Vivid Entertainment has been known for years for its ornate, story-driven features integrating hot sex with complex story lines. But the company is making waves in a few other — maybe unlikely — genres lately. At the 2007 AVN Awards, Vivid's first forays into the gonzo and interactive genres came up winners.
Director Tristan Taormino’s experimental gonzo title, Chemistry, nabbed the coveted award for Best Gonzo Release and the company’s first try at the Interactive genre with Virtual Vivid Girl Sunny Leone won for Best Interactive DVD.
Vivid’s interactive mastermind has been Q. Roberts. The producer/director told AVN.com that he feels the strength of titles like Virtual Vivid Girl Sunny Leone lie in both its quality and accessibility. "This is not a video game," said Roberts, "and so it shouldn’t require a user’s manual. I have a mainstream background, so I try to take that knowledge and bring a professional approach. A lot more elements go into making an interactive title [than with other titles]. I have flow charts and I can’t miss anything.
"There’s a large amount of material involved in a title like Virtual Vivid Girl Sunny Leone. Sunny is at the center of it, but it also features other girls. I think that’s part of the appeal…it’s not just all about one girl….it gives people choices."
Roberts went on to say that he tries to create a story for each girl, not just a simple array of interactive positions. "I’m trying to fit each title with each girl’s personality," explained Roberts. "Even Virtual Vivid Girl Sunny Leone sets up in a way that [the viewer] has been checking her out for awhile at the office…it creates a back story and heightens the fantasy.
"I think now with HD-DVD and Blu-ray, it will give us more stuff to work with, and more possibilities for the future," Roberts said.
Roberts is currently working on interactive titles for the Love Twins, as well as Sunrise Adams.
Director Tristan Taormino’s Chemistry is something of a porn reality show that offered an uncensored look at the interactions of seven porn stars placed together in a house and then told to let their imaginations run wild. The cast, comprised of Dana DeArmond, Marie Luv, Mika Tan, Taryn Thomas, Jack Lawrence, Kurt Lockwood and Mr. Marcus, was also given "perv cams" to shoot additional footage for the movie.
"The stars decided who they had sex with, when and where and this gave them the freedom to really be themselves," said Taormino. "They really tested each other's boundaries as well as their own."
Taormino went above and beyond the usual gonzo aesthetics with Chemistry, offering over an hour of bonus material, additional sex scenes and original music by indie rock bands Goodfinger and Boxelder.
The director summed up the appeal of her experiment by saying, "We get to see raw emotions, spontaneous sex, explosive orgasms and that one ingredient that I think is so important: chemistry."
