Porn Valley- The following interview with Robert Lombard appears on www.sreviews.com: "Robert Lombard of Creative Image Management has been providing casting and talent solutions for both soft and hard-core productions, dealing with some of the biggest names in the biz along the way.
Q: Hi Robert, thanks for talking with us. We'd like to start by asking how you came to be involved in the erotic film biz what a typical day for you is like.
A: To give credit where credit is definitely due and to tell the truth, Monique Parent was the start of it all! I was working with character actors and getting nowhere and in walks this beautiful girl, like right out of some movie from the 40's. Real looking and whoa, could she act! She stated she was comfortable with nudity and willing to perform simulated sex. That was truly the beginning. It started to multiply into what it is today.
I guess you could say I have worked with most of all the known soft-core performers in the business at some time or another. No favorites.well, yes, I do have a few. Just like I have a few adult star favorites.
In 1998 Mainline presented me with an opportunity to be their casting director for all of their erotic programming. I jumped with excitement--and fear as well. My typical day is always wondering if this will always continue. Sound vague? It shouldn't.
On a more serious note I am constantly developing new faces. As long as I can bring in someone new and fresh then I am doing my part. Last week in walks Kaylani Lei on the recommendation of jessica drake, Evan Stone and Steven St. Croix. And a new girl came in as well who goes by the name of August. Hispanic, hot, young and all natural. And can act!
I feel I have tapped into the best of the best in the adult industry. Now finding someone who fits the needs of my executives takes meeting at least eight to ten new faces to find the one or two to bring it to the next phase in the process. There are no soft-core actresses anymore like the good old days. Entering the genre will definitely hurt their chances achieving a 'real' mainstream acting career so they don't jump into it like the past. And of course the changes to the genre most likely have scared a few away as well.
Q: Your agency represents several of the biggest names in softcore and hardcore. Is it difficult "wearing two hats" so to speak, having to deal with performers in two different genres?
A: Straight off, Creative Image Management, Ltd. is not an "agency". Agencies are required to be licensed by the State Of California. Creative Image Management is a full service management and casting company providing Talent Packaging for late-night cable programs. And I continually provide guidance to some of the higher-end adult stars in their crossover endeavors.
As far as "wearing two hats", so to speak, it is not difficult at all as I do not go after the day to day xxx work in Porn Valley or other type of work for either adult stars or soft-core stars.
The most difficult part of dealing with adult stars is their work schedules. When assembling a cast of first choices (dream cast) for a movie, trying to lock the choices in is the difficult part. And to always keep a nice blend of hard-core talent and soft-core talent within the cast chosen. 100% adult talent as cast members does not work the best. It is the ideal blend of both that works. Also, the blend of natural and implants and--believe it or not--hair color are other important factors.
Q: We all know it has caused some controversy amongst fans, but how are the strictly softcore performers dealing with the infusion of more and more hardcore talent into the late-night talent pool? Do you think they feel any pressure to be more explicit in order to compete?
A First off, the fans are important to me! And stumbling across this site was a day of good fortune. It has also been frustrating at times with the fans beating me up at times. As we all know everyone has their favorites and of course opinions. I accept that 100%.
The "key" to all this are the buyers. They have dictated what they want. Harder sex. More sex. Less over-inflated implants. Limited face surgery. Real looking sex. And the adult talent deliver in most cases far better then the soft-core girls ever did. And their acting skills are up to the same level as the majority of the original soft-core performers.
Excluding, of course, girls like: Monique Parent, Tane McClure, Kira Reed, Michelle Von Flotow, Brandy Davis, Amy Lindsay (aka Leah Riley), Angela Davies, Catalina, Nikki Fritz and newer soft-core star, Beverly Lynne. These are the "best of the best"! Sexually they were all fairly equal. However a few in this list still had 'dos and don'ts'. Yes, my opinion that again will stir controversy amongst the fans and maybe even my executives. But I am the one who is on set everyday and has contact with the performers during pre-production and production and after when they come to collect their talent payments.
Regarding the soft-core performers, yes they are angry! And of course at me! But there are two sides to this scenario that everyone seems to skip over:
1. The buyers were tired of seeing the same soft-core faces in every movie produced.
2. The buyers were tired of seeing the boring non-real looking sex.
I do not think there is pressure on the soft-core performers to be more explicit in order to compete. We all have boundaries with what we do. A quick example: I would not for one minute be involved with anything soft or hard that degraded women or put them in compromising situations. The 'harder' sex scenarios required are definitely not for everyone.
In the past. Some of the original soft-core performers came to set with lists of 'dos and don'ts'. Like sex without kissing. Sex without touching each other. No sucking, kissing breasts. No oral sex. One or two sexual positions only. I mean, come on here! These are ridiculous requests! When being cast they should have said "no" to the offer or let us know up front if they had any boundaries.
