Production companies in adult entertainment face many challenges that vary from project to project, especially when it comes to making interesting and profitable movies on a budget. Fortunately, if you forge a solid team and streamline your processes, you can create good movies that perform strongly in today’s market.
At ArchAngel, our team has many moving parts. Before production begins, I call up Phineas Johnson, whose sole purpose is keeping his ear to the streets to get our fans’ point of view. Then, I coordinate with our broadcast representatives Jim and Wendy Crawford, as well as Jeff Mikolai, for his influence on the web and our corporate partner Moose from Girlfriends Films. Every team member plays a valuable role in our objective of capitalizing on every aspect of this business in a cost-effective manner.
Every team member plays a valuable role in our objective of capitalizing on every aspect of this business in a cost-effective manner.
For one of our recent titles, “The Queen of Spades Club,” my responsibilities included coming up with a budget and casting performers who I felt would capture the attention of fans and background companies who may purchase this movie —using the knowledge and expertise I’ve gained from working in this industry since 2005. I have to keep in mind that chemistry is everything when it comes to casting, so I will personally reach out to ask my talent (and/or their agent) if they have a preference about who they’d love to work with. Based on their request, I’ll use my best judgment to see if it’s something I can make happen financially. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but I always strive to make the best of the situation.
When it comes to booking a location, we don’t have the luxury of having a lot of different variety, due to most locations opting out of shoots and instead renting to families who are willing to pay the mortgage consistently. This within itself is another challenge most of us face, but I make an effort to reach a deal by agreeing to shoot at a location multiple times in exchange for a lower rate.
Production days have changed tremendously as well. I remember when we had the pleasure of having snacks on set to make sure everyone has something to munch on before we worked or in between sets. Due to the nature of the business, we are trying to get everything in one take, so we don’t have to spend countless hours on set where we will gain an appetite from always moving. Of course, there is an exception to every rule, where I may have my assistant Chad Diamond grab lunch for us if the day carries over and I aim to please, so I will provide whatever our cast may want when it comes to snacks or meals.
While on set, my PA and I take on the responsibilities of a bigger crew, which is why I enjoy having Chad Diamond around, because he knows how to wear multiple hats — with a keen eye towards good lighting and overall production value. The days of having a sound crew, a lighting crew and/or a camera crew has dwindled down to having a few handy guys that you can depend on, who share the same directorial eye and experiences you do. That in itself is something that saves a good amount of money for productions.
Then, ArchAngel uses two editors to cut our movies, which is great, because I enjoy having two different vibes. The reason we decided to add a second editor to our roster is because our content continued growing fast to keep pace with demand. While they are cutting the movies, we have the industry’s best graphics guy in my opinion — Carlos Dee. He has single-handedly changed the way boxes were created within our industry, so he designs every one of our boxes. I’ll always have the final say when it comes to what he feels our color scheme should be, or the placement of certain graphics. That being said, with Carlos as our one-man graphics department, we can save money without overspending on designs.
Once everything is complete I will take the time to review the overall movie. This includes watching scenes to make sure there are no mistakes, looking at graphics and being the overall quality control person. This is another way we are able to save money, by having me going over everything to make sure there are no hiccups in the product before it goes out. Recently, we’ve been reaching out to our amazing PR firm Star Factory PR, to look over things as an extra set of eyes that can assist with presenting the project in the best possible light.
As you can see, there are a lot of things we’re able to do to save money with every movie, depending on what we are shooting. Of course, I’ve only listed a few ways I save money — I’ve left a few things out, to preserve some of the mystery behind how we make the ArchAngel machinery run so well. Ultimately, we take pride in our team and we all enjoy what we do. I hope that you value our hard work as well, from the outside looking in.
