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Email Luke Archives Photos Stars Search Luke Is Back.com AVN Oct 20 Nina Hartley - Porn Star Feminist Nina Hartley writes on Nina.com:
This could be the most important thread of the year... Cross sells coming to an end?
About 60 posts on this topic were removed from GFY. Jeff writes: "Perhaps time for a Luke Is Back editorial about how the industry keeps endearing itself to regulators and various blue-haired crusaders with such underhanded schemes." XXXJay writes on JBM: "Expedia or Hotwire are just giant crossales. You book a plane ticket - then bada boom, bada bing they X-sell you rental cars, hotel rooms and trips to Disney World. With porn sites it's quite a similar concept, except I'm sure that most times a surfer gets nailed with a pre-checked cross-sale it's because they were not paying close enough attention on the signup form. To that extent, adult websites have taken advantage of this and I'm sure that the chargebacks have gotten out of hand." Mitch Farber from Netbilling.com writes: "Imagine what would happen if you booked your plane ticket and found out that because you did not see the little prechecked box on your order form at Expedia, you now have a rental car, Disney cruise amd hotel to go along with your plane flight." xibillx writes: "I was told they blindly shut down the top 30 companies from buying cross sales. Get your own merchant account now, or start shopping for a new job. 3rd party billing has one foot in the grave." Webmaster Steve Lightspeed Introduces His 8yo Son Danny To GFY Steve writes: "Meet the future CEO of Lightspeed Media... He can be very persuasive!" Top Ten Signs You've Seen Too Many PSEs Fast Eddie writes from first-hand experience with Porn Star Escorts:
How About Some Moral Leadering?
Adultfyi.com Back Up Gene Ross's serving company went down Sunday afternoon. Gene was uploading his site late and things kept crashing. He called his web site serving company and the owner said, "Oh yeah, we're moving. I'm sorry that I didn't give you better notice but I'm moving my location and you'll be up on Tuesday." But the site went back up Monday morning. 'Toon porn' pushes erotic envelope online Adult animation booming on Web, spreading to mainstream media. Epoch Denies Prechecked Free Cross Sells To Some Clients A pre-checked cross-sell means that when you sign up for one site, you are automatically sold a membership to another site unless you uncheck a box. So many consumers thought they were paying out, say, $20 a month for a subscription to a porn site, only to get a bill for $60 that month for subscriptions to three porn sites. Now Epoch, the major credit card processor for porn sites, along with other credit card processors, are cutting back on prechecked cross-sells and other things that could cause high rates of chargebacks. More than a 1% rate of chargebacks will bring down large fines from VISA and MasterCard.
Alan writes: "I think he confirmed that for some clients they are a gone. I think he also confirmed they are here to stay for other clients. I suspect for those clients that were using them as a mainstay rather than a supplemental deal they are being turned off. It is going to force some programs to depend on affiliates again rather than relying on other programs to send them members." Mitch Farber at Netbilling.com writes: "I personally do not like prechecked cross-sells. We do have clients using our system and doing cross-sells with our direct mode API. However, they typically do them unchecked." Hooper writes:
Jason Sechrest Asks Out Hannah Harper Jason Sechrest is bisexual but leans to the homosexual side. From Jason's diary on JasonCurious.com:
Scott Fayner Interview Waking up just before 5 pm Friday, Scott Fayner from l-keford.com calls me. I'd emailed him earlier in the day for an interview. "I go to bed at noon. I stay up real late. "I [usually] wake up around 4 PM I yell at my dog and then I walk my dog. Then I always eat something, because that's important. I'm really into Applejacks right now. I drink Mountain Dew and I eat potato chips. Then I go buy drugs and it all starts." Which types of drugs do you like? "Stimulants. I spend about $400 a week on them. I like coke, alcohol and weed. Speed is the worst. It's poison. It messes with people bad. Have you ever seen a girl on tweak? Their skin is yellow and they have no idea what is going on. You can easily maintain of normality and healthiness with cocaine if you do the proper things like eating and sleeping and drinking water. It's hard with speed because you can't sleep. You're running around and your jaw is going crazy. Speed always made me sporadic and crazy. If anyone thinks that my writing makes no sense now and is all over the place and weird, it is much worse when I'm on speed." When did you last take speed? "Nine years ago. I used to smoke it. I snort cocaine." What has that done to your nose? "Ruined it." I'm remove most of the profanity from Fayner's speech to keep this interview