CHATSWORTH, Calif. - The Elegant Angel brand was easily the most ubiquitous of any studio at this year's Adult Entertainment Expo. No one could miss it-it was imprinted on the band that held the badge-holder that was draped around the neck of everyone who set foot in Hall A of the Sands Expo Center.
The Elegant Angel booth was equally noticeable, one of the biggest and brightest on the floor, with fans crowding the aisles to spend a few minutes with Alexis Texas, Sunny Lane, Rebeca Linares, Flower Tucci, Havana Ginger and Shyla Stylez.
The studio made another strong impression Saturday night at the AVN Awards, taking home a total of nine, including Best All Sex Release for Alexis Texas Is Buttwoman.
For Elegant Angel, 2009 will be even better than 2008, according to owner Patrick Collins. He's had his ups and downs over the past decade, but after some rough sailing a few years ago he's back on track and then some.
"It's been a good year for us," Collins told AVN. "We do one release a week. We run a tight, small operation-22 employees."
He scaled things down a few years back, outsourcing his Internet paysites through BrainCash.
"I had to go back to basics," he said. "What did I do in the beginning that worked?" He concluded it was "surrounding myself with young, bright, passionate people."
One of those is general manager Graham Travis, who said the company has been "a collaborative success. We really have a great team-the directors, the sales team, the graphics department. It's been the same crew for two and a half years."
He feels that the studio is "creating a product that satisfies consumers, and we're taking it to another level. HD gives us an opportunity to do that."
Collins said they're working toward releasing two Blu-ray releases a month. He is particularly proud of the distinctive Elegant Angel look, with its clean, white-background box covers, designed by the in-house artists, who were also responsible for the new website design.
But when it comes to giving the fans what they want to see, Collins feels that "the key is the passion of the directors for what they're doing," mentioning William H., Mason and L.T.
His own lines, such as It's a Daddy Thing (Best Young Girl Series, 2008) and It's a Mommy Thing, have been top sellers, and this year he'll do a sequel to It's a Secretary Thing. He's also planning a girl-girl movie, with no dialogue, just sex sounds, lots of intimacy and featuring "the most beautiful girls."
He's particularly proud of his solo line, All By Myself (another award winner this year) because it allows him to use "girls who won't do hardcore."
Elegant Angel is known as the preeminent squirting studio, having single-handedly made that particular niche commercially viable. "It's a visual representation of an internal thing," Collins said. "We never faked it." He laughed. "We've gone through a lot of cameras." The squirt series are all continuing but, he said, they're "not our focal point any more."
William H. is now shooting all his movies in HD for Blu-ray release-except for the squirting titles. The HD cameras are too pricey to risk getting drenched by female ejaculate. It took him awhile to adapt to shooting in widescreen High Definition. "You have to frame a little different, and it takes more light. But I like Blu-ray, the detail. I feel I'm improving all the time."
Several of the girls signing at Elegant's AEE booth (Texas, Lane, Linares, Stylez) are featured in William H.'s Performers of the Year 2009, the sequel to the AVN-nominated Best High End All-Sex feature. (It also stars 2008's actual Performer of the Year, Jenna Haze). It will ship on January 27.
For more information, visit www.elegantangel.com. For sales, email [email protected] or call (818) 704-2673.
