Sin City now claims to have abandoned their old style of features in favor of a new gonzo-feature hybrid, with Jim Powers and Axel Braun the two men who will apparently film these things. Lava Releasing signed Nicholas Steele to direct a feature-a-month for them. This came after RLD signed James Avalon to an identical deal, and New Sensations announced that Nic Andrews would shoot Dark Angels 2 for them. Tricia is spearheading Vault of Whores. There is a remake of New Wave Hookers planned. Zupko has apparently latched on with Hustler (LFP bullshit not cancelling it out of course) to do his brand of gonzo-feature. Manuel Ferrara felt as if he was shooting the same thing over and over again, so he experimented with Mind Fuck . Mike John, Erik Everhard, Michael Stefano, and John Strong have been implementing actual storyline set-ups (in the Joey Silvera barely-there fashion) to their scenes for a while now. In August, Juicy will release a DVD with a menu option of "Movie With Story” or “Movie With Wall to Wall Sex.”
There are definite signs of a cycle-change going on in porn right now, whether it be gonzo companies beginning to shoot storylines around their distinctive hardcore sex or feature companies churning out blockbusters (well, they are for porn) and remakes of classics with a renewed vigor. It's not necessarily an end to gonzo or anything. It's just a trend toward re-implementing storyline into more of the current porn produced. What does everyone think about this? Personally, gonzo has become so homogenized that I have been looking for some signs of creativity for some time now. Before this, I was looking for it in a director's use of camera angles or lighting. So, full-blown storylines are like manna for me. For some, storyline is irrelevent or perhaps downright laughable. For me, I've come to realize that it enhances things quite a bit, even if it is as simple as the old flimsy set-ups Stagliano would have in his Buttman films.
For example, the story of the upcoming James Avalon's Darkside sees Penny Flame playing a mayor's wife who is victim to a "memory transplant that goes awry". She gets the "memory of a promiscuous tart. She goes around fucking everything in sight and showing up at sex club orgies, much to the distress of her husband (Randy Spears)." I see that and think of the real life drama with actress Jeri Ryan (loosely so). I think of similarities to Devil in Miss Jones 2. I think of the possibility of some jabs at current politicians. I think it sounds funny, and potentially enticing in the silly way that porn with story can be. Others read it and wonder how long they'll have to fast-foward to find the sex.
Most who know me here will be surprised by my answer, but I think it's good thing. There's too many Gonzo directors that don't shoot wall to wall porn to begin with. Maybe more male performers moolighting as directors will start making features and leave the Gonzo porn to directors who realy understand how to shoot it!
Well, I certainly can't say that I know you, but based on this thread you started about your hatred (your words) about seeing kissing in gonzo, I think it's safe to say that your stance is rather inconsistent -- or perhaps poorly communicated.
I welcome the little setups, the behind-the-scenes, really anything that shows that the performers are into what's happening.
Even the minimal all-sex vids can benefit from a minute or two of setup/lead-in.
Hardcore fucking and storyline? Well, The Fashionistas and The Ass Collector did it.
Unrelated vignettes strung together in something like a decent storyline? Maybe Tales in the Crack. Heck, some of the Tanya Hyde features have a theme even if the individual scenes are separate.
Even Brandon and Manuel's inane doughnut dialogue from the Baker's Dozen series adds to my enjoyment of these movies. The interviews in 5 Guy Cream Pie 17 that precede the action really work well; normally these would be relegated to the Behind The Scenes extras, but they really do belong in the movie.
I was shocked (but very pleased) to see even a minimal plot in Mike John's Teenage Spermaholics 3.
Those who want to see gonzo-style sex combined with a unique sensibility & an actual storyline with lots of subtle accents might check out SHADOW OF A GEISHA, my latest from Video Team. But then again, you might prefer to wallow in the familiar, & that's your right as a Murican.
A little story is fine as long as the sex is hot. I've been turned onto some of the Sin City flicks, since videoz.com has been posting a butt load of them lately, along with their full-out gonzo Mayhem line.
Gosh, as the RLD, Ana-Dia directors & their rabid following start turning the pack in a direction some of us never abandoned because of cheapness, expediency & lack of imagination in the 1st place, I feel like I have a ringside seat at the opening of Kubrick's 2001 -- look at that smart monkey over there, he figured out he can pick up & use that sucked-clean bone AS A TOOL!!!! & the other monkeys around him are starting to imitate him! Listen carefully, nature-lovers, & you can hear their excited chatter as startling new ideas start spreading like wildfire among the Group MInd:
-- All the lighting doesn't have to be flat! -- We COULD spend some actual money on wardrobe rather than rely on potluck out of the whorebag! -- We could actually LINK these random acts of filthy behavior witrh some sort of, ah, whaddya call it --- "story"? "coherent imagery & themes"? Whatevah! Just tell all the directors to DO IT, because ... --This MAY save our ass from Republican-fueled obscenity prosecutions that titles like O-RING BLOWOUT, FUCK THE BITCH TILL SHE BLEEDS, ad nauseum are just begging for attention from!
Darwin is vindicated..
P.S. As for Sin City abandoning the old-fashioned porn feature style in favor of a "new" gonzo-feature hybrid style that's been around since, oh, ADVENTURES OF BUTTMAN, or if you want to be a stickler, at least WILD GOOSE CHASE, I suspect that's more an outgrowth of their inability to sell most of their old-style crap even though they're a major distributor, & perhaps of house pm Scott Justice having alienated just everybody with talent but the hacks & fellow thieves, so now they're content with a format that deals in 18K budgets instead of 30K budgets.
