A warm welcome to visitors from the UK! We’ve got preview clips scattered around the site and the Comstock Films Video Podcast offers serialized version of our films. It’s great way to find out what makes Comstock Films different!

http://feeds.comstockfilms.com/ComstockFilmsVideoPodcast

Now as to this metrosexualization of yours truly:

A few weeks ago I got an e-mail request for a phone interview from a woman who said she worked for a British newspaper with an impressive circulation. Since people tend to exagerate put their best foot forward when making these sorts of requests, I chopped a couple of zeros off what she claimed was the daily readership of her newspaper.

I was wrong. I was really wrong.

Yesterday The Metro introduced Comstock Films to a couple million Brits. There was no hot link to our website, but this AM google.uk is our number one referrer, pouring several thousand visitors into our site. And they’re buying too. Not counting our Hurricane Katrina fundraiser, yesterday was our biggest single day of sales ever!

Here’s a bit of the article:

Metrosexual: Between the Sheet
‘Watching two professional actors having sex in a porn film is no different to watching two horses have sex,’ says amateur porn producer Tony Comstock. ‘Neither is very interesting.’Comstock, who makes his living by filming real couples have sex, is referring to the lack of genuine intimacy a standard porn film offers its viewers.

You can read the rest, featuring commentary from Wired’s Regina Lynn at the Metro website.

And to those of you worried that this metrosexualization might have involved a haircut, waxing, or manscaping, there’s no cause for alarm. I’m still the same shaggy beast you know and love.

ManNet.com’s Brent Blue opens his review of Damon and Hunter: Doing it Together by saying:

“Damon DeMarco and Hunter James look like the gay couple next door in this very intimate rendering of sex. This isn’t really about porn, but lovemaking. As Damon says: “This is not about procreation.” It’s about their pleasure as a couple, which is exactly what the films attempts to capture, a very personal romantic coupling, simply shot so as to allow the full nature of the moments to stand on their own, rather than be washed over by the gloss of porn.”

It’s the p-word again. A reminder that even to people who like porn, it’s a word that means something, that while it may connect to the audience sexually, leaves some many other aspects of human need and desire unaddressed, or even belittled. A reminder of why I’ve grown uncomfortable with the word. But the other day, I saw something that reminded me why I fell in love with porn, and what drew me to wanting to make sexual art.

Somewhere on the vast internet (I’ve lost the link) someone post photos from an early 80s issue of Playboy; Girls of the Military I think it was. The women were, of course, pretty. But they weren’t caricatures of glamour, at least not to my eye. No, rather than seeming like confections of the photographer’s, stylist’s and surgeon’s skill, they seemed like the very beautiful women I see ever day; my daughter’s schoolmate’s mother, the college girls who life guard in the summer, my own wife.

I’ve undressed all of these women (and many others!) in my mind’s eye, and the images in my imagination are as lovingly crafted as these Playboy images were. The light is gentle and flattering, whatever “flaws” or “faults” the object of my desire might have, they somehow disappear in the kind gaze of my desire.

Of course back when I had an opinion, I much preferred Penthouse to Playboy. I like tits fine, but for me the real treat lies further South. Playboy always seem vaguely gynophobic, while Penthouse was lustily gynophilic! But in either case, back in the “golden age” of these magazines, you could actually see photographs where (a small aspect of) the subject of sex was treated with the care and craft that is devoted to things like food or clothing; and seeing some these photos again reminded me of the promise that porn once seemed to hold – that someday soon we would see sexuality, our own raw fleshy need to connect, rendered with that same loving eye.

Mr. Blue closes his review by saying:

“[Describing the end of the film] Back at the interview, both note that as adult film stars, they have had “sex” on camera, but not “sex,” as Damon says. If you see Damon’s face as he says this, you’ll know the difference. What was just shown was their version of sex, rather than porno sex. However, they once again express an exhibitionist side in saying that they hope not only gay men, but also woman and even straight men can see this and “get some ideas,” learn about sex from two gay men who seem to honestly love each other.

“Shot by Tony and Peggy Comstock (I’m assuming Peggy is a woman, which perhaps does make the statements above even more true), the scene here is revealing and trusting by Damon and Hunter in allowing the viewer into their private life. The scene is rather short [19 minutes] and purposely unglamorous, so it’s often hard to know what really went on [I think he means “Is this real reality or fake reality?”), but it is clear that these two men are doing something different than just fucking for the camera. There is emotion here, not faked, not acted, but truthful. It’s an alternative to porn. Not better, not worse, just a different side. Reality porn, so to speak.”