more family-friendly. Someone has to think of the children. "I looked it up on the Internet. If you blast two eight-balls a day for three years straight, it will put a hole in your nose. That's almost impossible to do. It always hurts in the morning, when I wake up. I would rather be kicked in the balls then punched in the nose." What's the longest period you've gone as an adult without drugs? "Three years. From November 1997 to November 2000. "I quit because I was in Boston and way out of control. My roommate called my mother [who dated the protagonist of the movie Blow]. She was living in Florida. She showed up at our place. Then I went to rehab and stayed clean for three years. I was always smoking pot, but I don't even consider that a drug. That just keeps me normal. "Then I moved to LA in 2000. I like drugs. I hate writing. I hate being so honest. People say I should be able to do what I am doing straight but it's a major chore writing the way that I do. It's more tolerable when I'm high. I can get through it. "I'd much rather not be on drugs. But this world isn't exciting enough. If it was, there wouldn't be drugs and nobody would need them." How would you compare life on drugs to off drugs? "I pay a lot less attention to things when I'm straight. I'm less interested. Obviously, I'm a lot more healthy. I look better. Cocaine is all about learning things from other people. People really open up when they're on cocaine. They like to talk. They tell you things they might not tell you otherwise. As a writer, as a person who observes things for a living, you get a lot more honesty from people if they're high. Later on, they might regret it. "Being straight has a lot more advantages in this world. I don't know about the porn world. I've gotten pretty far in this business in four years with my little white partner in crime." How did you get into this business? "I sent my resume to Allan MacDonnell [then editor of Hustler magazine]. I worked as Mike Albo's assistant for a year. Then I got promoted to the editor of Hustler.com. I was writing for Hustler. I did that article where I tested Jewel DeNyle's pussy mold and her. "Then Allan got fired. Bruce [David] took over. I like Bruce but Allan pushed me a lot. I'd hand him in stuff and I'd have to redo it. With Bruce, not as much. "Then the thing [writing] for l-keford.com came up. They offered it to me [in March of 2003]. [At LFP] I had to be at work at 9am. They expect me to work. With writing, you can't tell me when to write. If it's in me in the middle of the night, that's how I am. "Most people would say, oh great. You've got a job where you sleep at your desk and walk around all day. I decided I could make the same money staying at home and working from home. "This l-keford.com thing is so many hits. I bought l-keford.com in April 2004. "Your old boss Lensman was going to buy it, trash l-keford.com, and send the traffic to adultbeat.com. I decided it was wrong if l-keford.com was gone, so I bought it. ScottFayner.com is taken by some scoundrel. "I hear from people -- 'oh, you're riding on Luke's back.' I did the right thing. It was years ago that [Luke] had it [August 8, 2001]. A lot of people have written for it -- Wanker Wang, Martin Brimmer... Nobody gave Wanker s--- for writing for it, but everyone gives me s---. People love to hate me." Does doing drugs help you to get closer to some of your sources? "Oh yeah. It's a great tool for things like that. It's not about having money and power anymore with girls. It's about having a bag of white powder in your pocket. I never write about anybody doing coke except for myself. I've done coke with everybody in this business, except for you." What have been some of the keys to your success in the industry? "I'm honest and fair and I respect people's wishes. Same thing as with you. People say, 'Luke wrote ---- about me.' But who told him? You told him, and then afterwards felt stupid about it when he posted it. "I think I'm a nice guy. I like to party. Everyone likes to party. I wear the same costumes as everybody else. I hope that one day somebody comes in and challenges me for my job so that I can move on." What would you like to move on to? "I'm writing a book about my life. It sucks. It's really hard. It's about strange weird things that have happened to me. It has no structure yet. I have a hundred pages. I went on two two-day writing frenzies of 45 pages each. "None of it is positive stuff. It's about my weird encounters where guys try to rape me and I slip through the backdoor before I get my ass pounded. All that stuff that a mommy wants his son to write a book about." How long have you been using drugs? "I grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. I started smoking pot at nine. Everyone in my neighborhood was older and most kids in this country in junior high start smoking pot. Now everyone's doing speed in high school. "I took acid at 12. Mushrooms. I never tried cocaine until college [University of Hartford in Connecticut, where