Who better qualifies to start a one-man studio than writer, videographer, designer ("I prefer ‘visual stylist.'"), producer, director ("I'm the only American Film Institute Fellow directing porn."), and distributor Phil St. John? The company's very suitable name is "Phil ST John Productions." ("‘ST' in caps, no period," he specifies, with the attention to detail that has led to his being called "the Vincente Minnelli of porn.")
His first feature, just out, is Euro Sex Demons: Feet First. Why "Euro?" "It's cheaper to shoot in Prague, a Communist-atheist society which has no artificial religious taboos against homosex. Plus I'm allowed the luxury of more shoot time so I can handle my own camera and get exactly the effects I want."
Why "Sex Demons"? "I always take a Jungian approach," St. John says. "This movie is an all-action wet dream set in a red-leather netherworld."
Why "feet first"? "I met this guy who was into worshiping my feet, and I said, ‘Oh, I should throw this in.' I always try to do something a little fresh and different."
Indeed he does. He created a still-flourishing twink sub-genre with Skateboard Sliders, set new standards in choreographed hand-held moving cameras with Czeski Friends, developed unique uses of blue-screen for Taggers, brought Scott O'Hara and Chad Douglas into movies, was the first director to do an electronic press kit with a "Behind the Scenes" feature, did Double Delights, the first all-DP movie, and, by the way, introduced disposable douches to the Czech Republic. "I sent my assistant out for some, and he came back with laxatives!"
Mister St. John's roar of laughter at this story typifies his good-humored realism about the ups and downs of the business. "I started out shooting ‘loops' for arcade peep shows. Then I made and distributed 16-millimeter reels for the gay porn theaters. VHS killed those theaters. Now the Internet is doing the same to DVDs. A couple of years ago there were only 400 mentions of my name on the web. Now there are thousands. More and more, people who just want to get off are accessing seven-minute sections of movies online. The way to combat the little home screen and its quickies is to do what Hollywood did in the 1950s when TV first threatened its theaters. That is, make fewer, but bigger and better movies. It's obvious from the Internet that there's an audience out there for what I like to do. But the small companies that used to back me to make movies my own way are either gone or have been incorporated into conglomerates with their own directors who are interested parties, plus a house style that works for their share of the market. They're not going to hire me to do high-budget, high-quality movies of the individual sort I wish to make. So I started this company."
It's not his first. "I have founded two labels before. The first was California Dream Machine, which I left for an offer to make mainstream features. That didn't pan out; I was stuck doing documentaries. So I accepted an offer to be a partner in starting another adult company. It was successful right off the bat, but I was edged out of it and started a very happy five-year, 10-movie relationship with Pacific Sun. During that time I shot Czeski Friends in Prague, to which I returned to make Euro Sex Demons: Feet First. I have another movie planned for shooting there, and I also want to work in Brazil, a very homosex-positive culture. And it's a big body culture, and there's something in the water there because they all have humongous dicks. I also plan a big-budget movie here in West Hollywood whose title I can't tell you. Let's just say it's my homage to a very famous mainstream movie."
Mister St. John has no plans to own a sound stage or other production facility. "It's just not cost effective. Phil ST John Productions will issue three or four movies a year, each of them high-end and handcrafted. The overhead of owning a studio necessitates issuing more movies, and you can't always guarantee their quality. I want to make only the movies I want to make, when, where, and as I want to make them - choreographed, art directed, staged porn - movies that build a world you've never seen before. A hallmark is a dream scene that allows me to take off in a real phantasmagorical way. In the meantime I'm happy under another name working on large-format fine-art still photographs, often of mural size."
Buy Phil ST John Productions movies wholesale at Paladin Video [(800) 228-8395] or retail at www.TLA.com.
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