Or course I am very happy and very flattered by Brent’s thoughtful review, that he’s seen and appreciated the care and enthusiasm, that “loving eye” that we bring to our work. (You can read the rest of of Brent’s review here.) But it also makes me feel a little wistful. How is it that loving, crafted images of sex became the “alternative”, the exception, instead of the rule?

A viewer comment from Uncut DVDs, one of our Australian retailers:

I bought this DVD [Xana and Dax] beacuse my wife wasn’t keen on the traditional ‘bloke’ porn movies, and I heard that this studio made great couples films. I have to say that I haven’t been disapointed. My wife likes the natural style of the movie and she has even watched it by herself while I’ve been at work - that’s never happened before. If you are searching for movie which is ‘gentle’ enough for your partner but will still get her fired up then this movie is for you. I can’t wait to buy some of their other films.

Of course I am delighted by the thought of this fellows wife spending the afternoon with my movie while he’s at work. Feels just a little naughty, in just the right way!

It’s time for another instalment of Xana and Dax: When Opposites Attract.

In this week’s episode of “Xana and Dax: When Opposites Attract”, we hear Dax tell us just how much he loves Xana’s plush, round behind; and here Xana tell us why offering herself up to her husband doggy-style is her favorite way to reach orgasm!

For your iPod or iTunes:
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And don’t forget, if you like what you see, you can get the entire film on DVD from The Comstock Films DVD Shop.

Enjoy!

Two days ago I received a note from a fellow who, although he liked many things about Marie & Jack and Xana & Dax, was rather disapointed that both love scenes ended with external ejaculation. Here’s a bit from his note (used by permission):

These videos have what I have been looking for that is missing from the usual “porn” videos with one exception. You claim that these represent real sex but in both cases the man pulled out prior to cuming and we were shown proof that he came…

Maybe these couples actually have sex in this way but I doubt it. If they do I suggest using some couples who do not as well. This was a particular issue in the Xana & Dax video where he spent some time masturbating himself to climax. Why miss out on the wonderful sensations of being in your woman before cuming unless you are not able to do so for some reason. That, to a large extent, ruined the movie for me.

Also, my wife does not often watch explicit videos because she misses the loving relationship aspect of sex that makes it good for her. There is much in these movies that I suspect she would enjoy but I am sure she would be put off by this as well. She has made similar comments about other explicit videos.

He was also concerned that this might also be the case in Matt & Khym, which he had on pre-order. I wrote back:

Dear XXX,

Thank you for your thoughtful e-mail. It very succinctly addresses some of the vagaries of shooting sex scenes of people having unscripted and and undirected sex. With your permission I’d very much like to use your letter in an upcoming blog post. FYI, Matt and Khym’s love scene ends with Matt ejaculating inside of Khym. No particular effort is made to “prove” that he ejaculated, but afterwards Khym does reach down to catch a little on her finger and taste it.

Yours,
Tony Comstock

This seemed to (mostly) satisfy his concerns:

From your response I take it that Xana & Dax and Marie & Jack choose to handle the men’s ejaculation without any direction or suggestions. If so I wonder if that is how they normally have sex or if they did it that way because they thought that it might be expected, maybe from watching “normal porn”. You might want to make it clearer to those you film that they don’t have to do things differently, especially that.

I am not complaining if that is normal for them. It just seemed faked because of the way men’s ejaculation is handled in most porn.

The “might make it clearer” comment reminds me of the conversation I had with Desiree in the weeks prior to shooting her and her husband Ben.

“Oh, so you don’t want him to cum all over my face then?” she asked in response to my saying I just wanted them do have nice normal natural sex.

“Um well,” I stuttered, ” I don’t want you to do something you don’t enjoy when it’s just the two of you just because the camera is there, or because you think we want or need you to do something like that.”

“Oh no. I love having Ben blow on my face. I think it’s great, we do it all the time!”

“Well okay then. Please don’t let our being there inhibit you!” (It didn’t. Desiree had three orgasms that were very nearly disturbing in their intensity.)

