Amidst a tumultuous time for adult, Falcon Studios/NakedSword shook things up earlier this year. Alongside the yearlong 20th anniversary celebrations for its pioneering streaming platform NakedSword, the legacy brand reassigned Raging Stallion Studios director Steve Cruz to Falcon, and sent Falcon’s Tony Dimarco back over to Raging Stallion, the label where he first made waves when he shared the XBIZ Award for Director of the Year in 2009.
Dimarco’s initial plans were scuttled by the coronavirus and subsequent industry shutdown. The acclaimed director pivoted, quickly and deftly, to directing self-quarantined performers via Zoom.
It was very stressful, but I have to say it was a good learning process, because it makes you step back and really evaluate everything that you do and the things you take for granted.
XBIZ spoke to Dimarco as the industry was slowly getting back to work and adjusting to the new normal of rigid COVID-19 safety protocols.
He is still very much devoted to the filmmaking process he alluded to back in 2018 during an interview with XBIZ, when he said, “I always like to know why something is happening. As a viewer, you want to buy into the fantasy of what’s happening.”
Dimarco now brings that same sense of driving curiosity to his shoots with Raging Stallion at a time when the need for fantasy and escape is more potent than ever.
XBIZ: So, Falcon shuffled the deck a little this year and you’re now with Raging Stallion.
Dimarco: The funny thing is that I came from Raging Stallion. I was hired by [studio founder] Chris Ward — time goes by so fast. I’ve been [with Falcon/NakedSword], I think, 13 years. And the first four or five years was all Raging Stallion. It was great, being with Chris and his history; it was great.
Then I went to Falcon, Raging, Hot House Video, shuffling back and forth, like an artist’s palette, using different paints. But it’s great to immerse yourself into [one] brand and understand and create it. [Falcon/NakedSword president] Tim [Valenti] wanted to shake things up, add a little life into what we’re doing and give us creative challenges. You can get stuck in one direction and repeat yourself. It’s been nice to delve back into Raging Stallion.
XBIZ: Talk about some of the differences between the two studios.
Dimarco: At Falcon, the subject matter is usually boy-next-door, loving and keeping things light. There are some darker storylines, but most of it is light. Going to Raging, it’s a much different animal, which is great because my ideas tend to go a little darker. Not in an evil way!
XBIZ: Understood.
Dimarco: Bathrooms, porn theaters and sex clubs … creatively, as a director, those are the better palettes to paint with sometimes. It’s just more varied. It’s more fun!
The first movie I did when I came back was “Cock Hunter,” which was set in a bathhouse. What I loved about that was you create a mood and then you also create a little bit of a cat-and-mouse game where there’s cruising going on, a look and a stare. And more animal sexual instinct.
You’re painting with a moodier palette and artistically it can be more creative because you’re working with color, light and textures. When I say “darker themes,” it’s more about the cruising, the pickups and the dirtier, nastier things that we all have fantasies about. Like going to a public bathroom and just having sex with someone in the stall.
XBIZ: “Cock Hunter” does have a very specific lighting aesthetic. It’s something people don’t necessarily think about when they’re watching porn, but it helps set the mood.
Dimarco: We’re doing it for the viewer. What mindset are they going to be in when they watch it? Sometimes, I think people gravitate towards certain moods. Sometimes, you want to feel that “seedier” mood, the more dangerous, naughty or taboo mood. Those scenes create an excitement in people. You’re creating an environment that has that taboo feeling, but also it’s in a safe environment with them because they can experience it through your characters. It’s fun.
XBIZ: Back in the day, especially during the height of the AIDS era, Falcon offered that bright, California, sunny blond image that really gave people the opportunity to experience the fantasy of sex between men without any worry. It was celebrated, very clean-cut and bright. What do you think about Raging Stallion offering much the same thing, but with a different aspect to sexual experiences?
Dimarco: When you think about Falcon and where it started, the beginnings, of it, there was an edge to some of that older stuff. “The Abduction,” you know? And all the fisting.
XBIZ: Yeah, in the special director’s cuts you had to order directly from Falcon.
Dimarco: But over time it evolved into something like boy-next-door, the college jock. And the sex was [often] naughty, which was great! But Raging is all about blue-collar men, straight fantasies, whereas Falcon was collegiate, beautiful faces and bodies. I always liked Raging because those were the kind of guys that I liked, more hairy and natural. It’s been fun coming back to it.
I used Devin Franco in the last movie and I’m putting him in this movie. He’s an amazing performer. The thing about Devin is that he’s totally a Falcon model because his body is rocking, he’s got this really handsome face. But he can also be Raging because it’s an attitude, too.
When he doesn’t shave his body and has a little facial hair, he can be really sexual and over-the-top and dirty. He has a range where he can dip in-and-out of both just because he’s a dynamic performer. [Falcon and Raging Stallion] audiences are a little bit different, but they accept him because he’s such a sexual dynamo.
XBIZ: That’s what it comes down to, ultimately. I mean, his eyes roll back into his head with pleasure in every scene.
