Page 56 - AVN August 2018

FEATURE |
Greg Lansky, who made his U.S. directorial debut in 2006, says, ‘You’re owed nothing. Come prepared.” (Pictured: Abella Danger)
“GREG HAS QUITE OFTEN COME BACK TO
ME YEARS AND YEARS LATER, EVEN UP TO
BLACKED AND SAID, ‘I REALLY APPRECIATED
WHAT YOU DID FOR ME.’”
—SCOTT TAYLOR, PRESIDENT, NEW SENSATIONS/DIGITAL SIN
FEATURE | LANSKY
Taylor tells AVN he’s grateful to Lansky for always pointing to that moment in Berlin.
“A lot of people embellish and forget facts and say whatever behooves them. … Some wrote me
out of the script, but Greg has been—from everything I’ve read—pretty dead accurate,” Taylor says.
“That’s a blessing. It’s really nice. I think often times he tries to credit me too much.”
Taylor remembers the sample movie they showed him was underwhelming—“but the passion these
two guys had.”
“If somebody is coming out to L.A. from Europe, you’re damn serious about this,” Taylor continues.
“It was like, ‘All right, you’ve made a movie. I know you can make a movie. If you’re that passionate
about coming over and doing something, then I’ll give it a shot.’ There were no promises beyond
that.”
Taylor has given opportunities to numerous established directors early in their careers, such as
Jonni Darkko, Nic Andrews, Nacho Vidal, Lee Roy Myers and Jacky St. James.
“I’ve been a part of a lot of people’s start-up and it worked out for me really well. I benefited from
the work they’ve done and I managed to hang on to a couple great guys,” he says, referring to Eddie
Powell and Paul Woodcrest.
Lansky and Adriano’s first movie for Taylor was the 2006 release Slut Diaries, under the Digital Sin
imprint. Adriano performed in every scene; the only female cast member still in the industry today is
Lisa Ann.
“Greg has quite often come back to me years and years later, even up to Blacked and said, ‘I really
appreciated what you did for me,’” Taylor says.
“I find most of the time people just kind of forget where they came from. I have very little to do
with the director he’s become. It’s nice when someone that reaches these kinds of heights is humble
enough to step back and say, ’Thank you very much’ regularly.”
Lansky and Adriano would go on to co-direct about a dozen movies together for New Sensations in
2006-07, including four volumes of the Fresh Outta High School series, two editions of Prying Open My
Third Eye and Rich Little Bitch (which starred Sasha Grey).
Less than two years after moving to L.A. together, Lansky and Adriano began going their separate
56 | AVN.com | 8.18
ways. Lansky says even though he and Adriano realized early on
they had different visions, they remain good friends.
Lansky says he and Adriano joke about how they got started
“all the time. … It would definitely make for a good movie,
that’s for sure—and the story’s not even over yet.”
REALITY CHECK
By late 2006, Lansky observed how influential the Reality
Kings network was becoming as the industry continued to
migrate toward paysites.
“And by digging a little bit in that world because I was very
interested, I saw this monster. These guys were just the absolute
domination of that market,” Lansky says.
“I do my research like I always do and I come across these
guys and I’m like these guys are fucking beasts.”
But not much was known about the online porn behemoth.
“They were in Miami and they didn’t even really want to talk
to anyone. And at the time they were not shooting in L.A. at all,
or they might have but they didn’t have anyone in L.A. shooting
for them. And I was like, that’s my in,” says Lansky, who
remembers people saying he was “an idiot” for wanting to shoot
for an internet company in relative anonymity.
They would say, “You’re never going to get credit for it, you’ll
never win awards,” according to Lansky.
“I almost was like in Star Wars—The Force was calling me. I
don’t know why, I wanted to work for these guys. Not by the
image they were broadcasting, because the image they were
broadcasting was nothing. They didn’t want anyone to know
about them. They were super discreet. But if you knew a little bit
about the affiliate business and the volume, they were owning
the internet. It was insane.”
He finally got a hold of one of the principals through a girl he
knew.
“And all my life it’s been about nailing a couple of big
meetings. That’s what I tell people. I say, ‘Do your fucking
homework.’ We live in a time where people are so fucking
entitled. They think they’re owed something. You’re owed to
prepare. That’s what you’re owed. You’re owed nothing. Come
prepared,” Lansky says.
“A lot of times I’m not smarter or better, I’m just more
prepared.”
Lansky says he met with Mike, one of the principals of Reality
Kings, at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in January 2007.
“And that was that moment where something tells me this
is the right thing to do. Because everyone was doing the same
thing in Porn Valley,” Lansky says. “Everyone was like, go get
a budget as high as possible. Then shoot five scenes—because
it was five at the time, not four—as low as possible and then
pocket the difference. Easy. Then rinse and repeat. For as many
times as you can with as many companies as you can.
“I was like, I don’t want to do that. It sounds boring. I quickly
get bored.”
Lansky rocked his Reality Kings meeting at the Venetian
“because I was prepared.”
“I was like, ‘Hey, man, this is the problem you have and I’m
the solution,’” he says.
“I was like, ‘You’ve got that many sites. The sites look like
that. I can do better than this. I can do it faster. And I can do
it in L.A. And I’ll give you no fucking headache and I’ll deliver
the movies.’ He was like, ‘OK, when can you start?’ We shook
hands. And by next week I was shooting for them.”
Lansky put everything into his first few Reality Kings scenes
because he knew he was being tested.
“Again all my life I’ve always looked at those key moments,
where, when you’re given an opportunity, don’t fuck it up. Don’t
try and make money on those first few scenes. To impress them
I made no money on the first three or four scenes. They looked
so fucking good that I almost lost money on them,” Lansky says.
“I think I did lose money, actually. But they looked at them and
said, ‘Whoa, this guy fucking rocks.’ And I made sure every
fucking detail was on point. I didn’t just fill up an order, I made