Paul Morris, founder/owner of Treasure Island Media, and I both enjoyed the interview Billy Wild gave JoeBlow69 at gaydvdreview.com. We particularly enjoyed the part where Billy described his experience here on "Riding Billy Wild" as a "low point" in his life, given the fact that HE approached US to work with us--three times!--and the further fact that we have Billy on videotape saying that our studio is the best one he ever worked for!
Almost equally amusing--except for the slur on our professionalism--were Billy's assertions that our people have "no formal training" (and where might one acquire FORMAL training in this industry--at the Harvard or Stanford Graduate Shools of Gayporn?) and that we're "not a very professional studio."
The truth about our training is that the director of "Riding Billy Wild" was trained by Paul Morris for more than a year as a camera and editing assistant before he was allowed to direct on his own. Paul himself trained for years with the semi-legendary Bob Jones and directed all-male videos for All Worlds and several other studios before establishing Treasure Island Media in 1999. No all-male video company employs personnel with better professional credentials than ours.
More to the point, there is nothing casual or careless about the way we find our models or cast our videos. No one in the industry does more extensive pre-production model interviews than we do. We are well aware that our models are our greatest asset and that every one of them is individually irreplaceable.
If JoeBlow69 would like to interview Paul Morris about Billy, Billy's new Treasure Island Media video "Plantin' Seed" (www.treasureislandmedia.com/tivideo/index-seed.htm)--somehow Billy liked us well enough to approach us AGAIN to do that one!--or anything else at all, Paul is available for interviews and can be reached through me.
Keith Lucas Treasure Island Media Public Relations keith@treasureislandmedia.com
That is kind of weird, isn't it? I was browsing your website a little while ago, checking out your Plantin' Seed screenshots, and did a double take when I saw Billy in there. It did shock me a bit considering all the not-so-nice things he had to say, but then again, I guess I shouldn't be surprised at anything anyone in the porn industry does anymore.
I think I'll have to pass on the interview with Paul, though. I simply haven't seen enough Treasure Island flicks to come up with some meaningful questions beyond the standard HIV melodrama questions (and that's all been done countless times before... ). I did enjoy the 2 T.I. movies I have seen (well, Riding Billy was great, but the second half of ...Like Honey kind of went downhill).
Judging by what I've seen, though, I can see how someone might assume that you guys don't have a lot of training (that's not meant as an insult, though). Your movies do have quite a amateur "fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants" look to them, especially when you compare them to some of the other studios Billy has worked for (like Titan). It's just a different style of film-making, that's all.
Anyway, the only REAL question I would have for Treasure Island, is why can't you put some kind of warning message at the begining of your flicks? Something like:
Crossing over to the barebacking thread on this board, that is just the kind of reasonable notice that I think responsible film companies should post on every such movie, that and just that, rather than the "trumpets blaring, 'Look at us' approach taken by Titan.
Having read the interesting posts by JoeBlow69 and billyjizz, I asked Paul Morris, owner of Treasure Island Media, why we don't put warning disclaimers on some of our videos. This was the relevant part of his e-mail reply, reproduced here with his permission:
"If the question is, 'what happens if someone watches one of my videos and doesn't know about safe/unsafe sex and seroconverts as a result?', then how is the producer's responsibility different from that of any video, film, or television show that shows or intimates sex of any kind? If a guy watches a vanilla video like one from Falcon or Titan or any of the other mainstream companies and then has sex just as they show in their videos but neglects to remember that the guy wore a rubber in the video and then seroconverts--what then? Do we want a law disallowing the representation of any sex whatsoever (which is pretty close to what the current power structure wants)?
"The culture in general and 'gay' culture in particular are astonishingly sex-negative at this point: titillation and teasing (like in ads) are ok, but real sex and total fulfillment are close to becoming illegal (along with smoking in bars, etc.). Adults are becoming older versions of our hyper-overprotected children, older but undeveloped, dependent on others to figure out what they should do.
"I don't see danger warnings at the beginnings of skateboard videos, surf videos, etc. When I walk into a restaurant, where's the warning that I might choke? Can you imagine a warning at the beginning of a video about big wave surfers at Maverick's: 'Surfing may cause drowning or other bad things. There are sharks out there! Stop!! Ask your Mom or your president if you should do this before buying a surfboard. Be afraid!!!'
"I'm a pornographer for a reason. I love sex, live for sex. I think, eat, breathe, and dream sex. My work is an honest representation of the world I live in, the men I live around. I am unapologetic, they are unapologetic (well, except for Billy!) because we are adults who believe that our lives are our own to live."