Meanwhile, a tempest in a teapot seems to be swirling over similar question about what is and isn’t real over at SuicideGirls.com. Between kids, station wagon, suburban tract house, and a BMI of 26, I’m not really an alt kind of guy, (and even when I was young and broke and played my guitar too loud, I still wasn’t wasn’t an alt kind of guy) so I don’t really know that much about SuicideGirls, besides the fact that the chicks have downtown hairstyles, tats and piercings, and the photography style tends toward the deep focus/small focal plane style that I don’t really dig.

I do know what I thought I knew about SG, which was that I thought it was some hip, alternaporn site, run by technologically empowered female scenesters who were using the internet and cheap digital cameras to deconstruct the traditional pin-up. Okay, that’s cool in concept, even if I don’t really dig it as art, let alone as stroke material. Now it turns out that maybe SG is just some site run by some guy who’s making money off a lot of 18 year old girls’ yearnings to be a little less anonymous in the celebrity-obsessed world that we inhabit. Somehow that doesn’t seem quite so hip.

So what’s it all about, Alfie?

Back during that internet thing, people would sometimes say, “Content is king,” and the inflection they used seemed to indicate they thought they were offering a pearl of wisdom. Well here’s my pearl of wisdom, at least when it comes to making sex films: Context is king. Context is king, and when you use ‘reality’ as your conceit you walk a fine line. Most audiences are sophisticated enough to know that “the truth” is not the same thing as what you would have seen if you were on the set that day. But they’re also sensitive enough to know when the “reality” you try and present is too far way from what they would have felt if they had been on the set.

I don’t know what the “truth” is about SuicideGirls. The truth about Comstock Films is that all the way along there is a conspiracy between me and the couple I’m working with to present a very idealized portrait of their sexual relationship. It’s no more (or less) real than the nightly news or a novel.

Before their scene I asked Matt and Khym how they intended to enjoy Matt’s orgasm (experience has taught me not to assume that a “real couple” doesn’t enjoy the “so fake” external pop shot). When they told me that he was going to cum inside of her, I made a couple of suggestions for how we could visually signal the audience “yes, it really did happen.” The result can be seen in that lovely Comstock Films button that Mrs.C made for us.

Does that ruin it for you? I hope not.

Okay, enough with the good deeds and crybaby posts. How about some good old fashioned shameless self-promotion!

In their article “Was That Movie Good For You?” this month’s Tango Magazine offers their advice on the never ending search for erotic films that men and women can enjoy watching together, and we’re pleased that for the second time in as many months, Marie and Jack: A Hardcore Love Story occupies the top spot on a films for women/couples list. Says Tango:

“Marie and Jack, porn stars married in real life, have the genuine chemistry and knowledge of each other’s bodies to make this film sizzle. It starts slowly, with the couple discussing the intimate details of their love, before getting down and dirty. “

Tango also gave a nod to Xana and Dax: When Opposites Attract, as well as titles from Libido Films, Candida Royale, Veronica Heart, and Maria Beatty.

Having sex together is fun, and watching sex together can be fun too – if you find the right movie – so these sorts of articles are a perrenials in both men’s and women’s magazines, and I’m please but not surprised to see Marie & Jack and Xana & Dax mentioned.

But what I want to know is which one of these magazines will have the stones to put Damon and Hunter: Doing it Together on the list? A lot of women have been pretty good natured about their husbands/boyfriends enjoyed a little hot lesbo action (Tango’s list includes an all-woman BDSM title). Do you think men are willing to be as indulgent when it comes to their honeys getting off a beautiful man on man love? We’ll soon see.

-TC

Mrs.C hates it when I do this. She’s the one in charge of managing our bandwidth and she thinks putting a 26 minute preview of a work in progress is not the best use of our limited resources.

Too bad, honey.

We got pre-orders for this title the day we put it in our DVD shop, and since then we’ve had a steady stream of folks who have taken us up on our offer of a really good price if they can just wait a while for us to finish film. Those pre-orders have been encouraging, but they’ve also had the unexpected side effect of making me feel the weight of people’s expectations. A few folks have written asking for updates, and one or two decided to take advantage of our policy of giving refunds on pre-orders to anyone who asks. But the vast majority of folks have simply been waiting, quietly and patiently while Mrs.C and I have worked on this title.