Dimarco: Yeah, and that’s authentic. There’s not much acting there. He’s present in that moment. I never feel like he’s overdoing it for the camera. I’ve come across a couple new performers — I don’t want to reveal who they are yet — but, again, it’s the same kind of authenticity. They’re in the moment, which I like.
XBIZ: Steve had started to do more storyline-driven stuff with the line, like with “At Large” and “Timberwolves.” Is that something you’re going to try?
Dimarco: My whole thing is I love doing movies. I love storylines, plots. As you know, with the movies I’ve done, the bigger ones, they’re exciting to do. Like “Route 69” and “Califuckinfornia” and “Beach Rats of Lauderdale.” I like telling stories of why these people are having sex … what drives them there.
If you can have the chance to do bigger scene ideas, you can draw the viewer in deeper in terms of what you’re trying to do with these characters. Definitely, yes. I have a couple of projects I’m planning now that I hope we can shoot next year.
Because of the limitations of how we can shoot these days, we can’t really do any big productions at the moment. We’re going to write them and plan them out and then next year, perhaps, we can just dive right in and do it.
XBIZ: The opportunity to do more pre-planning is good. How are you planning your shoots now that we’re well into the pandemic?
Dimarco: It’s a tricky time. This [week] will be my third production back. I have to say that it’s going a lot more smoothly than I thought it would. There are so many protocols set in place. So many precautions with the crew and the cast. Everyone’s local or driving in; we aren’t flying anybody in at the moment.
There’s a sense of safety; we have our own studio and we’re the only ones in it. Everyone’s tested for COVID and we still abide by wearing face masks and social distancing and hand-washing and [disinfecting] surfaces. Coming back, it was a little daunting at first.
XBIZ: Sure.
Dimarco: As we got into it, it wasn’t that much different than how we normally are. There’s no hugging or selfies and all that kind of stuff. The guys are still having really hot sex.
XBIZ: I hadn’t thought about that — social media is part of everything these days. Every time there’s a new movie, everybody’s posting selfies from the set with each other and pretending to make out and eating lunch together.
Dimarco: We want to make sure it’s all done by the book. We’re following every [recommended] precaution that we can to keep everyone safe. It feels very comfortable. There’s some peace-of-mind that everything is cleansed. When you were talking about safety before it was just about STIs and now it’s also about COVID and keeping each other safe. It’s a tricky time.
XBIZ: I read an interview with a producer from “Pose” who was talking about maybe doing fewer kissing scenes than normal. But you can’t very well do that.
Dimarco: I’ve been watching what Hollywood is doing and how they’re protecting their people. In our case, there’s a pre-test before [performers] even come out here. And then they get here and there’s another test.
XBIZ: Lately, you’ve been remotely directing stuff. What’s that been like?
Dimarco: When we went into shutdown, we thought, “What now?” And the directive was to start producing other kinds of content and to come up with ideas about what to do. We brain-stormed and came up with different things.
It was interesting because it [presented] a lot of challenges as a director. The actors would place the cameras and I would direct watching through a Zoom screen and you have to not only direct them but also direct where they place the cameras. It was challenging because the normal control that you have on the set is gone; meaning I’m the cameraman and the director, so I would just put the camera where I want.
Now, you have to train [actors] technically: “I want everything in 4K, I want to make sure everything is shot in horizontal mode.” There’s a lot of things you take for granted when you’re working on your own. When you’re working with actors, the range of their experience is so varied. Some of them are excellent and you don’t really need to tell them anything because they’re so good at doing content on their own. There are others you really have to hand-hold because they don’t know how to set their phone from HD to 4K.
After you’ve shot the scene, then you have to get it [uploaded] to the server and get it off their phone. It was very stressful, but I have to say it was a good learning process, because it makes you step back and really evaluate everything that you do and the things you take for granted. I also felt like it was a good training experience for the models to do better-quality work for us and for themselves on their own. I was happy with a lot of that material.
XBIZ: And this was all with guys who were already quarantining together?
Dimarco: Yes, and then we had [scenes] through Zoom calls and the actors were remote. That was an interesting challenge, because it was something that was also realistic, you know? Back in the day, people used to cam with each other.
This is a new way of doing it. And, again, how do you make it sexy – and it is sexy, because there’s a distance and you can’t touch that person or smell that person or feel that person or suck that person — but there is this great tension that’s created between having two people communicate through the internet. That’s an interesting dynamic.
The same technical things came into play, but I found those really kind of fun, like a POV [scene] because they’re looking at the camera and performing to the camera and so is the other party. In sex, you try to create tension-and-release, a cathartic release. That’s a part of what we do, setting up tension is really important. It’s very interesting, these times.
XBIZ: Is it too early to introduce COVID and masks into the storylines?
Dimarco: I think we’re going to ignore it. I don’t think it’s sexy. I think people want to escape from it. Maybe years [after] we’re out of it, people can look back on it with a different perspective. There’s probably a storyline there [now]. But I think people just don’t want to think about it. Anything that’s handed to us as a challenge also really forces us to be creative, like these virtual Zoom scenes. That’s something we would normally never do but you have to come up with a creative solution.
Image: Jake Nicola, Raging Stallion Studios
