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Tony Comstock
"Real Life, Real People, Real Sex" -- Real HOT!
A decade ago, Tony Comstock and his wife Peggy started experimenting
with shooting real couples having real sex as an antidote to the
uninspiring porn on the market. Since then they’ve perfected their
filmmaking techniques and released five exciting titles, with more
movies “in the can” and on the way. Tony spent some time chatting with
us about fancy cameras, film vs. video and what constitutes hot
on-screen sex.
ErosZine: How did you wind up making porn videos?
Tony Comstock: Well to begin with, I've always had what felt like a
strong interest in sex, or at least a great deal of comfort in
exploring and expressing my sexuality through my work. When I began
studying photography in school I was always taking dirty pictures of
the women I dated and that continued when I began working in film and
video.
But it takes a lot more time and money to make films than still photos,
so at a certain point, if you want to keep expanding your vision, you
have to “turn pro." Plus I like having the chance to see if my ideas
can compete in the marketplace. As a working artist with bills to pay,
there's nothing more flattering than when someone decides to take some
of their hard-earned money and use it to buy one of my DVDs.
EZ: Do you even consider your films to be porn videos?
TC: I guess I really try to have my cake and eat it too on this
question. On the one hand, I'm really proud of the fact that we make
films that are completely frank about what happens when two people come
together physically—no visual euphemisms or coy angles. It's cunts and
cocks and assholes and all the fleshy beauty that is sex. And I very
much hope that people find my films arousing. That sounds like porn to
me!
On the other hand, I don't like the word “porn" because I think for too
many people the word—rightfully—connotes a film or video that is going
to demand the viewer lower their expectations with regard to conception
and craft below tolerable levels. Expectation management is the indie
filmmaker's first and most important skill. But porn has leaned too
heavily on the idea that the audience will forgive almost anything to
see a little pussy. I won't do that, and a lot of other people won't do
it either.
Another reason I’m uncomfortable with the word “porn" is because for
many people, porn means something that is going make them feel bad if
they watch; they'll feel bad about themselves or bad about the people
on the screen or bad that they're aroused by something they know is
cheap and shabby, made without care or craft. The last thing in the
world I want my films to do is make people feel bad and it breaks my
heart a little that my films are deemed to be part of a genre that
makes so many people feel bad about themselves or bad about sex.
EZ: What's your background? Did you go to film school?
TC: I studied photography in school and worked as a commercial
photographer for several years before drifting into film and video.
EZ: Tell us about how you got started and how your company has grown and progressed.
TC: About the same time I was “drifting" into film and video, I was
also coming to the conclusion that if I wanted to see the kind of porn
that would appeal to me, I was going to have to make it myself. Peggy
and I started shooting “tests" with sexually adventurous couples in
1996, just trying to work out the raw mechanics and impromptu
choreography of using a multi-camera approach to shooting lovemaking.
At the time, we had a pair of Canon L2 Hi8 video cameras which, while
they didn't make the most beautiful image, were cheap to shoot and let
us refine our technique. Over the years, as our technique improved, so
did the tools available for ultra-low-budget filmmaking. The first two
Comstock Films commercial releases were shot on the Sony DSR-PD100, the
first 3-chip handicam that offered the DVCAM format.
But the real key has been building our own independent
distribution channels. That's allowed us the financial head-room to
move from shooting on handicam to a hybrid approach. We shoot the
lovemaking on film now, which gives the sex a luster you just can't get
from video; and we shoot the interviews on tape, where the tight
control we have over the lighting lets us get the most out of video's
more limited imaging capabilities. In turn, the luster and polish of
our films has given us access to markets and viewers that are usually
pretty apathetic, if not downright hostile, to sexually explicit
entertainment.
EZ: How is the work you do different from most porn?
TC: From a producer's standpoint, we spend more doing less—no crazy
costumes, no fancy locations or exotic sports cars. We film one couple,
doing what they like to do, the way they like to do it, then we spend
some time interviewing them finding out why. For what it costs us to
make one 45-minute film, you could probably make two average gonzo
videos and have money left over for a blowout weekend in Cabo.
From a director's point of view, it's about making a character-driven
film. While lavish by porn standards, our budgets are still very small,
even when compared to independent film. With our very limited
resources, the documentary-style approach we use is the easiest way to
create compelling, sympathetic characters. If I don't have
characters I can empathize with, then the sex is just badly
choreographed dancing, and about as interesting to watch. But when I
feel like the characters on-screen are real people having a real
emotional and sexual experience, then the sex becomes interesting and
exciting. I feel like I'm watching something that matters.
EZ: What do you think mainstream porn could do to me more realistic or more exciting?
TC: Mainstream porn portrays people who have sex with each other for
money, usually produced as fast as possible for the least amount of
money possible. In light of that, I find mainstream porn is very
realistic; it's just not a reality that I find interesting or sexually
exciting.
EZ: Are there any mainstream porn directors whose work you enjoy?
TC: I think when Andrew Blake hit the scene with Night Trips I and II,
he showed that you could do more by doing less. Compared to the porn
features of the time, his productions were very stripped down; the
thinnest little plot with almost no dialog. Just glamorous-looking
women, glitzy locations and shooting on film when almost the entire
industry had moved to the cheaper—looking and costing—medium of video.
