TLA Raw is hosting their own little awards this year which they are calling “the smutties”. I pretty much figure they developed this award thing as a means to promote their own products. For example, they put in the best movie category POPPORN: The Guide to Making Fuck along side movies like Wicked’s 2040 and Digital Playground’s Teachers. I’m not saying Popporn’s movie isn’t okay but let’s be real here – not even close to being anything that can be considered in the same category as 2040 or Teachers.
They also listed their POPporn movie in the category of best sex comedy. And of course the director of that movie, Mike Quasar they nominated for best director and also in the category of best twitterer. Keep in mind he only tweets once or twice a day, and lately his tweets have mostly just been insults to others in the industry. Here is some of his insightful tweets that got him nominated for best tweeter.
- This just in: X-Play sues William Shakespeare for trademark infringement over the phrase “To be or NOT to be”. about 3 hours ago via web
- More lesbos today. Good times. about 14 hours ago via web
- In other news, the producers of American Pie want us all to stop using the word “Milf”. 10:22 AM Mar 10th via web
- Jeff Mullen just trademarked the word “Not”. I just trademarked the words “Douche” and “bag” 10:21 AM Mar 10th via web
Really that category should include stars who tweet all day long to their fans like Nikki Benz, Teagan Presley, Eva Angelina and Sunny Leone.
The biggest disappointment was however the category BEST FREAK OUT OF THE YEAR. They left out a few major freak outs which is of course Shawna Lenee’s well actually she’s had a few but I guess the biggest and most well known one would be on the Opie and Anthony show. Then they could add in Donny Long for one of many freak outs he has had this year and maybe even Chasey Lain in her battle with Donny Long.
They couldn’t be more obvious with that they are doing. Do they really think customers are so stupid that they won’t see through this very obvious and blatant attempt at self promotion? They could have at least pretended to put some effort into the categories.
Now all of this aside, you know what isn’t included? VIVID – one of the biggest studios out there – and while they may no longer be #1 they are still a major player in the adult industry. But TLA Raw completely disregards them and doesn’t nominate anything Vivid related in any category – movies, directors, porn stars – nothing.
Is there something going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about?
While it’s true that almost every awards show includes nominations of some kind for Wicked Pictures, Digital Playground and Vivid as a standard – maybe TLA Raw just didn’t agree. Could it really that the powers that be at TLA Raw found no Vivid product viable in any single category – no Vivid girl worthy, nor any Vivid director or movie??? Could it really be that innocent or is there something going on behind the scenes that we just don’t know about yet?
I guess only time will tell, or maybe we’ll get someone to leak us some information on what could be brewing behind the scenes between Vivid and these guys.
What’s a Vivid?
Hey Ryan, thanks for posting about our TLA RAW Awards!
See, with most awards programs, the nominees are determined by a select pool of voters. In this instance, the select pool was the working staff of TLA RAW. Unfortunately, there’s this pesky thing in the universe called “free will” that allows individuals to make decisions based on opinions. Now, the tricky thing about opinions is that ultimately, one persons opinion might be different from another persons opinion. Thus, unilateral nominations that suit all individuals become nearly impossible. It’s frustrating, but something we all must deal with as human beings.
Thus, it’s logical that our nominees might vary from say AVN’s or Xbiz’s or any of the other awards programs out there. Believe it or not, they might even vary with your own if you had any. Luckily for us, however, our business is not dependent upon the revenue generated by advertising and so, it’s uniquely up to us. As I’m sure you can imagine, picking nominees from a pool of potential advertisers can be a real pickle and not a position I envy. I can’t imagine the complaints and bitching AVN receives annually. Nonetheless, they select their nominees and give it their best shot. Which is what we did.
Now, in your post, you complain about some specific nominees. Well, there’s that whole opinion thing again. It’s a bitch, right?
I can certainly say that, in my own opinion, a person like Mike Quasar or Kristina Rose kills on twitter because, unlike other performers who simply use it as a marketing tool, boring thousands of followers daily, they make use of the application to present a funny, interesting and unique perspective to the adult business. To us, that’s special. Sure, Mike may come off as depressing and self deprecating…but it’s a hell of a read. And I’m sorry, when is it a bad thing for a person to have an opinion (damnit, they pop up everywhere) on another person’s business practice?
In regards to your accusation that the TLA RAW Awards might be self serving in that, it helps drive traffic to our site and encourage new customers to visit our site…um, duh. Isn’t that a part of any award program?
So, clearly I could go on and on trying to explain awards, nominations and the pain in the ass that opinions can sometimes be, but I think you’d agree that they’re good things to have.
As for Vivid receiving no nominations. Nope, no trouble with them at all. We’ve always had a great relationship. But sadly, nothing they produced this year really caught the attention of our staff. Maybe you disagree but again, that’s cool! I’m sure Smash, Third Degree, Exquisite, Sin City, and a whole other slew of folks were upset they didn’t get a nomination but, hey, some people have to sit on the sidewalk and wave as the parade goes down the street.
