn went from being an easy way to make a good living to being a hard way to make an okay living.

"One day I realized my buddy was making more money as the assistant manager of an OutBack Steakhouse in Culver City, and getting better quality trim too. All those young Hollywood hopefuls eat there, and you'd be amazed what they'll do for an Awesome Blossom Ring."

What will be the next wave in porn is anyone's guess. Some are looking to the women's market for salvation, but whether or not women will buy porn with the same regularity or enthusiasm remains an unanswered question.

"As in real life, women are just too demanding," says Loraine Shallow, a noted expert on women and porn. "We want good lighting, handsome men, credible set-ups, tasteful window treatments, and most of all – believable connection and passion between the players. But even with multi-million dollar budgets, Hollywood struggles to deliver real connection. How are you going to do it on a porn budget? I don't hold out much hope for porn, I might even have to go back to fucking my husband."

Others feel such hand-wringing is unwarranted. Says Mindi Smurke "Porn is like the cockroach, it's here to stay. It may not be much to look at, but it's here to stay."

Still others feel gonzo will rise again. Says Cumstick, "I still think the gonzo approach is still the most sensible way to produce sexually explicit material. Gonzo elegantly solves problems of budget, context, and craft that are part and parcel of working in what is, and likely will always be, fringe genre. Gonzo will rise again. It may have a new name, but gonzo will rise again."

Edited by - TonyC on 4/21/2005 11:45:03 AM

[Link]

I also dont agree with the extreme activities argument. I mean Double Anal is still fairly rare and the long anounced triple anals never ever happened. This still leaves some space to explore.

Lack of immagination: Right, I see that too. But here again a lot could be done by simple effects like better clothing and style, more different settings and some basic small stories told while still starting the action really quick and keeping a heavy focus on the actual fucking. Some of the old Private Video Magazines might help immagination here.

Just my 2 cents...

[Link]

PVM #42 Teens Across The Pond - (Nikki Blond)
PVM #45 Chance Encounters - (Maya Gold, Cindy Lords)
PVM #46 Sheer Seduction - (no story lines- Ashley Long)
PVM #47 Open Air Affair - (Angelica Crow)
PVM #48 Sticky Buns - (Victoria Swinger)
PVM #49 Eye Candy - (Kristina Bella, Nikki Blond)
PVM #50 Calendar Girls - (Simony Diamond on the cover)
PVM #51 Flesh Fantasies - (Dora Venter, Cory Baby)

Twisted Tommy

[Link]

I don't think quality has suffered for the sake of quantity, either. RLD and PXP quickly raised the bar for gonzo, and companies like ZT, 3rd Degree, Vertigo, etc. etc. were forced to emulate their quality control.

When I first started buying porn on VHS back around 1998 or so, the whole process was a veritable clusterfuck. I had no clue what to buy (I guess I should have been buying Anabolic/Diabolic but I didn't know any better). It was pretty much a nightmare, crappy porn, horrible video quality, misleading box covers, no performer identification, chopped-up compilation tapes, you know the drill.

I can't imagine the same experience happening in 2005. Even the studios that put out substandard product, are in my experience, light years ahead of the average 1990's crud that I sat through somehow.

We have quality series now for almost every possible kink and fetish. Could you even imagine something like "A Good Source of Iron" becoming mainstream porno 10 years ago? This was Japanese-style stuff that nobody wanted to do over here, but it became a huge success...

Click on beautiful Taylor Rain for great porn reviews!

[Link]

-T.C.

[Link]

-T.C.

Comstock Films:Real Life, Real People, Real Sex

[Link]

...That Mindi Smurke knows a thing or two.

Edited by - Loraine on 4/22/2005 1:47:34 AM

[Link]

-T.C.

[Link]

At any rate, sex, soccer, and jizz:

Desiree is not a mom, not yet at least. She does play soccer, and she does eat cum. I've seen her do it, and quite eagerly I might add. I forgot to ask what kind of car she drives

Cindy is a soccer mom, but she doesn't drive a minivan. She does eat jizz – provided she's fond of the donor.

-T.C.

Comstock Films:Real Life, Real People, Real Sex

Edited by - TonyC on 4/22/2005 12:35:06 PM

[Link]