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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. Eros Zine:: How did you wind up making porn videos?
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. Eros Zine: Do you even consider your films to be porn videos? Tony Comstock: 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. Eros Zine: What's your background? Did you go to film school? Tony Comstock: I studied photography in school and worked as a commercial photographer for several years before drifting into film and video.
Tony Comstock: 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. Eros Zine: How is the work you do different from most porn? Tony Comstock: 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. Eros Zine: What do you think mainstream porn could do to be more realistic or more exciting? Tony Comstock: 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. Eros Zine: Are there any mainstream porn directors whose work you enjoy?
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. Eros Zine: You feature real couples. How do you find them? Tony Comstock: 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." Eros Zine: Do you "direct" them or really just turn on the cameras? Tony Comstock: 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. Eros Zine: And how do your films differ from the usual "amateur" videos? Tony Comstock: 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. Eros Zine: Can you share any interesting tales of on-set excitement? Tony Comstock: 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.
Eros Zine: You're located on the east coast, far from the porn industry. Where do you usually shoot? Tony Comstock: 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. Eros Zine: You've recently released a gay title. Was it at all different working with a gay male couple? Tony Comstock: 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! Eros Zine: Do you plan on doing more of that, perhaps with female couples? Tony Comstock: We have three lesbian couple films in the can and expect to release them throughout 2006. Eros Zine: Yay! So you see yourself branching off and doing other things, with actors and scripts, or other scenarios? Tony Comstock: 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. Eros Zine: Thank you so much for your time, Tony! We look forward to your upcoming releases! Our readers can check out Tony Comstock's films at comstockfilms.com.
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