AEBN Interviews Third Degree Films’ Joey Wilson

Q: How did you come up with the name Third Degree?

A: A friend had seen a novel in the airport entitled Third Degree (by veteran crime author James Patterson with Andrew Gross). We were discussing a few names when he mentioned it. It struck me as being a great company name, without being corny or some slight imitation of another company, something I refused to do. I could play with it a few ways, hot; and then there’s the interrogation side.

Q. Everybody in this business has a story about where they were when they first had the idea for a new venture – smoking a cigarette at a coffee shop, shooting the bull with so-and-so at a strip club, sitting on the sofa at somebody’s pad hooking up with some little slut. Where were you and what were you doing when Third Degree really started taking shape in your head?

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A: I had anticipated a company for a while. With the success of the revitalized Rosebud and then FusXion (with Metro) I had it in my head I wasn’t going to just go do it again for someone else. It really started coming together as I was walking out the door at Metro for the last time. I had some great talent aligned as far as directors and photographers and then Tony Santoro came on as power source and there’s no looking back.

Q. AVN credited you with revitalizing those lines for major studios before starting Third Degree. What’s going to be different about this project than the ones you have worked on in the past?

A: Now, I only have to answer to myself and the consumers. I’ve got some great talent with me that had been a little stifled in the past. Before I was always having to answer to a roundtable of ideas or was hurried in the process. That is no longer the case. I don’t believe in a cookie cutter format or some other boring ideology. These people have an interesting and unique insight, not to mention some perverted minds.

Q. Chris Streams is your first contract director. Do you think that is the future of the biz – studios that have their own directors locked up under contract in order to forge a unique style, but no contract stars?

A: Once you have a face, you’re locked in to it for the duration. When you have a person behind ideas and they are extremely talented, there is no same ol’ same ol’. Variety, they say…

Q. How much gonzo is too much gonzo, or is that like asking how much sex is too much sex? There’s no such thing.

A: There are really only few great gonzo, wall-to-wall people out there. There’s plenty trying but only a few who really live it. It is night and day between the ones just trying to make a living and those who have all the elements – technical, artistic – and a true lust for it.

Q. Your box covers already have a unique feel to them. How important is branding your product with marketing, logos, art, publicity so that consumers keep coming back to you for future releases?

A: First you need to be reliable. If it’s not on the inside they’ll never come back. Then you need to be recognized from across the room. I think our boxes do just that. Branding comes with consistency. You can’t fool a true connoisseur. I’ve always strived to not look like anyone else, packaging wise. If you want to be noticed you have to be different.