Is it too damn hard to give good chick ID? This is one of my biggest frustrations. I see a chick I like and I really want to know who she is, unfortuantely I have not info. Right now I am watching Watcher 12 an in the bonus footage I see this really hot black/indian(?) chick in the bonus scenes and I don't know who the fuck she is. I had a similar problem with a blond chick. It is bad enough when this happens in extra features, but many DVDs can't even give a good chick ID for the main feature. There are thousands of chicks out there doing porn, don't assume we automatically know every single one of them. I don't get the point. Give a good chick ID and we will be more likely to buy other titles with her in them. Take a pointer from many Digital Sin titles. They have good chick IDs. If you continue to give no chick ID you will continue to lose points on your reviews.
I'd like to jump on Tallyman's banana and second that. However, trying to ID several people a few nights ago, it became clear to me what the problem is - and it's little wonder that even the production companies can't give good ID. I would like to call for a moratorium on the following names immediately! I'm sure there are more, so please jump in with nominations as well. I've listed some that call for immediate action, and these would apply to usage for either first or last name, plus any alternate spellings.
Worst offenders, and must be stopped right NOW are: Amber, Brooke, Skye (female) Steele, Stone (male)
I always thought the Dark Bros. had the right idea, literally bring the girls out, one by one, with their names at the bottom of the screen right at the top (or the end) of the feature. It makes so much sense that hardly no one else does it.
DB, hilarious post and right on target to boot (although you neglected my least favorite name catagory: PUNS, eg. Summer Knight, Brandy Alexander, Misty Rain, Misty Dawn, April Rayne, April Showers, April Wine, Gale Force, Stryc 9 (WORST porn name, EVER!, if I may imitate The Simpson's comic book store proprietor for a second), Skye Blue (who, of course you cited in another context), Autumn Daye, April Daye, Sunnie Daye, Sunny Daye (why isn't there a Gloomy Sundaye?, you know, for Goth themed flix), Rocky Roads, etc).
I missed this thread when it first appeared but y'all are right. The worst offenders of the musical chair name game seems to be Private but American companies could use a brushup on consumer satisfaction as well. Is it so tough to identify everyone in your cast? Sheesh!
Actually I find private's not so bad in some ways. While there are a huge number of Silvia's, and Katy's, and Sandra's in the private pile (many of which last for about 3 films total), at least they bother to ID them in their DVDs.
Okay sometimes they get the ID's "wrong" by using a different name (ie Ilana/Illana Moore being billed as "Myrtlle" a few times) that's as much the girl's fault with their ever-changing nom-de-porn...
Hey dumbblonde, your post is too damn funny! I mean, if you don't like all the names you mention what do you suggest today's porn stars be called? Granted, all those names are clearly cliched and stereo-typical but I seriously can't look at a hot babe like Monica Sweetheart and imagine her with a name like "Agatha" or something simliar - it just doesn't fit! I myself don't mind any of the Amber's, Brooke's, Skye's and so forth, after all this is porn we're talking about...hehe
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Steve K. Deactivated User
840 Posts 11/01
Posted - Mar 4 2002 : 8:35AM
I agree with Scipio...PRIVATE does a great job of trying to ID the women in thier films, and they have helped me out a great deal.
Steve, while my collection of Private dvds may not be quite as extensive as yours, it includes a majority of their product. I routinely have found that they mispell cast member's names, get them wrong, fail to list the secondary/tertiary names, completely make up the biography section (I asked Tricia who confirmed this and has been in some of their movies), and they often use the dub voice that appears to have no clue as to what she's supposed to be watching (ie: one time, the dub indicated that the two blondes were going to enjoy having sex yet both were dark haired).
Now, if they are helping you personally, I applaud their efforts to keep you happy and assist a fellow reviewer. If they have gotten better over the last 9 months, so be it.
You have no idea what a challenge ID can be (and it really shouldn't)
The thing that gets us the most is "alternate" spellings. I mean Sky, Skye, Skie or Cindee, Synde, etc...
The newest one that had us redoing menus way too many times is Joelean. Someone should counsel these girls, or insist on using the old format: Your 1st pet's name + the name of the street you grew up on. At least there would be variety.
