(Ya I know …who? but the guys was nice to me when he was shooting in Atlanta I know it’s self serving but it isn’t an out and out press release and I didn’t have to pay anything for it)
The Reluctant Pornographer
By: Valerie Wood
‘Alternative Worldz’ is Ron Royster’s impressive directorial erotic documentary debut. Royster possesses the wizardry as an erotica director to wisely choose the ingredients for magic by placing interesting, confident, powerful and sexually charged people in front of a camera. Then he gives them the celluloid space to do their thing in an appreciative atmosphere. He’s created a first-rate character and performance study of the diverse underground sexual landscape of Atlanta, Georgia. Just a few of the sensually gifted stars you will find in this feature include vampires, sex kittens, sex magic ritualists, she-devil vixens, interactive erotic painters, rousing fetish models, uninhibited dominatrix goddesses, prostitutes sharing empowerment stories and an astral projecting porn couple in their most lascivious on-film encounter yet. I spoke with Royster recently about how his most recent endeavor came to fruition.
Q: Tell us about your movie.
A: I was working on soundtracks for Adam and Eve (www.adameve.com). The opportunity came about to put in a proposal for a movie and I’d been thinking about it a lot. Adam and Eve have done some very popular movies, the company even won an ‘adult movie of the year’ award last year, and every year they’ve won awards, but traditional porn just didn’t appeal to me. Regular porn is not my bag.
Q: Why don’t you like traditional porn?
A: I don’t like anything contrived, that’s what most porn is to me, the same people doing the same things.
Q: Well, what is it that does sexually inspires you?
R: What is sexy to me? It’s never what I expect it to be. One person’s definition of sexy is different from another’s. During my research project, when I was looking around on the web trying to figure out what idea to submit for this movie, I found all these alternative girl websites with all these gorgeous tattooed women. They were honest, they were being real, it’s real! That’s why it’s so exciting! It’s not one girl pretending to be someone else. These were real women embracing their weirdness and sexuality. It had a nice healthy flavor to it. Whereas, most of it is not healthy. The most disturbing thing I’ve seen is women being slapped, there is violence and degradation that’s rampant in the porn industry. I think it’s horrific for the women and the men- to be paid money for that is horrible. I love women…I respect them. I try to be respectful of everybody. No one should be doing what they don’t want to do.
Q: Do you think this film will appeal to men and women equally?
A: Yes, without a doubt. Women do indeed like hardcore pornography, I always thought they didn’t want to see a penis going into a vagina, boy was I wrong. Women love that stuff! Also, I haven’t seen adult material for intelligent people. It’s a section of the population that hasn’t been catered to.
Q: So tell us about the project, once you decided you wanted the film to center on alternative girls, how did it get started?
A: It was magic and it happened in a course of twelve hours. All the pieces came together in 12 hours. There was a meeting for all the people interested in being involved in the movie; we were meeting at a bar in Atlanta. When all of these people got into this place, we took up an entire section of the bar. Everyone turned around in their chairs to stare at them, they have their clothes on, but they have this crazy energy around. Through my friend Michi Peachi, she ended up knowing all the people in the bar and turned me on to all these other people who would be interested in the
film. Other than John and Tabitha Stern, none of these folks had ever been in an adult film before. There are over 100 people involved in this project, and I’m friends or on good terms with every one of them to this day. All of the people, and all of the great bands whose music is in the film- every last damn one of them- is from the Atlanta area.
Q: How did you convince the cast to come aboard for this project?
A: We laid down rules that no one does anything they’re not comfortable with, nothing they wouldn’t do normally or love to do or get off on it. The singular thing I hate about porn is the fake female orgasm, oh my god, it’s the worst. It’s more important that you have fun and not worry about camera angles or how your pussy looks. It’s important that you’re comfortable and having fun. The crew were a bunch of nice, fun loving people- very considerate and smart. From day one, I told everyone that the floor is open to any creative ideas. I’m into collaboration. I tell people ‘you are gonna be on film forever!’……which excited them, more than frightened them… which I expected.
Q: Like the real life porn husband and wife team, Jon and Tabitha Stern, they are scorching. How did you get them to come out of retirement for this film?
A: They were both reluctant, so I offered to buy them a couple of slices of pizza and some beer to tell them about the project. I told them it would be an erotic documentary. I put the power in their hands and told them they could do what they want to do. They liked the idea of this movie, it was nteresting to them. See, you have this totally monogamous couple, they’ve never had sex outside of the marriage, they love each other a lot, they got off on the idea that we were in a public place, they could go crazy, they liked the idea that we were all around. They think it’s the hottest scene they’ve ever done, or in any scene.
Q: What do you think makes the film so special?
A: The crowning glory of this movie was that the women had orgasms, real orgasms, some of the veterans tell me that never happens. Throughout production, the cinematographer kept commenting that we were making groundbreaking work. What we’re filming is energy, it’s authentic. And that people are really enjoying themselves, and that comes through. I’m not trying to change pornography, there are a lot of people who love that, but there’s a gap there, If I can keep it real and the people in my films are really into what they‘re doing, that’s energy, and it’s real, we live in such a plastic society, that real really stands out.
Q: This was your first movie. You’ve never worked in the adult film industry before?
A: I had done some soundtracks for adult movies, but had never stepped on a movie set ever. My original vision was to find alternative people, those outside of the mainstream, around Atlanta, where there seemed to an abundance of people outside the mainstream.
Q: You weren’t going to direct the film originally, is that right?
A: That’s right. My job was to be the producer, I thought I already had a director…I had already hired my friend from Seattle to direct and be the
cinematographer. I was on my way to Atlanta from my home in Chapel Hill (NC) to pick him up when he called to say he was bailing because his girlfriend was going to leave him if he made the film. There was really no time left to find a new director, so I said screw it and I decided to direct. I was able to hire an award winning cinematographer who coached me through the filming process. I was also blessed to have Dolores French on board to conduct most of the interviews. She’s a sexologist, an author and one of the most well known prostitutes in the world. But because I was a
first time director, I didn’t know how many hours was necessary to film to get enough to make a movie, so I filmed for 60 hours….and found out later the norm was 6 hours. I just kept shooting film, we didn’t run out of money, so we just kept filming.
Q: What did you do with all that extra film!
A: Well, along with the normal X-rated version of the film, there will be an R-rated, straight-to-video version of the film as well. It’s more of a documentary of the people involved in the project.
Q: How daunting was it to have to be the director of this film and learn as you went along?
A: I realized I was born to do it. I am an eroticist. I can’t not think of erotic things when I’m hanging out with women. I can go to the grocery store, and a woman leans over to the broccoli and I’m writing the whole script in my head, god help her if she was by the zucchini.
You can check out the preview for Ron Royster’s directorial debut, ‘Alternative Worldz’ at www.eroticistfilms.com
BT Shows Us Why He is a Real Writer and I am Not:
Here are my thoughts:
If someone is willing to bid $1,200, $12,000 or a buck twenty to go to the AVN awards with Taylor, well, all I can say is: Is this a great country, or what?
Who cares if her husband got her into Penthouse. She’s a beautiful woman — if she was a dog, Guccioni wouldn’t have published her. You don’t risk millions in potential newsstand sales to do a favor for a friend. If the criticism is: she took advantage of her situation to further her career, all I can say is: Haven’t we all?
On the other hand, the excerpt from Rockconfidential is further proof that porn chicks shouldn’t open their mouths unless they’re going to insert something. In this case, that something is Taylor Wane’s foot. Somehow she managed to sound both pretentious and idiotic at the same time.
Very Well stated.
I’m Off To Vegas….
