I came into LA recently.  I met a friend in his office and walked in on quite an interesting conversation he was having with an agent.

My friend was booking a girl from a popular agent for an upcoming movie.  This movie is well known as with the company making it.  The agent decided to add an extra $200 on the girls rates from what he used to pay for her.  Since the company in question he was booking for was rather well known he thought he could squeeze another couple hundred out of the guy.

But instead my buddy said you know what, let me call you back.

He then picked up the phone and called another agent from a competing agency.  He was telling the agent what the movie was and the guy stopped him mid sentence and said say no more, I have the perfect girl for you.  Normally she charges $1000 but for this project we’ll book her at only $400 and I’ll wave my booking fees, which for those of you who don’t know is typically about $100 per girl, per scene.

My buddy and I sat there a little dumb founded for a moment.  He’s willing to book top notch talent for more than half her normal rate and wave the booking fees.  My buddy had to ask what was up with that.  Was there perhaps something he was missing?

The agent explained, I know a lot of girls think that when you work on a feature film they should get paid more but those girls are idiots.  When I rep a girl I teach them the reality of the business and if she takes this job with you for less money today, it will come back to her 10 fold because your studio does a large amount of advertising.  Even on the low end, her name will probably be listed in no less than 5 press releases about being in that movie before the movie is even released.

So basically the guy traded a few hundred bucks of pay for the performer for that day just to get her in that movie knowing it would in the long run pay off in making the star more well known which would get her more bookings and possibly for even more money.

As for the girl repped by the other agent, well  I noticed her on Twitter on the day of the shoot saying how she was bored and didn’t have anything to do.

So what is more important to you? An agent who sometimes can get you an extra $100 or $200 for a scene or an agent who thinks about your future?  That’s what you need to seriously start looking for.

Does your agent really have your best interest in mind?

Is he really thinking about your future?

Now before some of you get all bitchy and say that’s the fucking job of a “manager”.  I do realize this however a smart girl will find an agent like the guy I mentioned who has the best interest of his client in mind with every booking request that comes in.

There are situations that you can have your cake and eat it too and sometimes you need to really make an effort to find those kind of people in your life.

I’m not by any means suggesting you have to work for less money just to get the great jobs you want, but at the same time trying to milk them for more money than you normally charge isn’t a good idea either.  There is one particular performer who goes by the initials JJ, who loves to brag about how much she over charges one client, because they are rich and they can afford it.  Well I promise you others hear her talking like and her little attitude cost her more than a few bookings for other companies.

Here are a few other tips for you ….

If your agent spells your name wrong on their website, that’s never a good sign.  It’s even worse when you point it out to them and they tell you it’s better that way.  YOU are the star, they don’t need to tell you how to spell YOUR name.  There is an agent in LA who I won’t mention by name but once messed up spelling a Vivid girls name on their agency website.  When asked about it the agent told the girl it was better this way, easier to spell.  Vivid spent untold amounts of money promoting that girl under that spelling of the name and this agent thinks somehow another spelling all together (not even close to the original) is better?  What a dumb fuck.  So anyway, you get my point.  If your agent can’t bother to spell YOUR name right.  That can never be a good thing.

If your agent ever EVER suggests you lie about your age one way or the other (to make you younger or older), he’s bad news.  You are who you are and your fans will love you or they won’t.  But lying will only cause them to distrust you.  They won’t care that your booking agent told you to lie.  All they will remember is that YOU LIED.  So long story short, if your agent tells you to lie, then he has some serious issues and isn’t looking out for your best interests.   Fans today aren’t stupid and they WILL find out you lied about your age one day.  Trust me on this one.

If you hear continued complaints about your booking agents “attitude” towards studios or people within the industry.  I think it’s time to find better representation.  If someone thinks your agent is a douche, that WILL cost you jobs in the future, probably many jobs.  If one or two people bitch that’s one thing.  Not everyone can get along but if EVERYONE hates your agent, seriously wake up and smell the coffee.

Call your agent at weird times of the day or get others to do it for you.  If you find they have a hard time answering the phone then that may cost you some jobs.  If people can’t reach your agent, then chances are they will just move on to the next agent and book someone else.

Always make sure in advance to see if your contract allows you to book your own shoots.  If you are allowed to book your own work, be clear with your agent that at times you will do so.  The last thing you want is them contacting a studio that you booked a job with directly, making them feel guilty or obligated to have to pay booking fees through your agent and make them feel like you did something wrong or underhanded, even though you didn’t.  It just breeds ill will with everyone involved.

