If you haven't heard the name Vinny DeStefano, maybe you've heard of some of the films he was a partner/producer in: Deep Throat, The Devil in Miss Jones, Candy Stripers...straight titles so important that even gay men have seen them.
"I've been in the adult business since 1964 with 8mm," says DeStefano, who went on to have other companies including video and distribution efforts. "Then the U.S. government put me in jail for interstate transportation of pornography. I got arrested in 1980... What hurt me the most at the time was the probation: five years probation, not allowed to be in the adult business or even talk to anybody in the adult business."
For 10 years, DeStefano was watching the market, and he became a VHS duplicator: "I knew what was selling. And I kept saying to myself, if I was going to go back into this, it's crazy to go into heterosexual.... I said the only way to make money is to go into the gay market, but to give them quality movies, with good-looking talent, plenty of sex, and to do good artwork on the box. It's not like anybody else's, it's completely different."
"It" is Top Hat Releasing and its first label, Radioactive Media, which started late last year with its first release, Cumpig School. DeStefano didn't do it alone, enlisting the help of The French Connection owner Chriss Hull, who knew DeStefano through his duplicating business.
"I always wanted to have a line of movies that - rather than making it top-centric like so much gay porn is - was bottom-centric: take a bottom guy and make him the focus of attention," notes Hull, emphasizing this company is completely separate, unique and unrelated to The French Connection. "So the Radioactive Media line all features just one bottom [in each movie]. Our first movie is a gang bang, because that was the guy's big fantasy."
All of the films are shot in Prague with Eastern European talent, although DeStefano notes it's a goal to eventually film in the United States with American models. Second release Bottom Blast, out in late January, was shot in a more traditional scene structure. Coming up are Hard Fuck Fest, Daze, Panty Boy and Cumpig School 2, all co-directed by Hull and Richard Mailer. "My goal for the Radioactive Media line is that we film guys fucking that you actually want to see fuck," Hull says.
While DeStefano isn't gay, he has been influenced by the best: "I met Bill Higgins in Prague, and we spent quite a few hours kidding around, laughing, because he knew a lot of the same people I knew, we go back. And I saw some of his stuff...I can tell quality."
Hull notes they are using a unique tri-fold DVD case that eschews the traditional clamshell/insert formula, and have used a unique color combination that they hope stands out on the shelves. "The heterosexual people think I'm nuts to spend this kind of money,' DeStefano says. "But then I've been in the business long enough to know...the second that people saw it, they said, ‘Hey, you're gonna make money because you're doing it the right way.'"
Hull adds it's important to give stores time to sell the product, and that Top Hat won't be offering a huge discounted rate on their own website, a practice he frowns upon. "You have to create a product that people want to go to the store to buy... We wanted to have a very definite tactile sensation, we wanted it to open up and open out so it's more of an experience. And starting with our third movie, we're also going to put in little magazines about each movie, so you'll have something to touch and hold in your hands that you can't get online."
In addition, Top Hat will be resurrecting classic Bob Wingate titles through a new Bound & Gagged label, releasing some 12 titles previously only available on VHS before creating new material. "I was always a fan of Bound & Gagged magazine.... I was always a big fan of his movies," Hull notes. "We re-edited it, added some extras and did some other things to tweak it a bit, and we're re-introducing it into the market, so it's Bound & Gagged remastered, but it's the classic Bob Wingate titles."
Top Hat plans to release two titles a month, one from each label, and may be adding more in the future.
"I'm not a kid.... I'm 76 years old. I know every aspect of this business, and I believe the only way for somebody to walk back into the business is the gay market - and I can talk like this because my son is gay - and you have to give them quality movies," DeStefano says. "Gay people don't mind spending $50 or $60 in a store and buying a quality movie, versus the general public who's going to go in there and buy a $12 or $15 one. Once it's in the stores, once people buy it, then they'll look for us again." end
CONTACT: YouDirtyBastard.com; (800) 644-0871.
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