Page 49 - AVN December 2015

The chief creative officer behind Blacked.com and Tushy.com does things differently from his
Porn Valley colleagues. Like arranging to conduct this interview at the Beverly Hills Hotel’s
Polo Lounge. Sitting on a shady patio surrounded by the beautiful people and serenaded by a pianist playing on a Steinway grand, we talked about porn. [
by TodHunter
Tell me a little about your background. How far back do you go in
the business?
I started 11 years back in the TV business, working with this
company that was doing all the reality shows. It taught you to
be creative and fast, and it taught you to get that “wow factor”
out of people. It taught you how to get people’s attention. I
was working with this Dutch company—they were affiliated
with Endemol, I worked with Endemol a lot—and I was part
of the team that created a lot of the formats: Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire, Fear Factor, Temptation Island. It was a revolution in the
TV business at the time. It was really shocking to people.
As much as I was having fun, I didn’t see myself making a
career out of it. I was an associate producer there, I was doing
really well, but I wasn’t passionate about it. I always loved the
adult industry and I always wanted to be part of it.
It was harder to be part of the adult industry at the time.
There was no Twitter, no Facebook, you couldn’t just contact a
company, or girls, or people. So I went to see a friend in Spain
and said, “We should just put our money in together and make
an adult movie and see if we can sell it at the Venus show.”
When I think of it, it was a stupid idea, y’know? [Laughs] I
was a photographer by training, but had no experience directing,
much less porn. I had watched a lot of it; I guess that qualified
me at the time. I went from one friend to another, and I wound
up with Steve Holmes and a bunch of girls in England. Steve
was my first mentor. He taught me a lot, and after a week and
a half of shooting this movie, with its challenges and my lack
of experience altogether, I wonder how the hell did I ever finish
that movie. A few months later we were at the Venus show. I
had spent every single dollar we had and I barely had enough
money to get to Berlin but I had to sell this movie. So I show
up at Venus and Steve was, as usual, very gracious, he offered
to help me out and introduce me to a few people. About 20
minutes into the show I sold it to a German company. I was
surprised. I made almost no money on it, but I was happy that
I made my money back. That weekend I met Scott Taylor from
New Sensations and we hit it off. He told me, “If you ever
come to L.A., I’ll give you a movie to try.” That was enough of
a promise for me to move my entire life to L.A. Just that verbal
promise. It was the best decision I ever made.
I made a movie, and then a second one, and a third one. I
think I stayed a year and a half but I was very interested in the
web business. I felt it was really taking off at the time. Not just
the financial aspect of it—that was part of it, I’d be lying if I said
it wasn’t the case—but it was an interesting way of reaching
people. It reminded me of the TV business. Through a mutual
friend I met the owners of Reality Kings, which was taking
off insane at the time, this was about 2007, and I got a great
connection with them. They wanted somebody to handle their
operation in Los Angeles and launch new sites, and I became
a creator and supervisor of a lot of the sites, and vice president of production. It was wonderful.
We had a mastermind group of guys, and it reminded me of the TV business. I got into the creative
process of creating websites or rebranding websites. About seven years went by there, with sites like
We Live Together—I wasn’t part of the launch but I revamped it—we rebranded and revamped and
created and stuff like that. It was really an interesting ride.
Then two and a half years ago, I wanted to create my own company. I had quite a different vision
from what I had been used to. I had been studying cinematography and photography all along, more
as a passion than anything else, and I wanted to create an adult company that is a reflection of the
memory I had of my golden era of porn in the ‘80s. The Private, the Marc Dorcel. I thought I could
disrupt the market and create something new. I took advantage of what I had learned, but not let it
limit what I could dream of. It was a very scary process. Like anything, it could fail. You never know
ahead of time, no one does. I launched this company, and we started with Blacked, and we created a
site within that niche, and I thought “You know what? It doesn’t matter what niche we come in.” It
could have been lesbian or any other niche. I would have kept the same approach. It’s the same with
Tushy. I like to deliver quality. Period. That’s it.
Look at the passion. … The money and the
production is just a tool to elevate the art. It’s
like having a bigger canvas to paint on.
How do you define quality?
I grew up watching porn at a time when porn was doing really well. It was Private and Marc Dorcel
doing really big movies. They even had the Hot d’Or show in Cannes, during the Cannes Film
Festival. It would be unheard of today. All the paparazzi were there, and it was incredible. For once,
the adult industry was elevated. If you ask me about quality—“You paid too much for this girl; you
paid too much for that”—no, I don’t agree. I like elevating my art, I like elevating my industry. I
think that bringing bigger productions, paying the girls more, paying the actors more, making them
feel like they are real fucking artists—because in my opinion they are—is a step toward bringing a
bit of Hollywood glamour into the adult industry. It was there, but we lost it. Obviously I’ll never be
that person by myself, but that’s the hope and the dream that I have.
I have a 10-plus crew, I spend some time on the lighting. I have pre-production meetings where
I talk about the girl, we talk about a vision, we write a computer storyboard with photos and
computer-generated images, and we do our best to come up with the best production value. I leave
some room for improvisation, because sometimes the talent brings more than you think. Or less.
And you deal with it. That’s the beauty of porn, there’s a bit of cinéma vérité to it, and you’re able to
capture something in the moment.
>12.15 | AVN.com | 49