If your agent’s employees have a reputation for bad manners or improper behavior, that WILL cost you jobs.  Who wants to work with someone with a bad attitude?  I know I wouldn’t book work from an agency that treats me badly.  So that means if your agent’s employees have an attitude problem, that WILL cost you jobs.  The question is, how many jobs will you let it cost you before you wise up and move along?

Anyone who frequents this site by now knows there are several people who make posts on this site, not just Ryan Rayzer.  Sure he makes most of them and well, he makes the most controversial, but he’s still not the only poster here at LukeFord.com and while we may not always agree with everything he says, I can tell you right here and now, I will die defending his right to say it.

In the adult industry we work hard to demand our freedoms, but funny how quick we are to want them taken away from people we may not agree with.  I’m sorry, but that isn’t right.   It’s very black and white, we either want freedoms or we want censorship …. and with freedom means we have to understand that gives others the right to say what they like or don’t like and even if we don’t agree with them, they still have every right to say it.

Last week I was on AVN.com and I found some photos for the Jersey Shore parody “Jersey Whores” from Zero Tolerance.  The photos showed several blonds and a picture of a man who quite honestly looked like he belonged on the cast of That 70’s show.  I had a good laugh about it and well Ryan was the person I was making fun of those photos too.  He too checked out the photos and made a post about it here on this website.  Truth is, based on the AVN photos alone, his post wasn’t far from the truth.  Those photos were misleading and were bad PR for the movie as they were not an honest representation of the movie.

Now fast forward a few days.  I spoke with a nice man from Zero Tolerance and together we agreed to take another look at the movie.  But in all fairness, I want to recap what is going on.

One day a group of people from the POPPORN website decided they would make a parody for the popular MTV show Jersey Shore.  They started working on a script and approached Zero Tolerance for help with production and distribution of this movie.  They came to some sort of agreement and a press release was issued to all the typical sources.  On December 31, 2010 XBIZ posted this press release.  The very next day on January 1, 2010 XBIZ posted this press release which stated that Taryn Thomas was going to make a Jersey Shore parody.  Now interestingly enough, even though someone from POPPORN said they issued their press release first and while this may be true, you’ll see in the Taryn Thomas press release “Thomas bought the JerseyShoreXXX.com domain and launched a Twitter account in November to kick off casting.”

That means she started production of her movie back in November.  So if POPPORN started production or at least what they call “pre-production” of the movie in December, to shoot in January, technically Taryn Thomas was first.

But this is porn and let’s be real, it is totally common to have several versions of the same movie.  Look how many versions of the Tiger Woods movie there is.  Look at how many times they’ve made a version of Debbie Does Dallas.  In fact I seen an ad the other day where Adam and Eve produced a movie with Bree Olson that was a take on Debbie.  And there is what, like 2 or 3 versions of Charlie’s Angels in the works right now?

So really who cares if two different companies make two different versions of a parody?  I totally don’t.  So then that brings us to the movies.  Now we already discovered that the Taryn was first but who is the best?

Well “best” has always been a subjective term.  In terms of marketing I will tell you right now, from someone who has years of marketing experience, Taryn Thomas has been winning that battle.  Let met share with you a little story.    Taryn named her movie Jersey Shore XXX.  Zero Tolerance named her movie Jersey Whores.   Both movies were filmed in January.  Taryn issued a public statement that her movie would come out at the end of February, just after Zero Tolerance said their movie would come out in April.  So Zero Tolerance then upped their release date to 1 week before Taryn’s.

You can already tell the pissing match between the two companies are heating up.  So next move goes to Zero Tolerance when they renamed their version of the movie to the official Jersey Shore parody and changed the box cover to say OfficialJerseyShoreParody.com.  But guess what?  They forgot to actually buy that domain name and Taryn Thomas got it.  So now the box covers are printed and they are stuck promoting the domain name that now points to JerseyShoreXXX.com.  For that reason alone we give Taryn’s version of the movie the winner in marketing.

Now the bad side.  For some reason Adam and Eve isn’t being really aggressive in distribution and some retailers aren’t aware of the fact that there are two Jersey Shore movies both coming out at the end of February.  So while retailers are stocking the Zero Tolerance version “Jersey Whores”, they aren’t stocking the other one.   I spoke with a retailer today about it.  The purchasing agent told me she didn’t realize there were two different versions of this movie.  The odd thing is, Adam and Eve is distributing that version of the movie and they are a big company, so why are they not making more of an effort with retailers to carry the movie?  Very strange and in the end will hurt the sales of the Taryn Thomas version of the movie as a result.