he graduated in 1994 with a BA in print journalism. Then he went to grad school at Emerson College in Boston and quit.] "My parents were hippies. After my parents split up, my dad moved to Texas. He used to run qualudes from Mexico to Texas. My dad smuggled weed in my diaper from Canada to Massachusetts. "My mother owns some high-end furniture stores in Boston." You had a middle-class upbringing? "Yes. I have an older sister. She works for the mayor of Boston." What does your family think about what you do? "My whole family is really proud. It's almost impossible to make a living as a writer. And I've been doing it. And not just in one place. And I'm working on other things. "At times, my mother wishes that I would move on. But I'm not going to work for Time magazine. It's not my thing." What were you doing between 1994 - 2000? "I chased a girl to Los Angeles in 1995. That's when I got hooked on speed. I stayed for six months and then left. I went back to Boston. I was working in nightclubs -- bartending and bar-backing. The little Colombian guys who took out the trash were all coke dealers. "In 1997, I went to rehab. After that, I got my dog. My dog got kidnapped. I got her back. I moved to Nantucket Island. I was doing manual labor -- mowing lawns, working at a lumber yard. I worked at an animal hospital. "I wrote for some newspapers and magazines in Boston. I went through my tortured poetry phase. I've got cases of bad poetry. "In January 2000, I packed and drove to LA." What's your Judaism background? "I was bar mitzvahed. My dad was always more religious than my mom. He grew up in Israel. My dad is a Hebrew school teacher in San Francisco." Have you had substitute father figures in porn? "Allan was. I respected him. He's a great writer. He was dedicated to that magazine. "I've never had a father so I was never really looking for one. I get along with my dad now but I grew up without a dad. He was banging girls three years older than me in high school, so how do you call somebody like that your father?" Who was your first porn chick? "The first one that I got head from was Taylor Wane during an interview at Hustler. Mike Albo's car broke down and he made me interview her. She blew me in his office. I think he got upset. "She told me to play with myself. I was like, '---- you. You do it.' She came over and blew me." Was it good? "It's always good." What was it like working for Mike Albo? "I love Albo. He used to talk about the mandolin and bluegrass music. I could listen for hours. After I worked for him, there were two girls who worked for him. They weren't interested in ---- like that. I'd walk by and he'd be talking about that stuff. I would look at the girls and I'd feel bad for them. "I learned a helluva lot from that guy. I was writing for his magazine every month. I have nothing bad to say about the guy at all, except for once he lost his Zippo [lighter] in his truck right behind his seat. I went down into the parking lot at Hustler with him. He wanted me to reach around and look for it. There were piles of trash. Are you kidding me? "I said, I can't do this. I don't work for you anymore. "Mike's a great writer." Much of the industry hated him. "Yeah. He told it how it was. I kinda took his attitude but not as harsh. If you piss somebody off, it is usually because you are telling the truth." Which of your writings are you most proud of? "I'm not really proud of the l-keford stuff. It's all middle-of-the-night. I write it and I don't read it over. I'll read it over if I wake up the next day and there are a ton of emails of people calling me a racist, I'll think, oh G-d, what did I write? "I love the story where Taylor Rain and I ran from the cops. "Taylor lives upstairs from me. She's moving in a week. "l-keford.com isn't changing the world. There's not a lot of substance there. I'm not a reporter and I never claimed to be. I don't even have a tape recorder. It's more about the moment. I can make up the quotes. I have a good memory. The way people say things is often more valuable than what they say. "Writing sucks. It's always good to challenge yourself in new ways. In the new Hustler piece I wrote, I wrote it in the present tense, which I never do. "I'll keep hitting a nail over-and-over again because it pisses people off. I'm so not a racist but I feel strongly about all of my opinions. I catch all this s--- from black people for saying the word nigger. If you use it, I can use it. Call me a kike. I don't care. I don't take offense to that. "It's never me saying the word nigger. It's someone like Paris Hilton saying nigger. I'm not going to say n*****. White America is way into black culture. It makes total sense to use the word nigger." Which porn girls have you had a relationship with aside from Taylor Rain? "I've slept with a bunch. When your values and your education and your way of thinking and your work ethic is not the same, it's hard to hang out with one. They're all nice and sweet but whether they are relationship