Damon and Hunter: Doing It Together (formerly “For the Love”) represents a number of firsts here at Comstock Films. It’s our first gay film, and it will also be our first shot on film release. If I can refer you to an earlier blog post “Team Work” you’ll see Mrs.C and me, each with a Super-16 camera on our shoulder. Once you figure stock, processing and telecine, 16mm film costs about a dollar per second of footage – and that’s for each camera. As you can see from the photo, when we shoot a sex scene we shoot two cameras.

We chose to shoot the sex on film because film give the lovemaking a look and feel that you just can’t get from videotape. Never mind the FinalCutPro plugins and 24P cameras you might have heard about, for now the only way to make your work look like it was shot on film is to shoot it on film. But when you compare that to the $3.00 or so that a MiniDV tape costs (60 minutes), even the $30 cost of a Digibeta (30 minutes) tape, you can see why our choice to shoot this on film has made us extra conscious about making sure that we take the time to make the film that we want to make, the film you expect us to make, the film that needs to be made.

But the backbone of this film isn’t what Mrs.C and I do with the film cameras. As delightful as it is to see Damon and Hunter naked and fucking and sucking, and as beautiful as it looks when it’s shot on film, sex is only really interesting to me when I start to understand who Damon and Hunter are, and why, out all the people they might have fallen in love with, they fell in love with each other. Without that understanding it’s choreography, but it’s not dance; it’s running a scrimmage instead of playing a game.

What I’d like to show you today is what that backbone looks like laid bare. The clip I’ve got is 26 minutes of Damon and Hunter telling who they are and how they met and how the sexual pleasure they give to (and take from!) one another is a huge and important part of who they are as a couple. As you watch, you’ll notice that there are some black pauses; chapter marks if you like, places where I want let you catch your breath for a moment. There’s still sound work to be done, so to really enjoy this clip put on some earphones, or if you have external speakers, turn them up. Hunter says some funny shit half under his breath, and you don’t want to miss it!

You’ll also want to keep in mind that this is a 27 minute clip squeezed down to 21 megabytes. Naturally that takes more than a little compression, and degraded the audio and video. But you’re all savvy net surfers, so I don’t really have to tell you that, do I?

While you’re watching I’d like you to imagine what this story is is going to feel like once we start integrating the footage of Damon and Hunter’s lovemaking into it. For those of you who’ve seen Marie and Jack or Xana and Dax, you’re halfway there. Even if you’ve only seen our previews, you’ve still got a pretty good place to start.

When it’s done, Doing It Together is going to be every bit as raunchy, every bit as raw, and every bit as sweet as anything we’ve done so far. Thank you so much for waiting as long as you have. We won’t make you wait much more!

Rough Cut: Damon and Hunter Narrative Backbone, Interview Only, Scratch Audio

Enjoy!

-TC

Tags: Damon Demarco, Hunter James, Real Gay Sex, Real Gay Love

The same friend from the Freddy and Eddy message board was kind enough to send me scans of the Men’s Fitness cover and article, and the rumor is true. The August 2005 issue has an interview with Tera Patrick and gives us her list of the ten best adult videos that “are best for for passionate together time.”

Well guess what? Marie and Jack: A Hardcore Love Story hold the number one spot, beating out titles like Stud Hunters from Femme Films and Beautiful from Wicked Entertainment.

Of course it’s just one woman’s opinion, and I’m not sure I agree. Good as Marie and Jack is, I think Xana and Dax is even better. I guess the only thing for you to do, dear reader, is get them both and decide for yourself!

-TC

This blog is getting a little heavy with all that talk talk talk; which is good, but needs balanced out. What better to provide some balance than some hype Hype HYPE!

About a month ago I was contact by journalist Amy Wolf, who was writing an article on DIY porn. We’ve already spent too much time on how I feel about the word “porn” so you can imagine she got an ear-full on that score. She also got an ear-full on DIY.

It’s not that what I do isn’t DIY (I am doing it myself), and even by the meager standard of the indie film world, our work isn’t low-budget, it’s no budget. But DIY porn conjures image of a gang of friends getting together fueled by ambition and good intention, hoping to change the world with a PD150 and Powerbook.

