Page 53 - AVN February 2016

Falcon’s New Flight Falcon Studios Group’s new president on redefining a legacy brand
Tim Valenti dramatically expanded his executive profile when he was
recently named president of Falcon Studios Group, succeeding GAYVN
Hall of Famer Chris Ward. Valenti was a logical choice. He’s a known
quantity in his capacity as founder/president of VOD membership
site NakedSword and senior vice president at parent company AEBN.
However, it’s the first time the venerable brand founded more than
four decades ago by the late Chuck Holmes—which now includes
Falcon Studios as well as Hot House Entertainment and Raging Stallion
Studios—has been led by someone who developed his name and
reputation working on the internet side of the business, rather than as
a performer or filmmaker. (In 2016, Valenti marks 20 years advocating
for VOD and streaming video. He was a 2011 inductee into AVN’s Hall
of Fame—Industry Founders branch.) Ward agreed to stay on until
the end of 2015 to ease the transition. AVN spoke to Valenti shortly
after the holidays as he was settling in behind the desk (“Chris is ready
to get to France and drink more wine and write the great American
novel,” Valenti said.)
We caught you on your first day.
VALENTI: You certainly did. Don’t give me too hard a time.
What’s your first order of business?
My first order of business is to gain the respect and trust of the folks
that have been working so hard and so diligently over the last few years
to keep the fires burning here at Falcon Studios Group, but (also) to
do their best to keep up with what has been a tough business over
the last few years. I don’t have any bad relationships with anybody at
Falcon, but they’ve never worked with me straight-on, day-in-and-day
out. And so my first order of business is to make sure everybody is on
board and feeling good about my leadership. And then we can go from
there. I obviously have a lot of ideas about the brands and where and
how I think we should position them, and where and how I think the
creative can be developed and distinguished better from other brands.
All of that in time. But none of that can happen unless the folks you’re
working with trust you and understand your reasoning.
You are all located in the same building in San Francisco, correct?
We’ve been in the same building for approximately one year. We
occupied different floors. There really wasn’t a lot of integration
between the staff other than Chris and I, obviously, having a lot of
communication because we were both part of the executive team at
AEBN. NakedSword was the first company to merge into AEBN in
2007. We were a gay network and what I did was advise AEBN on
brands and talent that I believed should be part of the overall AEBN
network. What that meant was Falcon and Raging Stallion, and
eventually Hot House, coming into AEBN. They operated Hot House,
Falcon and Raging Stallion under what they put together as the Falcon
Studios Group. They were their own entity. They were primarily
production. NakedSword has always been its own entity in that we
are the largest membership VOD and streaming site. We’re also a
production company. We also have our own tech division; we build our
own products, like our white labels. So we’re a little bit more diverse of
what we can do on our own.
Will NakedSword and Falcon Studios Group now be more integrated?
I think the smart thing to do is look at where there are good ways
to integrate in terms of technology and some of the production.
NakedSword has its own network, apart from
Falcon Studios Group, that we manage and
for which we produce and distribute content.
We have over 200 other studios and 20,000
scenes and that’s what we do. I think that
at NakedSword we define ourselves a little
bit more broadly. We also have NakedSword
Originals, which is our hardcore production;
we have NakedSword Independents, which is
essentially the indie movies and projects and
shorts that we get involved with: “I Want Your
Love,” “In Your Room” and the Seed Money
documentary. We’re about to release a short
called “100 Boyfriends.” Next month we’re
filming a short in New York based on a stage
play from Dublin, Ireland, that was brought to
me about six months ago that I thought made
for a really interesting NakedSword indie
project. So we (have) a broader range while
Falcon Studios Group is primarily hardcore
production with three different brands.
conditions, some of
the consolidation that
”Based on market
happened with the
brands needed to
happen. I think there are
still really good, strong
ways to distinguish the
brands. I believe in that.
These are legacy brands. How do you define
them in 2016?
I think that is going to be a big part of
our own self-examination as a group. Based
on market conditions, I think some of the
consolidation that happened with the brands
needed to happen from a financial perspective.
I think there are still really good, strong
ways to distinguish the brands. I believe in
that. That will be one of the things that we
really look hard at in 2016. And I think we’ll
see some difference in really defining the
brands individually. There’s no question it’s a
challenge. I think that’s one of the reasons they
asked me to be the president of Falcon Studios
Group. The reason, I feel, why NakedSword
is so successful and why we’re still here is
because we’ve never been afraid to take a look
at ourselves and reinvent ourselves. That is
what I am going to bring to the next few years
at Falcon Studios Group—to really examine
who we are, who these brands are. It is more
difficult because they are legacy brands.
There is a demographic, a certain part of our
audience, that expects things to be a certain
way. And then there’s a growing part for whom
that legacy means nothing. But they’re such
rich brands and they were so successful in the
periods they were at their height that we can
go back at look at the things they did that made
them different. I think there are markets for
that. Again, what this group has had to contend
with over the past few years with shrinking
market share, free porn, all of it, is pretty
remarkable. They banded together and they
were able to keep production at the level it’s
always been and be a very profitable company
at a time when a lot of companies are not
profitable. There’s a lot to work with (here).
My personal challenge is handling it all.
I have to ask: considering everything that’s on
your plate, are you still going to do internet talk/
variety program “The Tim & Roma Show”?
We’ll still do specials from time-to-time. One
of the things that’s exciting about NakedSword
this year is that we’re developing a couple of
new shows that will be the “Tim & Roma” of
2016. That served its purpose for sure. But
(co-host Sister Roma and I) just like getting
together and gabbing so we’ll probably do some
fun things from time-to-time. But we have a
whole slate of indie, fun mini-documentaries
and programs that we’re developing. So where
there was once just “Tim & Roma” there will
be other types of non-hardcore programs and
entertainment on NakedSword.
2.16 | AVN.com | 53