material, I'll argue that all day." Do you think porn girls make for good wives? "No. No matter what anyone tells you, or what I used to say all the time, I'm totally cool if my girl is banging someone else and coming home to me, it's just work. But it's just not true. If you have any pride in yourself, there's no way you want to be letting your girl do that ----. It's more like I'm a loser for not taking care of my girl and she has to go bang other guys for money. That sucks. It's hard to go through life like that. If you love a girl and you're letting her do this, it's because you can't take care of her properly. "A lot of these girls don't want it any other way." Why do girls do porn? "A lot of people think it is out of laziness or desperation or being tricked into it. "It's certainly not a noble career. There was a moment that they had a choice and they chose porn. It probably wasn't the right decision. They were making somebody else money, not themselves. They're all getting screwed. "There are a lot of these girls who have ruined their relationships with their parents and their friends over this." A kind word for the people at Sineplex Entertainment Phunhog writes: "Good on 'ya for having real trailers on your site. If I'm going to drop $30 on an adult DVD, it's nice to know what the hell is really on it. Other producers should take your cue." XBiz World -- What's The Point? Brad Shaw writes on JBM: "Checked out the new Xbiz one, it looks good. But why not just do it online? I never requested it, but one showed up at the office. Good thing I do not work out of my dads house anymore!" Peaches replies: "You can make more money on a full page print ad." Toolz writes: "I've always wondered about AVN/Klixx, etc, what's the point? By the time you get it news in there is at least 6 weeks old. This is a biz driven by day to day happenings online, what's their main purpose... a history chronicle?" DavidD writes:
The Rosenblatt - Fishbein Drama AVN president Paul Fishbein and AVN advertising director Jennifer Rosenblatt were good friends for about five years. Then AVN fired Jenn earlier this year and she filed suit for sexual discrimination. I believe Paul was happy to settle the contract part with Jenn. He likes her and wants her to prosper, but when he saw what was in her lawsuit, he decided not to settle at any cost and that he was happy to see it go to court and let the evidence come out. Don't expect any public comment from AVN. Jack writes: New AVN management looking at getting rid of Tom Hymes. He's considered not in tune with the online industry. AVN has decreed no PLAYERS BALL coverage even thought it is the most important event around Internext. Montana Gunn Asks Sophies Dream Girls: 'Where's My Money?'
KSEX vs XXXPornTalk
Synchronicity Last week my friend Travis was going over to his dope dealer's house to get a bag of weed. While Trav was sitting there, this Persian guy comes in with a little dog. They start talking. The Persian is a pilot. "Could you fly me up to the Van Nuys airport once a week?" asks Travis. "Yeah. What do you do?" "I work in the porn business. I've got to be in the Valley every week." The Persian's eyes lit up. He got all excited. You could tell he was a freak. He says, "Man, I've got this chick. This little stripper I've been banging from this club. She's a little dirty whore. I throat-f--- her all the time. She loves it. This girl's got a G-spot at the back of her throat. I trained her good. She works over at *****." Travis said, "My friend owns that club. I'm banging a stripper from XXXX that loves to get throat-f---ed too." Persian: "Her real name is Ann." Travis: "That's really weird. My girl's real name is Ann too. Is her phone number 209?" Persian: "0792." Travis: "Yes. Bro, if she's your girlfriend, she wasn't last night. I've been banging her off-and-on for the last three weeks. She's a freak. I've got pictures of her. I'll send them to you." Jackie Collins Presents Kevin Blatt was interviewed today at the Hotel Figuroa in downtown Los Angeles for the new six-part E! series Jackie Collins which begins November 21 (about getting married in Hollywood). As KB was walking in, he spotted two stunning women. One was the supermodel Gisele Bundchen (Leonardo DiCaprio's girlfriend) in Ugh boots and jeans with no make-up. She smiled and winked at KB. He said, "Hi. How are you doing?" It made his day. KB was interviewed for the sex tapes episode. Gen Padova Interview I was reading this thread. Gen Padova jumped in alleging drug use at the home of porn star Cytherea and her boyfriend Brian. Dick Tracy, a multifaceted porn star with credits in both straight and homosexual porn, writes to Gen:
I call Gen Padova Thursday afternoon. "It's freezing," she says. "It's only 70 degrees. I'm spoiled because I'm from California. I've never lived in the snow." How's your health? Gen sighs. "I haven't been to the doctor for a month. I'm putting it off." Is that a good idea? "No, it is not a good idea. I'm sick and tired of being told what to do when I know my body best. I've been feeling fine. He wants me to go in for a shot every week to boost my red blood cells for energy and oxygen. I know that I don't need it every seven days. I feel I only need when I feel like I need it. Him trying to convince me to do a session of chemotherapy when I've told him that I'd rather die than do chemo again." What's the deal with your comments about Brian and Cytherea? "Everyone knows I don't hold back. If someone asks me a question, I'll give them an answer according to the best of what I know (unless it is about someone's health or family). But if it should be of concern to the adult industry, I'm going to answer the question. "It got to Brian and Cytherea. Brian sent me an email [Thursday night] on behalf of him and Cytherea asking if they had done anything to me to upset me to say something like that. Just let us know. "I responded -- it had nothing to do with anything you've done to me. I was asked a question and I answered it. If I was wrong with my information, I'd do anything I could to make it up to them. I asked him to clarify the matter on the board. He didn't [address the drug allegations]. "A lot of the people in this business who use drugs to get by are in complete denial and they'll take it to their grave because they are ashamed of it." Why do you hang out at XXXPornTalk when you get slammed so often? "There are more people on that board who appreciate who I am because I can stand up for myself and not be ashamed. I don't use a hidden name. There are only a few people on the board who like to take hard shot at me." Why don't you hang out at ADT? "Because it is so huge and I can't keep up with it." Gen does a couple of porn scenes a week. "I just started dancing yesterday. When I woke up this morning, my whole body hurt badly. It was too much exercise. "When I get spare time, I like to hang out with my parents. I'm close to them. "I'm happy with everything I've done. I don't think there's much more I could do to make me happier. If I have to go, I have to go. I'm so sick and tired of fighting. That's all I've had to do in my life. I'm doing herbal stuff. I'm eating healthy. No carbonated sodas. I'm sick and tired of doing treatments and being nagged by a fricken oncologist. Having to fork over a couple of thousand dollars in medical bills every month on top of my health insurance." Are you giving up on your regular medicine? "I have in the last couple of weeks. I'm not taking my anti-cancer drugs. I tell [her doctor] that I am, but I'm not because I don't like the way they make me feel. I'm not into the whole man-made drugs supposedly making you live longer. It just feels like they're killing me slower." Shayne Shiksa writes:
Chaim Amalek writes:
Ariana Jolle's Eastern European Adventure Travis writes:
Japanese gangster arrested for cross-border pornography
Thai doctors blame penis hacking craze on lingering polygamy
Debbie Does Dallas Documentary A production company in the UK working for the Channel 4 network blew through Los Angeles earlier this week interviewing people about the 1978 porn classic Debbie Does Dallas. They were headed Wednesday to Washington D.C. to try to talk to the Buckley brother who directed the film. David Buckley, producer, now publishes a conservative newspaper in Santa Barbara. The female stars of the film have been difficult to track down and when located, they have begged off doing interviews. Eric Edwards, Herschel Savage, and R. Bolla, however, gave long interviews, all with different perspectives on the movie and how working in porn has affected their lives. R. Bolla particularly regrets his porn participation taking him away from mainstream acting. Eric has his hands full trying to raise two kids. The crew is headed for Miami to interview anti-porn crusader Bill Kelly, formerly of the FBI. Cytherea's Boyfriend Brian Responds To XXXPornTalk Attacks A few weeks ago, Cytherea's boyfriend Brian punched out Tony from Australia at Sardos during Karaoke night. Now he's getting slammed on the XPT board. He responds:
Mot quits Nana Plaza for porn stardom
Dana writes: "Few of us get to live a life of plucking pearls out of oyster shells. But we suck it up and perservere. That is why the expression 'unsung heros'. Many people could tell stories of hardship and degradation and misery and rejection that exceed a car accident. She is lazy and stupid. No sympathy here." Vivian Lin seems to be doing quite well for herself. Why bring her down for her past? Nothing Prevents Performers From Breaking New HIV Testing Protocols Scott Ross writes for AVN.com: "The unfortunate reality is that little has changed since spring - while the vast majority of the industry has abided by the new protocols, and some companies have adopted even more stringent testing requirements, there is still a gaping hole in the system that protects adult performers." Lydia Millet Interview Lydia has two novels coming out next year, including one about the porn industry -- Everyone's Pretty.