That’s not quite how things work here. We do shoot on video, but we also shoot plenty of 16mm film. I don’t pay my crew top dollar, but I do pay them union scale. The people who appear on camera are also properly compensated. In short, the investment of resources in each film we make is measured in tens of thousands of dollars, which is still a pityfully small amount of money by film standards, but not really what people think of when you say “DIY porn”.

Well the upshot of this is that Ms. Wolf decided not to include us in the DIY article (Oh no!). Instead she wrote an entire article about Comstock Films (Hooray!). Some highlights from Ms. Wolf’s article:

“Comstock Films has managed to break into new filmic territory by refocusing on the intense emotional bonds that fuel physical intimacy. The films empowers couples to reclaim the right to engage in, enjoy and watch hot, raunchy sex. Xana, of Xana and Dax: Opposites Attract, confesses while sweetly grinning to her lover, “It’s very romantic just to fuck.” “Tony Comstock seeks to infiltrate the minds of even the most conservative couple who are one step above doing “it” through a hole in the bedsheet. Consequently, he features couples that have traditional, often nuptial, home and sex lives.”

You can read the rest of Amy’s very nice write up here.

Thank you Amy Wolf!

-TC

Okay, okay, maybe you’re getting tired of seeing nothing but good reviews for Xana and Dax on my blog. But I’m not! Here are bits and pieces of another very warm review; this time from Abby Ehmann, who some of you may know as Editrix Abby. Says Abby:

“They look and sound and have sex not just like “real people,” but people I’m actually friends with. They talk about how they met, how much they enjoy each other’s bodies and their general love and appreciation for each other in a way that you won’t see in any other ‘porn movie.’ “

I really like that Abby put porn movie in quotes. Ten years ago I called myself a pornographer with a certain roguish pride, “No, it’s not erotica, it’s porn. Cunt and cocks and cum. It’s porn.” (I wanted to distinguish what I did from films that promised the goods, but never delivered.) Not anymore. Porn has become embarrassing (if not down right upsetting) on so many levels it’s sometimes hard to find words. That more than one person has said X&D doesn’t feel “porny” is very gratifying.

Returning to Abby’s review:

“When she sucks his cock, he looks positively beatific; their 69 is almost too intimate. And when they do it doggie style, Xana experiences an eyes-rolling-into-the-back-of-her-head orgasm. Whew! What you see on screen is two people very much in love and truly enjoying themselves both spiritually and sexually. It is hot!“

Again Abby is picking up on something I very much wanted to get across. In crafting X&D, I wanted to create a film that felt intensely voyeuristic, intensely private, but I wanted the audience to feel at ease with the intimacy. I wanted to find a way to tell the viewer it’s okay to want to look, it’s okay to want to see, it’s okay to feel turned on.

This is very similar to what Audacia Ray said in e-mail: “[Y]ou’ve managed to do a very delicate thing, which is that you’ve created a film that feels naughty, like the viewer is seeing something he or she isn’t supposed to see, without making the act of watching feel shameful.”

There is a tendency to discount the nice things that people say, but when you hear it twice, you start to let yourself think it might be true!

Near the end of her review, Abby turns her attention to the production design/art direction.

“It was nice not to see the usual tacky LA ranch house or odd personal effects surrounding the sex scenes and be able to focus on the couple themselves. (Sorry, but I am often thrown by particularly egregious lamps, carpets and tchotchkes in the background. Bad taste is so not sexy!)”

That strange brand of aspirational art direction that is practiced in Porn Valley has to be one of the most bizarre aspects of “the industry”. There always seems to be an awkward mismatch between the way the talent looks and talks, the cars they drive and the houses they live in. And the tchotchkes always seem like they’re a 15 year old boy’s idea of classy.

I think the approach is some sort of bastard child of Hugh Hefner’s waspy contrivances and Bob Guccione’s italianine* fantasies, but back in the Seventies, when Hef and Bob were establishing their signature looks, they were working with real money. You can’t do a the club/palazzo/chateau fantasia on the cheap (well you can, but it looks like crap), so we try to do “no art direction” art direction (in the hopes of not giving the audience a reason to start giggling). It’s nice that Abby noticed. (And even nicer she didn’t giggle!)

You can read the rest of Abby’s very nice review at Eros-Zine.com.

Thanks Abby!

-TC

* Mrs. C is Brooklyn born and bred. Italianine is what happens when italianate goes too far.