Just my suspicion, mind you. Heaven knows, I could be entirely mistaken ...
Why would directors not add some story/background to their latest release ? That's never made sense to me . Here we have all of these guys and galls bitching that it's "a real crowded marketplace" and it's so important to "differentiate your product from all the rest" and yet they continue to make stuff just as bland as natural bio yoghurt . The very best stand out because they're the best (JJ and the EA posse mostly) but the rest need to play some other tricks to try and grab people's attention and gain a sense of their own identity . Having a theme which is more than just a spray job would look to be a simple and fairly inexpensive way to do that . Or so it seems to me , at any rate ...
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Martin Drugs Deactivated User
10 Posts 7/05
Posted - Jul 4 2005 : 5:01PM
Time to reacquaint with the FF Button.
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pigsticker Deactivated User
27 Posts 6/05
Posted - Jul 4 2005 : 6:03PM
I assume this means I would have to look at, and actually listen to the Hedgehog and his buds? Gonzo fans will avoid this stuff like an Ed Powers gay flick. Or worse, like an Ed Powers straight flick.
Well, one thing Gonzo did, was free me from the incessant fast forwarding, that feature flicks with long runs of plot driven dialog had evoked.
Having shifted to DVD over the interrim, I, like Martin Drugs also noted, am nowhere near as proficient with the DVD FFwd remote, as I was with the easily gaugeable free spinning reels of VHS. The controls of digital DVD remain sketchy, or rather too exact, for my inexact viewing preferences.
I dont want to have to 'look" at the remote to find which button is FF or RW. I want to "look" at the screen, and find the button by trial and error.
Doing so however, invariably leads to the misguided tap of a key, that ultimately sends the movie scrolling back through the God forsaken lead-in restrictions, and warning statements.
As I recall, the arrival of Gonzo was ushered in, not by choice of the industry, but heralded to dominance, simply through mere whim of the paying establishment.
I could be wrong ofcourse, but I thought it was they, who determined that gonzo would dictate the road ahead, and they, who elected to kick feature productions to the gutter.
This sudden meteoric return, doesn't necessarily change much, nor do I particularly hope that it does. What I do expect, is they'll have to earn their way back, if they intend to hang around for very long.
Hmmm. You mean like a sex flick that had some character and/or narrative content/context to give meaning to the sex, but without burdening the budget or directors chops with the responsibilties of a full blown "real movie"? Shoot it on film and it might have some real sizzle!
My stance is consistant. If things move forward plots,less people will try to shoot wall to wall. I think most directors trying to shoot wall to wall movies now aren't very good at it anyway. Hopefully, only the people who really understand the true meaning of gonzo will be left behind to shoot it, and the quality will improve. In porn, when more people attempt to shoot a certain style, the quality overall usually gets worse. Just look at what's happened to POV. It's become a joke, because half the guys can't even hold the camera steady!
Well, I've certainly FF'd through more than my share of horrid detective/"private dick" spoof porn to never ever wanna see that era again. But, it's amazing how even a little setup before the sex works for me. I'm still not tired of the librarian/teacher/schoolgirl/soccermom scenario if it's done with some sense of reality. It's as simple as putting Roxanne Hall in a skirt and blouse and having her whisper to the camera how frustrated she is before she goes on a rampage, and I'm done.
Well I just got done reviewing Pros 3 by Guy Capo and it features a little story before they start bumping uglies. It doesn't appeal to me that much but he's very consistent on doing these type flicks and the performers seem to do well delivering the lines before they start fucking.
Nothing says I love you so much as a tongue in the ass. 2884 Posts 1/03
Posted - Jul 17 2005 : 6:30PM
There are other reasons why gonzo/wall to wall/sportfucking took hold. Part of it was the realization that people were only interested in the sex in a sex movie and all the rest was ff material. That aspect was immortilized in an episode of HBO's Dream On. There's also the simple fact that the performers didn't all want to act or remember lines (if they could), and they liked the idea of just showing up and fucking. It takes less of their day and could provide a good time. Just wall to wall involves no creativity, but with the right performers and decent camera and lighting skills, can still get memorable results. Ultimately, it's all about the sex. The trend towards vignettes now is a response to the stasis the industry has been in. Any director with an ego is going to try and make his project immediately identifiable in some way. Some will do it with story, some with camera angles and lighting. Some with their twisted humor and others with the brutalization and degradation of the women they hire. We just end up with more choices. That's a good thing.
The kids used to listen to the rap music with just some guy's voice and that's it, but now they're letting more and more musical instruments back into the mix along with some hot synthesizer action. The point is that it's a richer sound, more listenable, more distinctive & memorable, more like traditional music--and things drifted back to that musical sound after an era of vocals-only once the point was successfully made that "We're here! Hear us!"
Well we've had an era of very visceral focus on the in-out-in-out-in-in-in-out aspect of sex. The point being made was "I wonder if that will also fit in there, and will she let us try it." So it would probably make sense if the mission statement of porn started to drift back home to something closer to quality erotica. It might not be quite as jerkable anymore on a minute by minute basis, but what jerking there is will seem much more meaningful. I like it better when "fast-forwarding time" is clearly marked instead of what we have now---namely, getting to the end of a 35 minute scene and only then realizing I should have fastforwarded through 30 minutes of it. Each of those 30 minutes was okay enough to keep me watching, but almost none of it ended up being real quality stuff because of the modern insistance on just letting whatever happens happen.
So here's 3 cheers for more structure and discipline! Which should work out just fine because from what I can tell most of the talent loves being disciplined!
Posted - Jul 3 2005 : 11:32PM