I can name only five girls that did not come to set with these lists. Five! I will not name the girls, as I do not want to start up a whole thing. I am not the bad guy here. And as a matter of fact some of the former soft-core performers are still used, like Nikki Fritz, Julie Kruis, Tamara Landry, Beverly Lynne [newer but awesome], Amy Lindsay (aka Leah Riley), and Angela Davies. And I am sure others still work but not in Mainline productions. It is all about moving on with your life. The majority of the known soft-core performers have truly moved on with their lives. And for whatever reason they feel I am too blame for them being pushed out. Is a totally incorrect statement. They pushed themselves out by the 'dos and don'ts' lists, which I must respect, and of course the majority have truly moved on.
Q: Lots of people enjoy softcore because it usually delivers a story with punctuations of sex instead of the other way around, with the sex often depicted as "healthy" sex-sex as the result of an actual relationship or plot device, not just as the precursor to a facial.
Some of the newer stuff coming out is much edgier, with shots of explicit nudity, more direct sexual touching, and sometimes even the male genitals being shown, which in the days of softcore past was totally taboo. How can softcore continue to deliver realistic and more passionate sex while still remaining distinctly softcore?
A: A great question. However, my answer will be short. As I believe there really is no right or wrong answer. Or should I say a magic answer. For me, soft-core remains soft-core until you visually see full-on insertion or a movie appears to have been a soft-core edit of a hard-core title.
Now if you want to use movies as examples, I viewed a movie on Cinemax last night starring Regina Russell, Matt Wilde, Ava Lake (Mia Zottolli) and I had no part in that production so my opinions will most likely stir up attacks. The 'sex' in that film was a ridiculous joke! No passion! No heat! It was so UN-realistic as to be borderline embarrassing! The storyline was ok. Acting fair to good. Production value good. Matt Wilde is a great new male genre face. Mia still is better then average. Even her over-inflated breasts have settled and dropped properly and become passable. Regina Russell is fair. MORE IMPORTANTLY AGAIN! The sex was limp! So maybe this is a true version of "soft-core".
Surely some of the fans will love that movie because Regina Russell and Ava Lake (Mia Zottolli) are the leads. The boredom on their faces during sex would make any male go soft and any female run and hide from having any sex encounters with any gender. They all looked like they were having root canals. And the music during the sex without sounds. Well, that truly is the 'old' way of doing things.
Here is another example for you. Confessions Of A Porn Star was viewed by the largest foreign cable outlet in Europe, Erotic Media. They loved the cable versions they viewed. I heard that their comments were"This was the best 'soft-cut' version of hardcore they have ever viewed" and "...one of the best series on Porn Stars ever viewed." And they wanted the series along with the xxx version. So, as we all know, no hard-core version exists. This was a 100% soft-core series.
So the question you asked still remains unanswered. This question is an open forum discussion for "all" site members.
Q: Why did you start digital G (XXX-Production Company) and do you see yourself getting more and more involved with the hardcore side of things? Do you always see an audience and a market being there for softcore and late-night films?
A: I did not start digital G. I was approached by a group of investors who did their due diligence and saw that I was involved with some of the top adult stars in the business, casting them in the late-night cable productions. After numerous failed attempts at trying to reach these higher-end girls and guys they approached me and contracted my services and company as "Director of Talent and Marketing".
The cross branding and marketing has been successful. All the adult news sites have accepted my efforts with casting the adult talent in mainstream productions, therefore allowing me to promote the digital G titles as well. I mean if you like the adult girls like jessica drake, Gina Ryder, Ava Vincent, Dru Berrymore, Syren, Nakita Kash, Nicole Sheridan, Taylor St. Claire, Chelsea Bleu, Alexa Rae, Wendy Divine, DoLorian etc, you are assured you can see at least 3 to 5 of these girls in every digital G release to-date. Sort of like the best of both worlds. Also, believe it or not, the adult girls are more into self-promotion and marketing themselves than the soft-core girls were. So they completely offer themselves for any and all promotion presented.
Robert treads where most men dream: Getting up close with Syren
Syren goes on the road performing her specialty dance routine, performing 3 shows a night for 3 to 4 days in one location. She takes along her two digital G titles, Club Fantasy and Secret Sins and a full size 19 x 25 inch poster. She gets acknowledgements from both sets of fans. She even has converted some soft-core fans to hard-core fans and has converted hard-core fans to soft-core fans. This is fantastic marketing and good for the genre overall.
Getting more involved with hardcore is yet to be determined. Definitely not the day to day finding jobs in Porn Valley for these girls. Trust me! They do not need me for that.
