Porn Valley- Skeeter Kerkove tells me he starts shooting a new line next month to countervail the current market's same-old, same-old. For now, that's for him to know and everyone else to find out. Although Skeeter says he has been asked if he would mond shooting midget movies. Skeeter didn't think so.
Skeeter also tells me he's hearing the industry is in its worst slump yet and that he's been getting the word that DVD sales are tanking.
"I got really bad reports the past ten days," he says. "One girl who works as a salesperson on commission-only had been averaging over a G a week. Sometimes $1200. For the past two weeks she didn't even make $500. She even had customers who would automatically take a certain amount, pass completely. One customer said I have over 250 new releases to pick from in the next four days. I was told it was extra bad these past two-three weeks."
"There was over 120 anal movies released this week," Skeeter goes on to say. "Which one do you pick out of that?"
"Branding for one," I say. Skeeter agrees.
"As well as the lowest price and the best terms," he adds.
Skeeter says the reason he starts the new line is because the market's saturated with white girl anal movies.
"Although people are always going to want to buy anal movies," he says. "Even though there's a billion things for free on the Internet, they still want to see the latest new ones."
One adult niche that seems to be recession-proof is she-male titles.
[I heard Defiance when it shot Trantastic spent $40,000 on the movie and wound up selling 11,000 pieces at $15 for $125,000 profit.]
"I know Axel Braun went and filmed an incredible amount of tranny-stuff in Argentina," Skeeter states. "$150 a scene." Skeeter says thanks but no thanks as far as his going down there. He doesn't want to be a story similar to Fred Salaff who wound up in a Panamanian shithole jail cell when the American company he was shooting for left him high and dry.
"Isn't Steve Volponi doing really good on his [interactive tranny] series?" Skeeter asks. "I know he had a really great cameraman, a great editor and great lighting and Devils Film is a pretty big arm in distribution."
Skeeter notes that Rodney Moore has also made inroads in the T-girl market.
"T-girl solos is the number one money maker right now for Rodney Moore," says Skeeter. "What the fuck is that? The least expensive T-girl movie you can film in America is the number one selling thing. I guess it's good for now but what happens when another 20 companies find out about it? Red Light will be doing it. Zero Tolerance- everyone will be on the bandwagon. But right now the only strongholds in the T-girl market are of course Evil Angel, Devils, Rodney Moore and Robert Hill Releasing."
