When Dark Alley Media started releasing features more than a year ago, partner Owen Hawk knew that the movies were good — but he wasn't getting too cocky. "I don't think there will be any award-winners in our first few releases," he said at the time. "We just want to get a good product out there."
But in March, Mutiny — the studio's very first release — walked away with the Best Specialty Release (Extreme) trophy at the GAYVN Awards.
"I tried to introduce a little bit of violence," notes Matthias von Fistenberg, one of Dark Alley's founders and director of its features. "I made it look believable to the guy we were flogging. He was scared, and my cameramen were scared… we shot it in one continuous take. That scene seems so violent that it’s nearly illegal. But it’s extremely erotic at the same time, because I think the character, the actor, is genuinely scared. Of course nothing really bad happens to him, but when you make a film with a little bit of domination and submission, a little bit of violence with sex, the mixtures are dynamite."
It was the idea of providing a gritty, realistic alternative in the gay porn market that propelled the creation of New York-based Dark Alley. Von Fistenberg and Hawk started the company with Tim Rusty, who departed last year, selling his shares to von Fistenberg.
"I was always the one who wanted to make movies that would stand on their own for a long time," von Fistenberg says. "We’ve been doing this kind of under my leadership, but we both share ideas, and the success of the company is just as much attributed to my vision of making movies as much as to Owen's grip on reality, on how much everything costs, what we can and cannot do, and the great support that I get from him."
The company alternates its bigger budget titles like Mutiny with unscripted sex-party movies like Owen Hawk: Unleashed. Edgier fare like Fisting Punks and Leather Punks has also helped the company stand out.
"We try to make every movie a little bit different, not fall into the mold," von Fistenberg says. "I think people who stay in the business for a very long time and at the same time are always interesting, surprising, and inventive are those who don’t settle for the same ideas every time."
Enter The Show, Dark Alley's new two-part extravaganza made in conjunction with Pitbull Productions. The feature is a tale about a billionaire who picks ten contestants to compete to become his personal companion. Von Fistenberg notes it was filmed with four cameras (a trademark of his) with cutting-edge motion picture technologies, a camera crane, Hollywood-grade lighting, and sets built by a Broadway set designer.
"We made Mutiny on $15,000, and now we made the show on $100,000 — $50,000 to produce and $50,000 to market it — so I guess in a year we went a long way," he says. Von Fistenberg also notes that he tried to make this the biggest-budget professional interracial movie, using the most successful black company to help him.
In line for a Fall shoot is a co-production with British company Recon, which owns fetish websites. The two-parter will mix dark and dirty fetish sex with a more mainstream prison sex set filmed on location at a jail in Connecticut. Von Fistenberg also has an idea to film an unscripted, live-edited orgy film where actors can't leave the set for the full shoot.
"This is from the line of movies where I don’t really tell actors what to do. I like to observe them, let them be themselves and lose their own inhibitions," he says. "I’ve done enough movies in California to know that it’s stop-and-go, the way the movies are made there. It really destroys the mood, and everything ends up being so staged and artificial that I just cannot get off on it."
Dark Alley, which changed distributors to Marina Pacific earlier this year, plans to release a title a month, with two or three bigger budget releases. Von Fistenberg also notes they are working on making an independent mainstream feature with a Hollywood director.
"This is kind of like a baby that barely is able to walk on its own, and people are finding out about us… I really don't know what our place in the market is. I’m trying to have a company that has a fetish line and a mainstream line," he says. "It is very difficult for me to compete with big companies that have big budgets. The Show is our first attempt at cutting out a serious piece of that market. It’s important for us to make big movies that would allow me to spend money on marketing, building the brand of the company."
Contact Info: 212-380-1010; [email protected]; DarkAlleyMedia.com; distributed by Marina Pacific, 800-999-5530.
