David Crawford
Wicked Pictures

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We also have to develop a secure voting mechanism for the popular vote.

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And as far as reviewers having screeners already, I think that if there's a direct comp relationship between a reviewer and a studio, then that should disqualify them. At least in the case of ADTalk, screeners should flow through Steph so there's no quid pro quo going on. But that's just my two cents.

- Saki

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Just look at what the critics are saying. https://www.adultdvdtalk.com/reviews/Read_Review.asp?sku=953

Now that's a party

David Crawford
Wicked Pictures

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I'm glad to hear that the WADS may still happen at some point. I will gladly supply review copies of Wicked's DVDs to any qualified reviewers who need them. We, and many other video companies already do this for the AVN Awards (and, to a lesser extent, the XRCO Awards).

Let me know if I can be of help. I'd really like to see these awards happen!

Daniel Leslie Metcalf
WICKED PICTURES

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"I took a look inside your bedroom door, you looked so good lying on your bed"--From Rock N Roll Ain't Noise Pollution by ACDC
Endorphin's Lair
FREE THE WEED

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Edited by - Drew Black on Apr 12 2001

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I was simply being frugal...

I came up with a potential solution that if everyone involved is happy with, I would be really comfortable with participating in.
Since Evil Angel routinely sends out lots of screeners around awards times to people who need to screen our movies to judge them for various awards, perhaps the judges could let ADT know that if they have not previously received a copy of our DVDs which are nominated.
We will gladly send the amount of DVDs which someone at ADT says would be needed so that each judge has their own copy.

Sorry about the confusion.

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Ohh and ditto on what Tricia said. Let's just figure it out.

David Crawford
Wicked Pictures

Edited by - David Crawford on Apr 12 2001

Edited by - David Crawford on Apr 12 2001

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-sonic

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Maybe we need to post a list of the titles again and see which companies feel like responding?

By the way, the interview Tricia and I did at CES will be up soon, I'll post a notice here so you can all read what she had to say.

Rog

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Let's face it people, the company's that participate regularly on ADT-Wicked, Evil, Adam & Eve (absent of late), and a few others-are not the ones who'd be offering bribes. They most likely feel comfortable here because they "know" we like their dvd's. All you need to do is read a few reviews (with an exception from time to time) and see that these companies produce mostly good stuff. The ones offering the bribes would be the crap producing companies like Pleasure, Venus, etc. The bribes would be to compensate for the lousy dvd's they make. It's cool that the judges, fair and impartial bastions of truth that they are/will be, will remain anonymous.

If we voted for the judges, I have a short list of whom I would elect/nominate (sound too much like Florida yet?). This being the first WAD's, it'll be a learning experience for all those involved. Next year's WAD's will be even better-and it won't have to fight for Steph/Drew's time with a cross country move and marriage. Take your time guys and when the show is ready, it'll be ready. There's no rush.

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I know I'm just being idealistic here, since it happens all the time, and on the mainstream side more than the adult, but it seems to me that a lot of porn consumers are fed up with the "I'll watch your back...and mine" attitude that permeates through reviews, awards, and everything else.

Again, just my two cents,

- Saki

Edited by - Saki on Apr 13 2001

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On a positive note, I've spent a fair amount of money getting some of the nominated dvd's recently and even if the WAD's had been compromised-the majority of titles were all better than average. I agree with your assessments on the average porn consumer too-I'd like to see AVN, ADAM, and every other professional source of reviews to take off the rose colored glasses for awhile. It'll never happen but I'd still like to see it.

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I am sure we all want to see a fair and objective nominations/voting process prevail for the WADS. However, I think we should also be careful to avoid getting caught up in conspiratorial notions that reviewer bribing happens "alll the time" -- to quote the sentiment of a couple recent posts to this topic. As some may know, prior to switching to production with Wicked Pictures a year ago, I was a reviewer and contributor to CLUB, CLUB INTERNATIONAL, VELVET, YOUNG STARS, OUI, and EROTIC X-FILM GUIDE (of which I was also Editor-In-Chief 1991-1995), since entering the adult industry in January of 1989. The bottom line is, during 11 years of full-time reviewing, no studio, no director, and no performer even tried, let alone succeeded, in influencing the tone of my reviews. And I know my experience is not unique.

So let's work together, and celebrate the best work in Adult DVD, and leave the conspiracy theories to Fox Mulder and the Lone Gunmen.

Daniel Metcalf
WICKED PICTURES

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The batch of reviewers that have been selected for the WADS are all knowledgable and impartial. They each have their own personal tastes that may happen to fall along the lines of studios they may or may not have relationships with. I tend to believe that the reviewer-studio relation ship wouldn't exist if a reviewer didn't care for the product they produced.

The real concern that I have is to create a means to prevent ballot box stuffing in the popular vote. I think I have a mechanism worked out but it will take me a few days to program it. It will involve registration and unique user passwords to access the voting page on the site. It's impossible to prevent all mechanisms people can use to abuse the process without using digital ceritifactes. However I can create a voting system that is so cumbersome for an abuser that it will simply not be worth the effort.

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And I'm not suggesting any sort of conspiracy like the regular theories that the porn industry is controlled by organized crime. Or that AVN is in bed with the studios.

Without belaboring the point, I've been approached by several studios and the e-mail looks something like this:

"Hey, I really like your reviews. I noticed that you have <insert title here> on your want list. I'd be more than happy to send it to you and any other discs you want if you'd review them."

Perhaps it's innocent and commonplace to do that, but I'm convinced that if I gave consistently low scores to their titles, that they wouldn't be motivated to offer comps. Say what you will, but publicity or good will are the only reasons why companies give away free products.

And to Drew's point about there not being a relationship if the reviewer doesn't like the studio, I agree. It's the more subtle self-censorship that exists when you want to avoid offending someone in fear that you'll fall out of favor that's the real problem. For example, it's the desire to find a way to sugarcoat criticism of one of David Crawford's DVD designs when you'd be blunt & brutal if you had no idea who he was (just a hypothetical example). How far does that go before you're not really being a critic?

Anyway, having seen the list of nominated DVDs, I agree that even if the process is a little bit rough, it's still a great representation of the best out there.

- Saki

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After watching Vengeance I think I'm going to have to start giving Wicked a few more below average reviews like Inferno. If my punishment is watching movies this [B} GREAT , I'm going to be a bad, bad boy!

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