Today I went ahead and called two adult stores in Texas, one in Houston and one in Dallas to see if they were carrying both movies.  The first one in Houston told me that the Official Jersey Shore Parody should be in stock by March 1st but they haven’t heard of that other movie, which was Jersey Shore XXX.  The second store told me they didn’t know there were two of them but they aren’t sure which one they are going to carry.  Curious, I asked him why he would only carry one and not just both of him.  He wasn’t sure the answer but knew for sure they had only ordered one version of the movie.  At first he didn’t know which movie he had on order which they were expecting to be in stock in a few weeks but he thought the name was something like Jersey Whores.  Which of course we know is the Zero Tolerance version of the movie.   So whoever does wholesale distribution for Adam and Eve, they are slipping!!

Now on to casting for both movies …..

The Real “Jersey Shore” Cast

Taryn Thomas’s “Jersey Shore XXX”

The Real “Jersey Shore” Cast

Zero Tolerance’s “Jersey Whores”

Okay Zero Tolerance gets the grade here with  an A+ whereas Taryn Thomas gets a D-.  The only likeness her picture has to the original is that it has a Ferris Wheel in the back ground and it’s a group shot. However, ZT does one hell  of a good job mimicking the real cast. They have the same background, same pose, and the same color clothes. It really looks just like the original.

The real “Snookie”

Zero Tolerance version as played by Kristina Rose called “Snookums”

and here is the Taryn Thomas version of “Snookie” as played by herself

ZT gets a A- for Snookie, but again I give Taryn a  D-. I understand that this is a parody and what are the odds of finding a pornstar who looks exactly like someone on TV, but at least ZT tried. All Taryn did was put on a really bad wig.  I like Taryn, don’t get me wrong.  It’s just in this case, they had a better looking Snookie.

The real Sammi “Sweetheart”

Taryn Thomas version as played by Dylan Ryder

Zero Tolerance version as played by Lexi Love

Taryn gets an F- for her version of Sammie. I mean really? She couldn’t do any better than that? I give ZT a A++. Spot on!  I really do like Dylan Ryder but if you watch the trailer for this movie you will see what I mean about her.  She just doesn’t fit in with the rest of them.  She’s just to sweet and soft.

The Real Jenni “J-Woww”

Taryn Thomas version as played by Veronica Rayne called “Wow-J”

Zero Tolerance version as played by Sara Sloane

Taryn put a brunette in a blue bikini and called her J-Woww.  Her girl has bangs and the real Jenni doesn’t, makes Taryn receive another D. (Come on, how hard is it to put on a headband or  clip the bangs back?) I’m only giving ZT a B+ on this one because it does look like a bad wig! But good job none the less!

The real “Angelina”

Taryn Thomas version as played by Angela Aspen

Zero Tolerance version as played by Ann Marie Rios

I’m afraid they both get bad grade for Angelina. I give Taryn an F and ZT a D- (only because Ann Marie looks more like her on the box cover).

The real Mike “The Situation”

Taryn Thomas version as played by John Espizedo call “The Predicament”

Zero Tolerance version as played by Rocco Reed

ZT actually gets an F for Mike “the situation” of looks, but at least they got the name right, so I will bump up the grade to a D. Taryn actually did a good job on her Mike which scores her an A, until they called him “the predicament” (HaHa) so I am bumping her grade down to a B for just really bad taste in name selection alone.

The real “DJ Pauly D”

Taryn Thomas version as played by Johnny Castle

Zero Tolerance version as played by James Dean

The real “Ronnie”

Taryn Thomas version as played by Memphis Blake

Zero Tolerance version as played by Mikey Butders

The real “Vinny”

Taryn Thomas version as played by TJ Cummings

Zero Tolerance version as played by Anthony Rosano

As far as casting goes I am going to have to give the leg up to Zero Tolerance.  So although we give marketing genius to Taryn Thomas, with a big negative in marketing to Zero Tolerance for their very bad selection of promotional pictures they posted in the AVN galleries.  In the future they might want to better select photos that are more, well photos that show off the movie more, not just to show off that you got Kagney Linn Karter in your movie.

As far as the cast of the movie we have to give it up for the other version, Zero Tolerance – they by far had a cast that looked more like the real cast.  I will say this though, I want to give extra credit to Taryn for going out of her way to cast porn stars who were actually from Jersey in her version of the movie.