Aria Breaks Up With Her Hubby Aria is still married to Jack Spade but I believe she's living with Lee Stone and the muscle man has captured her heart. Until the last few months, Aria, Jacke Spade and girlfriend Becca Brat were a threesome. They lived together and loved together. Now they've all split up. Dan Silver Interview "I'm directing for a couple of different companies," says Dan, a porn editor for a decade. He's also married with two kids. "Colossal Entertainment and Smash Pictures. I did my debut with Easy Prey." We chat by phone. He's in his office at Eagle Eye Editing. "They [Smash] gave me an interactive. I just did My Playtoy 3 with Lauren Phoenix and Selena Silver. It's a different beast than a gonzo. "I'm directing under my real name -- Dan Silver. I just finished one for Colossal called I Cream On Jeanie." Hasn't that name been used before?
"It's a departure from the typical gonzo. It hearkens back to the early '90s stuff where there was more of a scenario. It focuses on these five frat boys in a house and they stumble on this bottle and they rub it and the genies come out and they have sex with the genies. "Lauren Phoenix. Britney Skye. Miss Monroe. Katie Morgan. Sammy Rhodes. Jayna Oso. Shy Love. "I shot it October 6th and I turned it in October 18. It's a quirky romp. Remember Ed Wood who made those low-budget stupid horror movies? This is like that. The camera logs off. The smoke machine comes in. There's a dissolve and wha wha, the genie's there. "There's a killer scene between Lauren Phoenix and Kurt Lockwood. To have these two professionals come off the set... They'd never worked together. They independently said that that was the best scene they had ever done made me feel good. I had little to do with that. That's between the two of them. "My directing style is that I shut the hell up and let the professionals do their job. My job is to capture it. The less I say the better. That scene went on automatic pilot. "Aside from the campy set-ups, once we get into the action, I'm a gonzo-style shooter. I was taught by Vince Voyeur. I edit for Mike Johns [at Red Light District]. I look at the best guys in the business and what they do. I'm not locked into a style yet. "No condoms. I would prefer not to have fake tits, but I'm not casting. Colossal casts. "I'm going to shoot another movie this week called Domestic Disturbance. They have cop outfits. It's going to be women police officers arresting the men and having their way with them. There was one girl they were going to bring in. I said, I just edited a scene of her's. Her boob job is so bad it is almost distracting. She's pretty and she's nasty, but if we could substitute? "I feel I can do so much better than what I've been doing. It's one thing to sit in your edit bay and edit thousands of hours of porn. It's another thing to be on the set and to be in charge of what is going on. "I still have to figure out what looks sexy on camera. I'm not a big fan of where the business is going and the nasty let me [verb] in your [noun] and [verb] on the floor and [verb] it up. Oooh, yeah, that's great. That's disgusting. "I like hardcore sex but I get more aroused if the girl, before the scene, is lotioning up her body or making out with the talent on the couch even though they've never met. That's sexy because it's real. How do you transfer that into a scene?" What do you enjoy more? Directing or editing? "I'm so tired of sitting in the chair. This not only affords me the opportunity to get up and move around, but it also gets me out there. When I would go to AVN and the awards show, and I'd see these girls I'd edited thousands of hours of, they had no idea who I was. Now you put a camera in my hand and I'm a genius. They can't wait to hug me and kiss me and like me. "I saw Lauren Phoenix today on a set. She was like, 'Oh, hi. How are you?' Before, she would walk right by me. I'd be like, hey, I cut that scene you won the AVN award for. And she'd be, yeah, yeah, yeah. They don't get than in addition to the photographer, the editor makes them look good. "It's such an injustice in the business that someone like Brad Armstrong [Wicked Pictures director] can shoot a feature film in three days and then it takes me six weeks to edit it. He makes more money for those three days than I do for six weeks. "The last film I edited -- The Collector -- is one of the best things I've done since Falling From Grace. Barring any bizarre Fashionistas coming out this year, it should win some serious awards. Brad Armstrong directed. "It would be interesting after ten years of editing to get an AVN award. I've convinced