End of statement. The words are Paul's but I stand by them completely. I would only add that it's my [Keith's] PERSONAL opinion (not necessarily T.I.M.'s) that American adults in general and in all contexts have really got to start taking responsibility for their own actions, responsibility for their own decisions, and responsibility for the consequences of those decisions instead of endlessly looking around for someone else to blame when anything untoward happens to them--as it's always going to. Nobody ever guaranteed you that life was going to be safe. Life cannot be made absolutely SAFE. And who would want to live it if it were?
Keith, you can edit your posts by clicking on the little button above your post.
I have to say, that Paul's reasons for not including a disclaimer are a tad weak. He was able to find a few examples where warnings don't exist, but he missed out on the thousands of examples where they do. This is a country where McDonalds had to put warnings on their cups of coffee for god's sake! But they didn't do it out of their love for the customer and concern for their safety, they did it merely to prevent getting sued again. When you think about it, is it really that big a deal to put a little warning on a coffee cup? No, especially when you weigh it against people getting burned, or worse yet, McDonalds getting sued.
Furthermore, damn near every video I've seen where people are doing something extremely dangerous has some kind of "don't do this at home" warning on it. The Jackass vidoes are a case in point. But even getting back to Paul's example of skateboarding vidoes... the one's I've seen either show people using safety gear, or they show the direct consequences of people not using safety gear. They show bloody legs, huge gashes, people talk about how many times they've broken their legs, they'll show you all the stitches on the back of their heads... so that anyone watching is very clear on what can happen if you mimic their behavior.
Finally, I wouldn't see adding some kind of warning at the begining of a film as apologizing. I would consider it giving people the information necessary to make good, informed decisions. You may counter with "Everyone knows how HIV is spread nowadays" which I'd respond with, What about those poor young kids living in Bumblefuck, Alabama where all they teach is abstenence only?
I'll agree with Paul that we are all adults, (hopefully) and in the end we are responsible for our own actions. I just hope that when people make these decisions, they are making them with all the facts necessary to save their lives.
Well, JB, you've convinced me to go from grudging support of disclaimers to fully favoring them. When I wrote about carnal idiots and illiterates I guess I forgot about Bumblefuck Alabama.
But I still think the McDonalds hot coffee warning and all that fine print in the TV ads that says, "Closed course. Professional driver. Do not attempt." are idiotic beyond belief.
As a newcomer to these forums, I want to thank joeblow69 for the technical advice--but NOT for the slur on Alabama. I'm not from Alabama and heaven knows I disagree with the majority of voters there on just about everything, but I just think it's a mistake in general to be so condescending toward other people and to underestimate their intelligence--which gets back to one of the points I tried to make previously.
It has always been my experience, in every department of life, that if you treat people of any age like adults they'll behave as we all hope adults should (and even surprisingly young children will do this), and if you treat people of any age like children, they'll behave like children. Fifty years of treating adults as if they were children has brought this country to the mess it's in now. "If you ask me" (as Libby Gelman-Waxner says)!
Heh, my mentioning Bumblefuck, Alabama wasn't really meant to be a slam on alabama... it's just an expression, meant to convey "somewhere out in the middle of nowhere".
Of course, after doing a little research, I see that I screwed even that up... the correct term is Bumblefuck, Arkansas!
Anyway, I'm not underestimating anyone's intelligence. I'm questioning people's ignorance. As smart as those people are out in Bumblefuck, Arkansas are, if they are ignorant of the facts, they cannot possibly come to an intelligent decision. Which is why I believe T.I.M. (and other bareback studios) should include some type of disclaimer on their videos. To be fair, though, I think non-bareback videos should probably have a disclaimer too, reminding people that the sex acts shown are low-risk, but the transfer of HIV and other STDs is still possible.
Say, Keith, since we've got you here, can I make a suggestion for T.I.M.?
Maybe you've already started doing this, but it would make a lot of sense if on your DVDs, you added a cumshot compilation. (I don't think there was one of the 2 T.I.M. DVDs I have, Like Honey and Riding Billy Wild).
Normally, I consider cumshot compilations pretty useless, but in the case of a bareback movie, the cumshot comp. contains pretty much everything I want to see, and would be perfect jackoff fodder.
Paul Morris and Treasure Media make some of the hottest videos around. I just finished watching "Breeding Mike O'Neil" Extremely erotic and hot (btw Paul, the guys with the tats were EXCELLENT!)
