Director/producer Eon McKai has his work cut out for him.
As the head of Vivid-Alt. — the new Alt. arm of Vivid Entertainment Group — McKai has the momentous responsibility of overseeing a slew of new projects, as well as envisioning and shooting some of his own. “There’s been a lot of challenges,” said McKai, “but Vivid has really watched over us, and at the same time, given us a lot of space to do what we want.”
McKai’s latest, Girls Lie, which has just released, is a pornographic journey through the deceptive lives of four starlets: Charlotte Stokely, Dana DeArmond, Riley Mason and Pixie Pearl. McKai told AVN.com that he first got the idea for the title when he saw Mason text messaging her boyfriend before a scene on one of the director’s previous titles, Neu Wave Hookers (distributed by VCA).
“The acting in porno is so bad already…I was just trying to put people into their real-life situations,” said the young director. “Leading up to shooting, I had informal talks with each one of them, just to see where they were at.” From there, McKai made a situation out of each starlet’s predicament. “I guess it was one of my little tricks as a director to get the girls into a character.
“I’ve also been spending a lot of time starting Vivid-Alt. lately,” McKai continued, “and trying to bring other directors up.” McKai acts as executive producer on all of Vivid-Alt.’s productions, which have included Octavio Winkytiki’s The Rebelle Rousers and Dave Naz’s Skater Girl Fever.
McKai explained that he and a small crew started shooting Girls Lie all the way back in April. “I was on my own schedule. I went on a couple of sets with [Vivid director] Paul Thomas, and I learned that instead of spending tons of money on elaborate sets, sometimes he’ll spend money on just getting more time.”
The lensman said he tried to populate the feature with real moments. “I’ve been watching a lot of porn from the 70’s lately, and quite often there’ll be time where they’ll just shoot extra footage of Hollywood or something.
“And that’s the great thing about gonzo, because would you rather see some girl stumble through some bad dialogue and then get fucked, or see some footage of a location, her surroundings, and then see her get fucked?”
McKai went as far as to take full days in his shooting schedule to capture the starlets’ surrounding, like with Stokely, who plays a prostitute in the lackluster Lancaster, California. “Charlotte really got it,” added McKai, “I really need to do some more stuff with her in the future.”
The director also said that the music, as with his previous releases, was very important with Girls Lie. The soundtrack for the title is a mix of artists selected by McKai himself, and includes some of his current favorites. The director said assembling the Girls Lie tracks was “a labor of love. I'm almost as proud of the soundtrack as I am of the sex scenes,” he said. The artists include Panthers, Tommie Sunshine, SBSRX, Wolves in the Thrown Room, C.P., Anavan, Subarachnoid Space and Matmos. Matmos, a combo of Drew Daniel and Martin C. Schmidt, are known for their work with Bjork.
Girls Lie will be Vivid-Alt's first release packaged as a three-disc set. A CD of the soundtrack is included with the release, plus a bonus DVD which includes a behind-the-scenes feature, a bonus scene with DeArmond, multiple photo galleries and a mini-documentary entitled "We Weren’t Welcome," about a bad day on the set.
McKai just returned from Berlin’s Porn Film Festival where they designated a “Vivid-Alt Porn Night.” The evening featured screenings of excerpts from four movies from the Vivid-Alt imprint, including The Rebelle Rousers, East Side Story, Skater Girl Fever and Dana DeArmond Does the Internet.
Accompanying McKai to Berlin was Vena Virago, the director of East Side Story, Malachi Ecks, producer of several Vivid-Alt titles, including Dana DeArmond Does the Internet and Stokely, who was also the cover girl on Germany’s TIP magazine.
McKai said that his next project will be calleed The Doll Underground and will release early next year. Before that, he will oversee releases from Virago and DeArmond.
“Things are going really well. This is the first time I haven’t had to have another job besides my porn job…it’s my first full-time porn career, and so it’s given me a lot more responsibilities, along with Malachi and [Vivid-Alt graphic designer] Alaska.
“Vivid has always tried to take a lot of the pressure off of us though…they really take good care of us.”
For more on Girls Lie and Vivid-Alt., go to www.vivid-alt.com.