It's not really my taste aesthetically, but I've always thought his
approach was a smart production choice: do as little as possible as
well as possible.
I also have always been delighted by how charming and engaging many
porn performers are in the behind-the-scenes segments that are often
included with porn DVDs. But the only director who seems to be able to
bring that out in the main offering with any consistency is John
Stagliano. I think a lot of the reason for this is that directors and
editors just can't afford the time it would take to work these
spontaneous “performances" into a cogent narrative, so they get
relegated to the always under-produced BTS sections.
EZ: You feature real couples. How do you find them?
TC: When we were shooting tests, we would post to various online sex
communities, looking for couples that wanted to have a professionally
shot and edited document of their lovemaking. Now that we have a few
commercial films behind us, there's a pretty steady stream of
adventurous folks who would like to be in sexy movie, but don't want to
be in “porn.”
EZ: Do you "direct" them or really just turn on the cameras?
TC: Lately I've been using a basketball analogy: basketball is very
fluid, but the way that even a pick-up team works together is based on
a shared understanding of how the game is played.
Similarly, it's important that we all—myself and my wife, and the
couple—have a general idea of what's going to happen, and it's good if
we know a few of each others' telltale moves. It's having some sense of
knowing what to expect from each other that gives us the freedom to be
spontaneous.
EZ: And how do your films differ from the usual “amateur" videos?
TC: Sort of like “porn," I sometimes wince when what we do gets called
“amateur" because “amateur" has some connotations that don't really
apply to what we do. After all, how many amateur productions are
burning through $1500 worth of film stock on a sex scene? But I know
what people mean when they say “amateur.” They mean a sense of
authenticity and spontaneity, and a lack of cynicism that's usually not
found in “professional" porn. I think our films have a great feeling of
spontaneity, and I hope there's not a trace of cynicism, but it's done
with a level of production polish that's more like an independent
documentary than what people typically expect from amateur porn.
EZ: Can you share any interesting tales of on-set excitement?
TC: I think the most startling thing had to be the second couple we
ever tested with. They started out kissing, then he pushed her onto the
bed and went down on her and started working his fingers into her—one,
two, three fingers, then four, then his whole hand—about that fast and
he was wrist deep, really grinding. She loved it and started having an
orgasm almost immediately. My wife and I had only read about fisting
and what a long slow process it was, and this was all within about
three minutes of when we hit the “record" button, so we were caught
completely off guard! We nearly missed her squirting orgasm and didn't
get the best footage of it.
Later in the scene he fisted her again, this time from behind while she
was on her hands and knees. He really pounded her hard, and if it
wasn't for her laughing and smiling and calling his name, I would have
thought he was hurting her. After he made her orgasm, he mounted her
and fucked her in the ass till she was a pile of quivering orgasmic
jello on the bed. We're really sorry they're not interested in doing a
released film, because it was hot stuff! That's what taught us that a
couple should let us know ahead of time what to we might see so we
don't get caught flat-footed.
EZ: You're located on the east coast, far from the porn industry. Where do you usually shoot?
TC: We've shot on both coasts, but either way we shoot in residences.
We try to pick locations that have the fewest production
problems—street noise, changing light through windows, etc—and then try
to make the locations look as non-intrusive as possible. I want the
audience to focus on the couple, not on nouveau-riche architecture and
home furnishings.
EZ: You've recently released a gay title. Was it at all different working with a gay male couple?
TC: It was different in as much as I'd never seen two men fuck before,
so there were little details that really fascinated me. For instance,
when they were jacking each other off, sometimes they'd switch to
jacking themselves off, and then back again, all without missing a
stroke. I don't think I've ever seen or experienced anything quite that
fluid in straight sex. For me it played with the wonderful blurriness
of “where do I end/where does my lover begin" in a way that really
spoke to me. Plus it looked hot!
EZ: Do you plan on doing more of that, perhaps with female couples?
TC: We have three lesbian couple films in the can and expect to release them throughout 2006.
EZ: Yay! So you see yourself branching off and doing other things, with actors and scripts, or other scenarios?
TC: I was really impressed with Shine Louise Houston's “The Crash Pad."
She pulled off an idea that I would have rejected as too ambitious and
she pulled it off with real style! Out of envy for her accomplishment,
I've dusted off some old semi-scripted ideas to see if they might seem
more workable in light of her success.
I'd also like to do more “real couples" films, but take things a little
further afield from the fairly “vanilla" sex we've depicted so far.
I've purposely chosen to stay in the “sexual center" to keep the
elements I have to balance as small as possible. But if this initial
body of work continues to be successful, it will give me the breathing
room I'd like to have to tackle sexual themes that would be more
challenging.
And then of course there's my fisting trilogy, a shot-on-35mm
extravaganza specifically conceived to challenge the legal concept of
obscenity. All it would take to do that is the courage to risk going to
jail for my films. I'm not sure I'm quite ready for that yet, but maybe
someday.
EZ: Thank you so much for your time, Tony! We look forward to your upcoming releases!
Find all their wondeful films at www.comstockfilms.com.
[Written Feb. 2006]
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