Forget the unsafe sex disclaimer, we've already heard it too many times. I practice safe sex in my personal life, but I enjoy watching guys who have consented to having condom free sex.
It's a free world, and the guys who do these vids, do it on their own free will. Don't knock it. It's like "if you don't like it, turn the channel" type of thing.
I'm glad they do like to perform condom free, and I salute them and I want more videos like Paul Morris and Treasure Island are putting out.
The consumer has voted! And it's ALL about what the consumer wants.
I'll be watching and reviewing my first Treasure Island Media movies soon. Keith Lucas said:In light of the recent HIV scare in the straight porn industry, does Treasure Island use the services of AIM or require regular STD tests for their performers? I ask because of the bare back videos.
As someone who wandered in here because of the HIV scare unfolding before us on the straight side of porn. So it was with some degree of interest that I started reading this thread. It seems, with my limited knowledge, the gay porn industry was hit hard and then reacted in a pro-active fashion to the crisis that was claiming so many of its players lives. So when I read this statement:
"If the question is, 'what happens if someone watches one of my videos and doesn't know about safe/unsafe sex and seroconverts as a result?', then how is the producer's responsibility different from that of any video, film, or television show that shows or intimates sex of any kind? If a guy watches a vanilla video like one from Falcon or Titan or any of the other mainstream companies and then has sex just as they show in their videos but neglects to remember that the guy wore a rubber in the video and then seroconverts--what then? Do we want a law disallowing the representation of any sex whatsoever (which is pretty close to what the current power structure wants)?
"The culture in general and 'gay' culture in particular are astonishingly sex-negative at this point: titillation and teasing (like in ads) are ok, but real sex and total fulfillment are close to becoming illegal (along with smoking in bars, etc.). Adults are becoming older versions of our hyper-overprotected children, older but undeveloped, dependent on others to figure out what they should do.
"I don't see danger warnings at the beginnings of skateboard videos, surf videos, etc. When I walk into a restaurant, where's the warning that I might choke? Can you imagine a warning at the beginning of a video about big wave surfers at Maverick's: 'Surfing may cause drowning or other bad things. There are sharks out there! Stop!! Ask your Mom or your president if you should do this before buying a surfboard. Be afraid!!!'
"I'm a pornographer for a reason. I love sex, live for sex. I think, eat, breathe, and dream sex. My work is an honest representation of the world I live in, the men I live around. I am unapologetic, they are unapologetic (well, except for Billy!) because we are adults who believe that our lives are our own to live."
I was pretty surprised. The whole tone & content just strikes me as a dodge...an arrogant one at that. A serious consideration is being taken and simplified. A disclaimer at the beginning does nothing to invalidate the content or intent of the video and to think that it does shows a basic insecurity about the work. I didn't mean to walk in and piss on anybody's Wheaties but it's late, its been a long day and this was probably not the thread I should have read. Peace.
Max Booty "She smells like angels ought to smell." Frank Miller, Sin City
In the gay porn world, ones health status is essentially ones own business. Most of the model/actors take proper precautions (i.e., required condom use in videos) such that if they are HIV negative, they remain that way, or, if they are positive, they don't infect others. Many (but not all) of the men participating in bareback videos are already HIV positive. A small but significant number of them are in serious denial, either in the form of ignoring their status completely or by veering off on an alternative medical tangent promising personal cure or protection for others -- each equally dangerous.
Ignoring for the moment the inadvisability of two (or more) seropositive men exchanging body fluids, there are several new studios whose specialties are bareback sex among young men new to the gay porn industry. These young men are entering the industry under conditions where there is no regulation, no monitoring, no nothing other than the assurances given each of them by the other that he is negative. Yeah, right! What they are being given is a death sentence.
After a number of years during which HIV infection rates were falling, they are now on the rise again -- dramatically so. And the group hardest hit are those in their teens and twenties: men brimming with the invincibility of youth and illprepared by a system which still refuses to discuss the implications of sexuality because it offends republican and fundamentalist sensibilities -- and besides, abstinence works.
Not to belittle the tragic situation currently unfolding in the straight porn industry, but the gay world is facing a scandal far more extensive: AIDS is going to decimate another generation of gay men. Until there is an HIV vaccine, condoms and common sense are our only hope.
Fifteen years ago, the gay porn industry took condoms and common sense to heart. Being careful might not be quite as much fun, but being alive and healthy was certainly justification. Unfortunately, as exemplified by Strokin Man and many others, there is still a market for new bareback material. And there are still studios more than willing to fill the gap, regardless of the risks to their casts or the message to their viewers.