Always seeing an audience for soft-core and late night films? I certainly hope so! As then I can continue on with my business. At 58 years of age I would have to reinvent myself. Could be tough. Even now things are slower then previous years. The market is soft. Foreign sales are down. Remember Germany is financially strapped, and they were huge buyers of adult entertainment, especially soft-core productions.
But everything runs in cycles and normally returns. Domestically things are strong. DirecTV channels 172 and 173 run this programming continually. HBO/Cinemax has cut back a bit. And they have so far stayed away from the harder stuff recently produced by Mainline. They are more into the scripted series type shows. Remember things always change. Believe me, I experience this firsthand. Especially now trying to gain fan support for what everyone feels I have done.
Q: Lots of our readers have expressed an interest in the production side of late-night softcore so we'd like to touch on a few of their questions. Some of these have already been brought up in the forum but we'd like to try and organize some of this info in one place. First, how would one go about getting their erotic screenplay into the right hands?
A: I have stated on this site previous (see our forum ). I would be more then happy to present a treatment or script to my executives. Along with their contact information in case the idea is accepted. In my opinion, it is most difficult to break that wall of acceptance.
Q: Can you give us any idea of what the typical budget for an average late-night cable movie looks like? And of course-something almost everyone wants to know-what are the salaries like for actresses/actors?
A: Verrrry delicate subjects.
Budgets are between $125k to $130k for a production that is shot on film over 6 to 7 days. I am not in a position to discuss this in detail, as a lot of factors must be considered that I am not allowed to discuss in interviews or even have access to the information.
However, I will state something that is IMPORTANT. I for one feel the girls and guys are not paid enough for what is required of them. But I can say this: Basically all females are paid the same. And all guys are paid the same. No one has dollar power in this genre! No one!
Q: One frustration for fans of this genre is the fact that some of the cable titles they hear about never make it to home video and DVD, or if they do it's an edited-down "rated" version with all of the decent sex cut out. Is this due to contract stipulations when negotiating the distribution or do the studios generally not recognize that there is a growing DVD market for this stuff? Fans without Cinemax and DirecTV wanna know!
A: It is all about the economics in various areas. Costs vs. Return. The VHS/DVD market is extremely soft for this genre. Example: For a high production value xxx movie from Wicked, Vivid, VCA, Digital Playground, Sin City or digital G, the unit DVD sales domestically are slightly over 3,000 units and selling wholesale between $8 to $12. Possibly lower. The revenue is in broadcast sales, whether it is soft-core or hard-core. I will not even discuss 'gonzo' as that is an area that I am not interested in being involved with.
Blockbuster also dictates the wholesale cost. I do not know the wholesale costs of 'soft-core' movies for DVD or VHS release but most likely they are lower then xxx titles.
Blockbuster, which is the largest outlet for content has over 6,000 stores. And they will only accept "R" rated movies or series programs of this nature. Therefore watering down what the fan's truly desire and have viewed on BSkyB and or DirecTV and other outlets.
Added information: Costs for an "R" rating exceed $1,500 per title.
When you look at the cost of menu screens, authoring, package design, printing, replicating, and the glass master, you then have to look at where your overall market is. If are not able to get your movie or series title into Blockbuster you are screwed! And as we all know Blockbuster will only take this content after it has been rated, therefore watering down what the fan's desire. And you might ask what about NC17 ratings for Blockbuster? The answer is "no". You will not make money. VHS is for all purposes a dead area. You are dealing in very low volume, i.e. profit margins are in most cases way to slim to find the market for the un-rated versions.
I have given my best efforts discussing this with Mainline Releasing. And the only way it seems feasible releasing 'un-rated' versions is selling via the Internet. It appears, at this time, Mainline is not interested in the setting up an area/department to handle this potential added revenue source. Remember we still have not talked about web site design, maintaining site, processing orders etc. etc. All added costs to the unit price, which effects the bottom-line.
The un-rated versions of soft-core title's, I believe, will only sell via the Internet and/or via catalog. Like Adam & Eve, who has been so successful with adult content sales. As you may or may not know Adam & Eve have over 3 million subscribers to their quarterly catalogs.
For example I have a title called "Swingers" in the Adam & Eve catalog. A special premium title featuring Evan Stone, Jessica drake, Dolorian and Monique Alexander as "hosts". The hosts demo Adam & Eve toys, lotions etc while discussing the upcoming sex scene the viewer is about to view. The title has 10 xxx scenes (couple friendly - condom only scenes. Combination of boy/girl and girl/girl scenes).
This is currently only available on VHS through their catalog. Now to-date I have only moved 800 units at a wholesale price of $5.50 before a 30% distribution percentage. As you can see the numbers are not good. However, the upside is that it opened the door to Adam & Eve and they are now taking other digital G adult titles. So a long haul investment of time and patience is required.