I suspect that perhaps Mr.Rayzor’s wit isn’t terribly refined. You see, the boys from Popporn enjoy making light of the people and events that populate the tiny, insignificant universe that is porn valley. In the grand scheme of things, does it really matter whether or not “Popporn’s guide to making fuck” is better or worse than 2040? No, it does not. Does it matter if I poke fun at Jeff for having an enormous ego? No, it does not. Why does it not matter? because we shoot people having sex for money. That is all we do. Some do it better than others. Some dress it up with “mainstream” production values, some put out press releases claiming to have invented something akin to a porno version of the wheel and some just point and shoot, but in the end, it is people fucking for money in front of a camera, and when people take that occupation as serious as dentistry, it becomes prime fodder for ridicule. I don’t believe that Steve Hirch’s feelings are hurt by not being nominated for a “smuttie”. Brian and Spock were most probably very drunk when they even conceived this ridiculous concept. I’m also pretty sure it’s because they DON’T think their customers are stupid that they launched this “blatant attempt at self promotion”. Reasonable people of slightly above mongoloid cognitive skills would see that it’s meant to be humorous. I think they trust that their customers fall into that category (or at least some of them)
As for my “insulting” tweets, the only person I “insulted” was Jeff, for reasons mentioned above. I never questioned his talent, business-sense or personal hygiene. He’s very good at what he does – no one would argue that- and he also has an enormous opinion of himself and he shouldn’t, because he shoots porn for a living. Being a country founded on free speech, I felt compelled to comment on it. He is also free to mock me mercifully if he so chooses.
Have a nice rest of your day.
Yes, Mike is right – we were VERY drunk when we picked our nominees – but in all honesty, the nominees (at least the movie and stars)were based on the popularity (read: SALES) of the movies/stars at TLARaw. Like it or not, the Popporn movie was one of the top sellers of ’09 (due to our blatant self-promotion no doubt) – thus the nominations… well, that and the fact that it WAS the best movie of ’09… except for maybe Inglorious Basterds.
If this is based on sales, then Vivid should be there. Their two big hits, Throat: A Cautionary Tale & Faithless, must have made some good coin considering the amount of mainstream press Sasha Grey and Kelli McCarty got. Kelli is a bonafied mainstream actress who crossed over into porn. Sasha had her Soderbergh movie. All that press meant sales to whatever porn movies Sasha and Kelli were in that year.
Oh, TLA Raw’s comment just showed up now:
“See, with most awards programs, the nominees are determined by a select pool of voters. In this instance, the select pool was the working staff of TLA RAW.”
Buckton says it’s based on sales while TLA Raw says something different. If it’s not based on sales, then forget what I previously wrote.
You guys take what I say far to serious. I don’t give two shits if you don’t nominate Vivid or not. I just find it mildly amusing that on one hand you say your nominees are based on popularity (READ: SALES) then on the other you can’t seem to realize that the rest of us know that not in any universe did any movie may have made outsold a product like Throat. Not saying your movie sucked balls or anything, just I’m also not stupid. I read sales reports weekly. I keep up with what is hot and what moves.
Now all of that being said, I also have no problem with you nominating your own movie for an award for well an award show that you are producing. Some may see it as self serving, I however say more power to you. As you see by the plethora of VOTE FOR ME TWEETS, all the fucking time on, awards, either fake or real have become a viable marketing tool for many.
So who the fuck am I to say you can’t market your movie in whatever way you want?
I was just poking fun at it but in the end I don’t really give two shits how you promote it. As you find I even ended my post inviting the readers to go out and vote.
The only thing I would really say, for what my fucking 2 cents is worth is why not include a few actual viable candidates in there like your category “Best Twitterer”, why not include girls like Nikki Benz and Teagan Presley and even Jesse Jane. These girls, all they do all day long is tweet. Especially Teagan and Nikki.
And as far as best freak-out of the year goes, how the fuck could you leave out classics like Shawna Lenee? Even Bree Olson had a pretty decent breakdown, so she should be in there too. I want to say that is without a doubt your favorite category. But seriously, you know who should win that award? The nut bag of the year is definitely Jayden James. Nobody can touch that crazy bitch in the crazies department.
I agree with you about Bree. Her Bubba-the-love sponge breakdown was truly inspired.
Based on sales, there’s also Vivid’s Shauna Sand’s sex tape. Though not a movie, but with the amount of international press the video got, I’m sure it sold pretty well.
For Twitterers, there are Alexis Ford, Tanner Mayes, Tera Patrick, Jenna Haze, and Stormy Daniels who update everyday it seems and post their new candid pictures to their accounts.
I like stories.
I think this is gonna have to be one of those “Agree to Disagree” situations. Vivid doesn’t sell for us, its not our cuppa tea (except for a few choice B.Skow flicks) so it’s not even on our awards radar, that’s all. Nothing against them, they just don’t even register.
As for Twitterers, we prefer folks who are funny and entertain “us”.
Maybe we should spell it out for you a little more clearly.
Just because a movie sells amazingly well in the market at large, it doesn’t mean it sold well for TLA RAW. Throat, being a great example. We don’t doubt it’s total sales, but in regards to TLA RAW, it sold like a dog.
Our awards, based on our sales and our opinions. Simple as that.