Vivid commentary

So... I'm back.
Decided last week that a "vacation" was called for, so I took one. Hopefully no one ascribed my unannounced silence to me actually shutting up. I'm a mouthy bastard.

Moving right along, there were a couple things I found interesting to note out of this month's AVN.

To start off with, it looks like the side-line of "instructional" videos by well-known production companies is a healthy market. Adam & Eve has kicked out a solid stream of how-to videos hosted by Nina Hartley. Besides being one of the hallowed names in adult film, she's a very adept presenter. Adding some professional sets and well-known industry talent assisting gives Nina's guides some real polish. Given that success, I'm not surprised in the least to read that Tristan Taormino has consented to set the standard for Vivid's new line of instructional videos; Vivid-Ed. This looks to be a promising venture. Taormino has written three books, including The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women, Down and Dirty Sex Secrets, and True Lust: Adventures in Sex, Porn, and Perversion in addition to a column in the Village Voice. She has several years experience conducting workshops and lectures.

Continuing with the whole "Vivid's got a wild-hair" theme, they've decided to try something new. For a fee, people will be able to burn their movies to their own DVD. Suffice to say, this is a development that arches the retail eye-brow. Steve Hirsch, co-founder, was quoted as saying

"The one thing I want to make clear is that we are and continue to be sensitive to the needs of distributors and retailers."
"We will always price them in a way that never undercuts the retail price at the stores. That's important. The trick is to sort of walk the fine line between trying to exploit some of those new technologies, and protecting our distributors and retailers who have been there for us for a number of years. I certainly don't see this technology putting the retailer out of business. I don't see that happening."

Granted they are not offering up their entire catalog at the present time. Their debut offering are thirty of their older titles. They are planning on adding new releases to the Burn-to-DVD library somewhere around ninety days after the DVD release to stores.

However, twenty-five bucks per movie is still cheaper than most retail outlets can offer for the same title. Personally, I'm a bit more skeptical regarding his assurances that it will have negligible effect upon the physical retail venues. People are lazy and cheap. If they can just park themselves in front of the computer with a bag of cheese puffs and a beer, clad in a tattered pair of tightie-whities and still get their quality movies, they're gonna do it. After all, we actually expect a certain hygienic standard from people walking through the door. I know, how fascist of us. Sure, they'll miss out on the glossy, polished boxes and printed discs, but a lot of the time my customers waste no time in discarding the wrapping after purchase.

On the other hand, the internet is all but porn on tap and we still get lots of people looking to buy and rent vids. This could very well have minimal impact. Perhaps it will only serve to cut into Vivid's "hard-copy" DVD production, simultaneously curtailing the number of discs they package to retail locations and inflating the costs per copy due to loss of volume.

I think I'll remain on the cynical end of the spectrum. Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst has served me in good stead for the majority of my life. There's way too much potential to be corn-cobbed by this marketing scheme to set aside my professional paranoia.