As far as distribution goes, this one goes to POPporn / Zero Tolerance with a huge negative to Taryn Thomas / Adam and Eve.  When you have a movie situation like this, you need to make sure retailers are carrying your movie.  Taryn Thomas is so busy promoting her movie on Twitter and via the Adam and Eve store she forgot that millions of people show at other adult retailers around the world and as the person who made the movie she needed to make sure that those people are aware of her version of the movie so they will get it in stock.

In the end it looks like these are two great movies, each with their own good and bad points.  Zero Tolerance had a larger budget to make the movie but it looks like Taryn Thomas has the whole grass roots thing going for her.

Here is a link to the very long (about 6 minutes) tailer for the Zero Tolerance movie Jersey Whores.  Here is a link to the trailer for the Taryn Thomas version called Jersey Shore XXX.

Order Jersey Shore XXX
(the Taryn Thomas version)

Order Jersey Whores
(the Zero Tolerance version)

When watching an adult movie which kind of scene do you think is more important for a good movie to have?  Anal sex or maybe a hot threesome? They say opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, so why don’t you tell us yours — do you prefer the hot 3 way or do you want to see a girl take it in her tight little ass?

Are you a porn star? If so then this article is for you. These are some tips in marketing and branding to help you prosper in the new year.

#1   And this is a biggie – take control of your brand.

Make sure you get a hold of yourname.com and start using it. If your official website starts with a XXX or a Club anything, you failed. You need YourName.com PERIOD. Many years ago Jenna Jameson got ClubJenna.com because back then getting back ownership and control of YourName.com (ie: JennaJameso.com) wasn’t exactly easily done. She had to create ClubJenna.com. Since then times have changed greatly and so have laws and now I can’t tell you how many people are making the grave marketing and branding mistake of using any other domain name that isn’t YourName.com.

Also when you sign a deal with a network or any company then you must make sure you read the fine print on your contract in which you keep control of YourName.com, even if you two and the company part ways in the future.

#2   Make Love Not War

Sounds simple enough and really it is but make it a goal for the new year to avoid any sort of scandal and drama associated with your name.  The more drama attached to you, the least likely movie studios are to hire you.  That also goes for call times and scripts.  When you are booked to show up on set at 10:00 am, BE ON SET AT 10 AM.  If you were given a script in advance, READ IT.  The more bullshit you bring with you on the set, like not being on time or not being ready to perform then the less likely you are to be booked by that company again in the future.

#3 Consider the booking type in advance

There are some people who have yet to learn the value of diluting their name.   This is in part the reason why a Vivid girl is more valuable than a non Vivid girl, for the very simple fact that they aren’t everywhere.  Part of their value is in the rarity of the product they are in.  A Vivid girl won’t be in 100 or even 30 movies this year.  In fact, a Vivid girl won’t even be in 20 movies this year.  This means that the few movies she will be in, her fans will be sure to buy all of because they are her fans and they want to see more of her.

What I’m getting at is the more a porn star works it can have a long term negative effect on their value.  So what can you do?  Well website work is far more plentiful than DVD work and your value is far greater from working on a scene in a print DVD than just for a website, so a smart porn star will limit if not cut out all together any Internet only work and will only appear in scenes meant for DVD production.

Another problem is, if you are available on every website out there because you’ve done so much Internet work, you greatly devalue your own branded website YourName.com.

There is a star out there right now who comes to mind on this subject.  She is blonde, big tits, very pretty and quite popular – I would say top 10 popular probably but her website doesn’t make half of what it could because there are so many websites out there they can already see her on.  YourName.com may not be a priority for you now, but I promise the world doesn’t end tomorrow so you just can’t think about today.  You have to very much consider your future and in the long term that will include  a website.  So stop being a dumb ass and taking a quick buck today for website work and as a result hurt your chances of making long term money.

If a company is what we call a real company, say like Vivid or Digital Playground or even Red Light District or Zero Tolerance – these are obviously real porn studios who yes, happen to have a website but their main product is still the DVD.  These are all fine to do business with but when you come to companies like porn.com, Brazzers, Reality Kings, Naughty America … these are all web based companies who might at times produce some of their product on DVD but in the end their main goal is the improvement of their website.  That’s all well and good.  It doesn’t make them bad companies, in fact some of their sites are rather decent but like I said, it is probably best for your career not to continue to make scenes for them if you want to think about your long term viability and the profitability of your name.

