Anna Span, an experienced director based in London, wants to find a home for her brand of hardcore porn in the U.S.
Span, who says she is “the first female porn director in the U.K,” has shot over 150 sex scenes, including about 30 feature-length videos during her career behind the camera.
“I don’t think I’m the first one to be sold in America, but I’ve actually been doing it for eight years over here. I haven’t had an American deal until this year,” said Span, who is a graduate of the leading art school in the U.K.
After earning her BA honors degree in Fine Art (Film & Video) from Central St. Martin’s School of Art in 1998, Span went her own direction. She said graduates from the premier school usually go on to make video pieces in art galleries. But she always wanted to make porn, even titling her dissertation “Towards a New Pornography.”
“They hit the wall when I did porn,” she said, noting that it was a lesson to her how “so-called creative, open-minded people” reacted to her taking a different career path.
Span said she was attracted to porn because “I wanted to show what the female point of view would look like.”
“People shouldn’t be told how to think or what they can watch,” said Span, who has strong views on censorship and has notoriety in England from numerous TV appearances and magazine articles about her work.
Span got a break with U.K.’s Television X, which is a subscription and pay-per-view softcore channel, where she worked for six years. She used to watch and edit 300 films a year for Television X, where she developed her eye for detail and editing. She started making hardcore porn four years ago.
The U.K.-based Rude Brittania has been distributing her productions for the past two years, while their U.S. arm Union Jaxxx has released three of her titles. But Span recently formed Easy on the Eye Productions for all her future releases, which this year will be shot in high-definition.
“It’s porn for women, but men really like my stuff as well,” she said. One of Span’s specialties is shooting 1960s and 1970s-style British comedies. “It’s very reality-based, like a soap opera. It’s British people having sex in realistic settings.
“I write stories about all different aspects of London. I pay a lot of attention to casting. I won’t put a 21-year-old girl as a head of a corporation even if she’s really pretty. It’s a sensibility that people really appreciate, like, this really could happen.”
She shoots stories about everyone from art students to millionaires in vignette videos that have a common theme, such as A&O Department, which has five scenes set inside a hospital. To add to the realism, Span takes special care with wardrobe, using the same uniforms as the soap operas in England for her shows.
“I choose underwear to match the character as well,” she said.
Span’s three titles in circulation in the U.S. are Uniform Behaviour, which was pre-nommed by AVN for Best Foreign Vignette Series, Anna's Mates and Good Service.
Span, who is nominated for Best Director for England’s Erotic Awards, told AVN.com, “I really want finished product deals, somebody who would buy a bulk of finished product.”
The director shot one of Hannah Harper’s first scenes, and has also captured scenes with Alicia Rhodes, McKenzie Lee and Jamie Brooks, among a few other English starlets who have performed in the U.S. Span films anal, girl/girl, boy/girl/boy, d.p.’s and bukkakes – all the standard hardcore sex acts.
“I don’t shy away from hard sex,” Span said.
Her next releases will be A&O Department and Hoxton Honey, which is based on a trendy area in England.
Span said she is training her camerawoman to produce for her Easy on the Eye banner, with a rock n’ roll-themed production on tap. Span has already shot two of the five titles she has planned for this year, and she has six more that have yet to be released.
Visit www.annaspansdiary.com and www.easyote.co.uk for more on Span, or contact her at [email protected].