Sorry, but until an HIV vaccine is found, I consider new bareback video material to be socially irresponsible and morally reprehensible, not only for the message it sends the viewer but also for the risks it demands of its casts. And neither "taking responsibility for their own actions" nor "it's ALL about what the consumer wants" is any excuse for irresponsible, reprehensible action by studio or actor or consumer.
And if anyone feels I'm stepping on their toes, please let me know: I'll step harder!!!
JoeBlow69, I passed along your cumshot compilation idea to Paul Morris and he liked it. He said he'll take it up with Damon Dogg the next time they do a "Damon Blows America" DVD.
As to the other posts, I endorse Strokin' Man's willingness to mind his own business and let other people mind theirs, and thanks for the kind words about the vids, SM!
I have no idea what world Gay Satyr thinks he's describing in the second paragraph of his last post, but he knows nothing whatever about conditions prevailing at our studio. RobHammer, I wouldn't regard GaySatyr as a reliable source of information. Gay Satyr, get over yourself. You couldn't step on my toes if you spent the rest of your life trying.
GaySatyr and Keith Lucas, that doesn't answer my question:If they don't I'd like to know why. It seems totally irresponsible to have unprotected sex without some level of assurance that is provided by regular STD tests.
I don't know whether you caught the OTHER thread on Titan's Bareback Policy. I'm not the expert here but apparently gay studios have no such policies. This is a part of the reason why I find Titan's touting their new policy as "protecting the stars and the industry" such a cynical joke.
Plus I think there's just always been a different attitude in the gay community
Actually, RH, I did answer your question, although not explicitly. The only monitoring of HIV (and other STDs) status in the gay porn industry is by the individual model/actors, themselves. Essentially, it is assumed that all partners are likely to be HIV positive and one acts accordingly, using condoms. There is no monitoring body within the gay porn industry and they do not make use of AIM. Under these conditions, Titan's policy is the only policy that makes sense.
And Keith is right in that I have no idea how things are at TIM; however, I know enough people in the industry -- and I knew enough twenty-five years ago -- that I am quite aware what is going on.
TIM's policies are not my business -- I wouldn't want them to be. However, a social conscience is something we all should have and it is something TIM sorely lacks. Having a prominent disclaimer as to the consequences of bareback action would, in my opinion, mitigate their stand. As it is, I am not interested in their product. And I will continue to use my voice to campaign against them.
RobHammer, I'm sorry to have taken so long to answer your question, about how and whether we test our performers, but I thought Paul Morris, founder and owner of Treasure Island Media, would be better able to answer it than I. So I asked him, and this is what he had to say:
"The answer is that we're an atypical porn company: We deal with each man who comes to us as an individual. We do extremely thorough face-to-face interviews, and we have an equally thorough interview form which covers everything from fantasies and sexual history to sero-status for not only HIV but hepatitis, syphilis and all other STDs, drug use (crystal in particular) and so on.
"If we're dealing with someone who routinely takes 30 to 40 loads a week from anonymous partners in a major metropolitan area, we deal with him in one way as regards testing. Recently our New York videomaker Max Sohl produced a documentary on a man whose record is 112 loads in a day and who loves getting fucked anonymously through gloryholes in NYC. He's an intelligent and eloquent man, fine with his HIV status and indifferent to that of the men who fuck him. Had we asked him to be tested, he undoubtedly would have done it: He has a great respect for my company. But I don't see the point in having him undergo a test when the results are known and accepted by all involved.
"When the situation warrants it, we are assiduous in protecting the guys. When a straight skateboarder from Sacramento came to me and told me he wanted to suck off a guy and swallow his load, I exchanged e-mails and phone calls with him for several months before I decided that he was real and he was serious. When I set up the 'scene' for him (more of a documentation than a 'scene,' really, as is most of what I do), I had the man he was going to suck off thoroughly tested immediately before the shoot.
"I think a major problem with porn today is that it is all completely industrialized. Men are reduced to cyphers who all must be subjected to the same tests, behaviors, expectations, 'If you've ever done barebacking, you can't work for us,' and so on. Some of the big companies, intent on growing bigger and richer, are engaging in wanton and stupid blacklisting rather than being discriminating and intelligent. My company is small--we produce only a handful of excellent DVDs and videos a year--so the men we work with are men, not 'models' or 'talent,' to us. Men who speak for themselves and think for themselves. Which is why we respect them and treat them as individuals."
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