myself that those things don't matter, but in reality, it is nice to be acknowledged for the work that you've done. You have people who come into the business as talent and then seven years later, they're in the hall of fame. I'm not taking anything away from Misty Rain, Asia Carrera, or Brad Armstrong...but at what point do all those people who trudge through all this murky media get acknowledged? It's unbelievable how mistreated the editors are. How the prices have dropped. "That's why I had to get out. I make more money shooting one day of camera than I do a whole week editing." How's the industry reacting to the Cal-OHSA fines? "The ones they are going to go after are like Rob Black. The ones who are really pushing the envelope. I heard that T.T. Boy was well-known for not using condoms and for not caring about tests and going out and getting real street whores and filming them. The people like Vivid, Wicked, Hustler, Smash, Red Light, that get the tests, have the IDs... They're professional. They're not just back-alley blowbang this-is-for-the-Internet-let's-pick-up-some-girl-in-a-bar-and-rape-her. 'We didn't rape her. We paid her a thousand bucks.' Well, that's the feeling that it gave. "At what point did slapping and spitting become sexy? I hope to shoot for companies that want something a little softer. I can't do what guys like Jake Malone, Mike Johns, do. If the scene goes there and the talent are into that type of thing, I'll capture it until it gets me uncomfortable. "I edited a Michael Zen movie. A Vince Voyeur movie. A James Avalon movie. A Mike Johns movie. I'm flexible that I have those skills. "Smash is putting a lot of press into this stuff. They have a big following. "Colossal wants me to do a couple a month for them. "The Collector is beautiful. It is lit beautifully. It is shot beautifully. There's beautiful music. It's a quality movie. Can you jerk off to it? No. I can't. Who can? I don't know. Is it going to play in every hotel in the country? Yes. But as far as hardcore pieces going out the door? How many can they sell? Three thousand? When you've got a company like Anabolic or Red Light, they're selling 6,000 pieces out the door. But they don't do a soft version. "There's a real change in the business. Even the hardcore gonzo people are starting to do more scenarios. Pizza delivery boy stuff. It used to just start with the girl on the sofa -- hi. How are you? What's your name? How long have you been in the business? You want to [verb] a [noun]? Go. "Now they say, let her be a genie. A cop. A secretary. We're back in the '80s. Dialogue and stuff. The talent doesn't want to do that. They want to lie on their back for an hour, get their check, and go. They don't want to sit around a set for ten hours doing multiple takes, different angles, and dialogue and pickups. "It used to be that actresses came into our business who couldn't make it in mainstream and they became porn stars. But they were actresses first. These girls coming off the bus, they have no intention of acting. They don't have an acting bone in their body. They have oily legs and big tits. "By the way, whatever happened to the big-titted girls? How come all the girls coming into the business have no tits or fake tits? "Companies want their gonzos to have more story. That takes more time. Time used to equate to money. Nobody wants to pay more money. They want their product for the same amount of money. They don't care how long you spend on the set. "The prices of editing are going down. I have a wife and two kids and a mortgage. I can't compete with some kid out of college who bought a Final Cut pro system and lives out of grandmother's garage. The stuff I used to get $1,500 to cut, they're not telling me I have to do it for $600. Quality be damned. If you give this kid $600 at the end of the week, he's ecstatic. He gets to buy his girlfriend a drink at the movies and a sixpack. I can't support my family on $600 a week. "When Red Light District started, they didn't have that much money. I did all their movies. Vince [Voyeur] said, when we get bigger and start making more, we will pay you more. I was making $1,300 per movie. After a year, I went to Vince and said it was time to up it. He basically fired me. He hired another editor in-house. Three months later, he came back to me. He said they were so busy that this guy couldn't handle it. What's it going to take? "I was asking for $50 more per scene? From $1,300 I went up to $1,500. He begrudgingly said ok. He said, by the way, we now want behind-the-scenes. I said fine. We want a trailor. I said ok. A couple of months later, he