I was reminded of this thread the other day when I read the name of the latest porn starlet being promoted: Crystal Knight! My head is swimming - surely there are more names to chose from, that would make one stand out from the crowd. I give up. Asmodeous, Monica Sweetheart isn't bad, it has a nice ring to it. But when Tricia's own name is spelled wrong IN THEIR OWN MOVIE (Buttman's Toy Stories), is there any hope?
Point well taken, dumbblonde! I bet it can be aggravating finding out they misspelled your name on the movie you worked on, but I'm sure all the porn stars are used to it by now and its probably happened to all who work in the adult industry at one time or another...
Oh, yes we're used to having our names spelled wrong in the credits! I mean how hard is it to spell Tina Tyler? I picked that name precisely because it's easy to spell and pronounce, yet I've been credited as Tina Taylor, Tina Tylor and Christina Tyler among other misnomers. We all sign a model release... which presumably is used not only for legal reasons (so they can release the movie), but when putting together the movie credits. I always print legibly... and I'm pretty sure I can spell my own nom-de-porn... so what's the excuse???
This is what's so good about not giving a damn about more than five female porn stars at any given time. I realized years ago that it was going to take too much brain power to keep all these women straight in my head. So I just decided to focus on a few and let the others go. What drove this lesson home was not being able to get anymore titles with Kiva in them.
Cream always rises to the top. Every now and then a female performer comes along and I get stuck on them. Right now it's Belladonna (I really think we're witnessing the perfect femal porn star).
I focus on a few company's, a few directors and a few male performers. The women come and go, getting infatuated over any particular one is not worth it. You can tell that everything to me can be reduced to simple strategies. Life works better this way.
As usual, I have to agree with Don. Private has been pretty horrible on star identification. They make some very nice efforts, such as extensive bios with nice photos and notes that list who's in each scene, but more often than not, the names and photos don't line up. Heck, in Triple X Files 4 they couldn't even get the scenes in the right order! I have friends who's 3 year old loves to play a game like that called "Memory"!
However, as bad as Private can be, Rocco's movies are by far the worst! More often than not when he flashes up names of the girls with their picture during the opening credits they are for the wrong person. If I reviewed more Rocco features I'd be tempted to make up a form just for Rocco's features that has a comment at the end wondering if he knows who's in his movies.
Patience is a virtue, but who wants to be virtuous? 4283 Posts 4/00
Posted - Mar 5 2002 : 3:12PM
Wit and Tina - Exactly!!
On the Rocco subject - I've scolded him many times. Not that it excuses the mistakes, but Rocco tends be on a first name basis with the girls (real names). Or, there are a lot of European girls with the same real (or stage) names, like Sandra, Kristina, Silvia, etc. So, to keep things straight for himself, Rocco will give them a nickname, like Blondie, or Red, etc. Then, the editor gets confused. I've asked them repeatedly to make sure the editor looks at the model release/IDs as he's doing the credits, but even I have to spend HOURS sometimes matching up the shape of a nose or lips or finding a birthmark on a face to match up a porn girl in the movie with her passport picture that has different color hair, a different haircut, and glasses!
Speelie has actually been a godsend to me over the course of several movies. We do try to find the right names/spellings, but even we don't know all the girls.
Unfortunately, those of us working in the industry don't have as much time to watch such a broad range of porn as we might like. I used to watch tons of varied porn, but lately, I've had to limit it because of time to mainly Evil Angel stuff and some of the stuff that is great DVDs - for research.
Oh - and about my name. I've always spelled Tricia like that (not Trisha). So when I told the editor to make sure he got my name right, I spelled Devereaux for him, forgetting that a lot of people spell my first name the other way. On hindsight, I would have picked a much easier to spell name. And it DOES bother me when people (especially people in the industry) spell my name wrong. It hurts a person's name recognition in the internet-age, when a misspelling can cause a person's filmography to show some movies under one spelling, and others under a different.
Everyone here gets the picture. My questions is, what is the procedure for getting the screen name of the people you are filming? Can't you trust the girls to tell you or do they even forget who they are? If the fill out some form or release, can't that form also include stage name?