#4   Don’t think you are better than you are

There is a porn star that comes to mind, well she’s not exactly a STAR, more like a new girl in the industry who really thinks the world revolves around her.  She got booked for a Vivid feature film not to long ago and talked about it on Twitter.  She mentions how funny it was that she didn’t bother to read the script they gave her.  This is obviously a problem because when she got on set that would cause a delay in production and well time is money.

So they asked her when she got on set if she would perform an additional 15 minute dance for an app they were working on.  She refused, demanding more money – despite already having cost the company far more than 15 minutes in delays since she was prepared.  She caused a big scene and was eventually asked to leave the set, setting the company back an entire day in production of the movie they were working on.  Oh and if that wasn’t enough the dumb bitch went on Twitter talking about how that company sucked for sending her home without pay for being a drama queen.  DUH.

The adult industry isn’t all that big.  People talk shit and the story of your mental instability will get around and as a result people won’t want to book you as much and that means you will lose even more money.

#5 Understand the importance of search engines

When having someone create you an official website you need to make sure they understand at least the very basics of SEO and don’t do something create an entire site in frames or totally flash. Or even worse, do something like Zoe Britton and create the entire thing in all frames and flash. Talk about an SEO nightmare.  If you don’t understand by now that fans need to be able to search for you using a search engine, then really you need to hire someone who does because search engine’s are vitally important to the overall success of your career.

#6 The use of Nicknames on social networking sites is a mistake

Nicknames may be cute but when a fan goes looking for you they should be able to find you easily on social networking sites so always make an effort to use yourname or even yournamexxx if yourname isn’t available but when given the option always first chose YourName.  For example www.Twitter.com/YourName or www.MySpace.com/YourName.  Make it easy for fans to be a part of your life.  ALWAYS KEEP MARKETING IN MIND WITH ANYTHING YOU DO!

#7 AND THIS IS A BIGGIE – Gross ticket sales matter for porn as much as they do for mainstream

Do you know why Will Smith makes as much money as he does for each movie he does?  Simply put, because when he’s in a movie it’s almost a guarantee the movie will make a shit ton of money.  Same goes with Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie.  Their name caries a lot of weight and it’s not just about being famous.  It’s specifically about money.  Jennifer Aniston is just as famous but her movies don’t make as much money as Angelina Jolie so as a result she doesn’t make half as much to be cast in a movie as Angelina Jolie does.

Let me be very clear here, the more money a movie makes that you are in, the more money you will make.  How?  Well because when the word gets out that YOUR movies are making money more people will want to book you and the more money you can charge per scene.

Let’s say a company casts you to do a feature film.  You need to find out what you can do to help promote that movie, just like the real celebrities do in mainstream because every time a movie comes out in mainstream, the stars do the promotion round, doing all those interviews with talk shows, etc.  So a smart porn star will volunteer to do promotional interviews for a feature film they are in because the more promo is out there for a movie, the more the movie will sale.  The more money that DVD makes, the more people will want to book you because companies are about money and they always always want to go with stars they know will sale DVDs. Seriously.  It’s just plain business.  BE SMART.  Remember this is a business and always do your part to promote any DVD you are in when it comes out.

Not only can you volunteer to do interviews to help promote the movie but you can also tweet about or post a photo or two on your myspace page.  Tell fans about how fun it was to make that movie.  Talking about a movie while you are making it won’t really help that much.  Promote it as it becomes available on DVD.

Eva Angelina tweets about how great her movie Deviance was and as a result her fans have come out in droves to buy it.   Sales for that movie have skyrocketed and retailers are going back to companies and telling studios, get me more Eva Angelina movies.

Smart porn stars understand that this is a business and will understand that it only benefits them if they go out on the promotion trail when they make a movie.

It’s new technology for the new year.   What is this new technology you ask?  Well they are called flesh drives and they are pretty fucking cool.  Basically it’s a flash drive with a shit ton of porn on them.  You can get different sizes and some of them hold up to 3,000 movies.  How fucking crazy is that shit?

They are broken down into various themes like anal, threesomes, mixed, oral sex, amateur sex, hardcore sex, interracial sex, big butts, asian sluts and so on and they also come in various sizes like 25 movies, 50 movies, 200 movies and then there is the king, for true porn lovers — the 3000+ Videos on 500GB External Compact 2.5″ Hard Drive.  That would of course be the ultimate flesh drive.

I personally can’t wait until they do them by porn star like the all Eva Angelina Flesh Drive or the all Chasey Lain flesh drive.   At least for the smaller handheld flesh drives.