Hardcore Influences
Not long into our marriage, my wife introduced me to a wonderful Canadian film, Hard Core Logo. I blame repeated viewing of Hard Core Logo with causing me to google the word “Jenifur”, and while I was in the shower, contemplating the cosmic meaning of the search results I was struck by the inspiration to give M&J the subtitle A Hardcore Love Story.
Hard Core Logo is a favorite around here, with quotes from the movie being offered up to explain or comment on situations the way a Christian couple might quote scripture to each other. The most quotable character in the movie is Pipefitter, the band’s drummer. And his two most quotable quotes are: “Talk about game over,” and “Nobody ever writes a check to their influences.”
Ms. Ell’s left a comment to my Porn for Women post that prompts me to write about a company that I regard as an influence and inspiration. What she wrote was:
“When I invite a filmmaker and his work into my bedroom it’s nice to know that he’s given some thought to the kind of response he may wish to elicit from his audience and that he recognises that his audience may include women. I appreciate that. So do my pink bits.”
I still remember the first time I saw a Vixen dildo in the Blowfish catalog. “How could a dildo be worth $50?” I thought.
But they were. Vixen used better materials to fabricate better designs. Vixen dildos looked and felt like the people making them had actually given some care and thought to the fact that someone was going to take their toy and stick it up inside their most tender parts. Vixen actually took the idea that their customers were going to use their products to masturbate seriously. It’s as if they were saying, “Giving yourself pleasure is worth $50, and we’re going to give you a dildo that’s worth every penny of the $50 we’re asking you to spend on it.”
Since then, dildo fabrication has almost become respectable. There are dildos made of acrylic, and pyrex and metal and stone. If you’re so inclined, you can spend $100, or $200, or even more on a dildo. Dildo makers suggest (with a straight face even!) that you can leave their products on display in your house as object’ d’art. I don’t know that we’ll be doing that anytime soon, but certainly a nice pyrex juicer is prettier to look at, and less embarrassing if accidentally discovered, than a limp, flesh-colored rubber cock (and it’s more pleasurable to use too).
When I’m working on a film, I never forget that the people who will buy it are buying it because they want to see something that will help them enhance, or even create a sexual experience. When I make a film, I want to treat my film, my audience, and the very idea of sex itself with the same respect and enthusiasm that I think the people at Vixen Creations give their dildos and their customers.
Whether a person watches one of our films alone or with a lover, Comstock Films is going to be “in the bed” with them. Whether this person feels a mild tingle down below, or is inspired to have a full-blown stroke session, or is moved to pounce on their spouse with ferocious abandon, Comstock Films is going to be a part of that sexual experience. This makes me feel honored. This makes me feel excited. This makes me want to give you something that’s worth every penny you paid, and worth every minute I ask you to sit and watch.
And Pipefitter was wrong. Sometimes you do write a check to your influences. I’m especially fond of the String of Pearls.
-T.C.
February 10th, 2005 at 4:24 pm
Love your blog, Tony. I stop by whenever I get the chance.
This particular post made me think of the pyrex anal toy I bought my wife and I (yes… AND I) for Christmas. $85.
It was worth every fucking penny.
Many toy manufacturers now-a-days really do take time and care to create these things. Like you, I wish more porn were like this as well.
MLyons
February 14th, 2005 at 8:36 am
Of course the whole respect thing is a dance that takes two partners. No matter how good they are, you won’t get very far selling $50 dildos (or $85 pyrex anal probes!) if there isn’t anyone who’s willing to spend that kind of money on something they’re going to shove up their ass.
Over on AdultDVDTalk.com the usual explination given by porn producers on the sad state of their genre is that they’re “just giving their customers what they want.”
This is rediculous. Have you been spending the last 10 or 20 years saying “If only someone would make a pyrex ass toy, I’d pay top dollar for it.”? Of course you haven’t!
It’s not the customer’s job to articluate a desire for something that doesn’t exist; customers can’t be expected to know what they want until someone is clever enough to put it in front of them.
-T.C.
February 14th, 2005 at 6:20 pm
I think a better way of putting it might be not so much that it’s not the customer’s job, but that relying on the custoemr as a source of creativity in terms of what to produce is … well … it doesn’t work.
Would Citizen Kane have been made as the result of a poll taken of the average movie-goer of the time? Would Stanley Kubrick have been able to produce 2001: A Space Odyssey by asking consumers, “What would you like to see produced next!?” Gimmie a break.
I’m not saying that consumers don’t play a part. And I’m not saying there isn’t room for the quickly produced, easy, money-making all-sex video in today’s porn. What I am saying is that relying solely on avid consumers of crap as a source of creative influence is only going to result in more crap.
Porn has so much more potential beauty than that, and by no means does that mean giving up the extreme stuff. It just means giving it a professional presentation and context that allows it to transcend the role of “crappy video documentary”.
Obviously, I’m preaching to the choir. I do think the consumer plays a role, though. It’s just that the consumers’ needs have to be filtered through the mind of a real movie-maker in order to create something really special. What we have now is little more than the direct translation of hard-on inspired whims.
MLyons
December 28th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
[...] But then, that’s what Blowfish does – they find the good stuff, and they find first. Blowfish is where I first discovered theVixen Creations String of Pearls. Blowfish is where I discovered the wonderful work of erotic jeweler Jullian Snelling It was after seeing that not even Blowfish had the sex films that I wanted to see that I concluded that they must simply not exist and that I’d have to make them myself. Indeed, aside from pleasing myself, one of my thoughts as I embarked on this quixotic journey was “I want to make something that people who shop at Blowfish might like.” [...]
December 31st, 2006 at 6:09 am
[...] As to your question about my take high-quality porn related sites, I don’t know that I’m the person to ask. I have a vitriolic hatred of nearly all porn, both what is produced and how it’s produced. I take my inspiration from the new generation of sex toy makers (Vixen Creations, Njoy Toys, Fun Factory). They make their money by offering well made products, sold honestly. This approach would bankrupt most porn companies inside of a month. [...]
January 10th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
[...] This is great news out of North Carolina. I am also struck by the fact that while the porn industry seems to continue to devolve (just this year Vivid rescinded it’s condom-only policy,), the sex toy industry continues to evolve and I continute to be inspired by the sex toy industry. [...]