said, now we are doing bonus scenes. Instead of six scenes, it is seven. The bonus scenes used to be a 15-minute BJ, no big deal. Then he started doing full-scenes. So you're editing an extra scene. They expect it to be free. "Instead of making one master and a back-up copy, then they wanted a third copy for their foreign guy. Every time I run a copy through my system, that's two-hours-and-20-minutes of time. Dion said to me, can't you run it at night? "I said, so if I go to Kinkos and tell them to run my copies at night, I shouldn't have to pay for them because I'm giving them the paper and they're running it at night? "I said no. It is still my time, my machine, my air conditioning, electricity. Now they're up to eight copies. One with a watermark. One without. One for cable. That's over 20 hours." But you don't have to work during that time? You can just push a couple of buttons and walk away? "Yeah. But I can't work on anything else while that is going on. My system is being used. I'm not a duplicator. If you went to a duplicator, they're probably charge you $100 per copy. That's a $1,000. And they're getting people to do it for free. I finally said, I am not going to do it for free. I could take those three days and cut somebody else's movie." Do you still cut for Red Light District? "I only cut for Mike Johns who happens to have a distribution deal with Red Light. "I refuse to join the race for the bottom [in pricing]. I did the same thing with Hustler. I insisted that they start making their product better. I wrote them a letter: * If you are going to use two cameras, this is what you have to do. * These are the elements I need. * I need more quiet on the set so I am not doing hours of audio work taking out the director's voice. Whatever happened to 'Quiet on the set!'? These people carry on phone conversations while the camera is rolling. Do you know how stupid that looks to put moans and groans in in post? Then they have the nerve to send it back from quality control with a note that says her mouth was making an aaah and you put in an oooh. I want to say, go to hell. There's 20 minutes of the director talking. If I miss one aaah from an oooh, blow me. That's ridiculous. How about the guy shuts up and we let the girl moan and groan. Duke: "Who are the best and worst directors to edit?" Dan: "The best directors are the ones who have sat in the edit bay. There's a whole new confluence of directors coming in because the video cameras are so cheap and they haven't spent one minute in the edit bay. So they have no idea what cutaways they need and what shots fit together. "I don't want to edit anybody else's stuff other than my own. They're not paying me now to edit. They say that the money they give me [to make a movie] includes the edit. We don't care how you edit it. I say, what? That's two separate things. I'm shooting and I'm editing. OK, I'm going to shoot it so that it is easy to edit. So I spend less than three hours on a scene. Four years ago, I was spending a week editing a scene for James Avalon at Metro. Hundreds and hundreds of cuts in a scene. You can't beat off to it. It's cut, cut, cut. Look at how much we can cut in non-linear." MTV-style. "Exactly. You need a sustained shot with rythym and motion in my view." Then what is the purpose with all these MTV-style cuts? "It's directorial masturbation. It is -- look at how many cuts we can make. Michael Ninn, same thing. Michael Zen. With all the effects, make-up, hair, wigs... I think people have lost track of what people want to see. That's why gonzo is so popular. That's why POV (point-of-view) is so popular now." The Internet features neat little scenarios like Bangbus, probably the most successful POV line. That's what people love. "So they can put themselves in the picture." Who are the most expensive editors? "I hope that it would be me. It used to be me. "I had one company who paid me $6,000 to do a feature. I called them and said I needed the check. They said, ok, but we need a trailor. I said, that wasn't included in the price. They said that if I included the trailor in the price, they'd get me a check tomorrow. "I said that sounds like extortion. That's pornographic of you to do that. But, I need the check, so I'll do it. I came home and told my wife that story. She said, you call them back and say absolutely not. You're a professional. We can wait the week. "So I called them back and refused. I asked them for $500 for the trailor and they ended up paying me [in full] a week later. I'm never going to work for that company again."
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