The Hot Blog: Porn Leaves A Trail(er)

« Responding To The Week In Comments | Main | More On Friedman »

April 03, 2009

Porn Leaves A Trail(er)

Patrick Goldstein does this whole piece about a documentary called Naked Ambition having its trailer red-banded by CARA and takes the MPAA to task for this.

But he links to this trailer aka "Last Looks" with Audio Mix - 01/30/09... which has a CARA green band and an R-rating on the front of it, though I guess that those are not official... especially since they are on every version of the rejected trailers.

Ah... the other versions.

The filmmakers, in offering Patrick a look at the last version they submitted, also gave anyone with a geek brain access to the first four versions. Here is the first look aka Rough Cut 12/16/08. Plenty of overt sexuality including a girl licking her own breasts, the f-word (albeit partially bleeped), a glimpse of nudity, a real-doll being felt up, and a closing tag in which an actress proclaims that "I get so much dick... it's amazing". So, it seems, that's were the relationship with CARA started.

I found it kind of interesting to watch each successive version in order to see what changed. The breast licking, language, and glimpse of nudity disappear... though I would hardly say, "not even anything especially suggestive."

Here are the other cuts...

2nd Pass Rough Cut for Approval - 12/17/08

3rd Pass Rough Cut for Approval - 01/19/08

4th Pass Rough Cut for Approval - 01/21/08

Of course, I always love when web-hating Patrick lets people get away with quotes like, "I could tell from our phone conversations that I was dealing with a generation of people that really didn't understand today's MySpace culture at all," unchallenged because it fits his agenda. If what he means is, "Kids see this stuff online so the adults should stop trying to get in the way," he kinda loses me. And normally, I would expect that to be true of Patrick as well.

And one big issue - the fact that MPAA owns a copyright on the term R rating - is glanced over. As the director offers, inaccurately, "'R' isn't their emblem or anything." But it is. Legally.

Anyway... an interesting glimpse into a process in spite of the poor journalism. I mostly think that this guy, with enough ego to try to qualify for Oscar - he seems to be 4-walling the film to qualify before it goes to TV after midnight, as many HBO docs do - got some free publicity out of this spectacular non-issue.

And dare I expose my knowledge base by point out that while Jenna Jameson - who is featured in the HBO doc, Thinking XXX - appears here only on the red carpet on on stage for the AVN Awards themselves, Ron Jeremy and Tera Patrick do not appear in this trailer at all and if they are in the film, it is not apparent from this 2 minutes. Is it possible that Mr. Grecco is overselling this detail as well?

Posted by dpoland at April 3, 2009 08:17 PM

Comments

I'll say right now...and this will probably reveal too much about my knowledge of the adult industry, that movie looks like ass. No big stars- no Sasha Grey of soon-to-be Soderbergh fame, no winners of the last 2 performers of the year, no Jenna Haze, no...anyone. I mean, if this guy is such a big shot wouldn't you expect the most popular stars to be beating down his door to be in this cutting edge doc?

I'd say based on the trailers, it's not about the industry it's about this Michael Grecco character trying to sell himself. I mean, really. What does anyone in any of those trailers say that's insightful or hasn't been said in every other porn related doc?? I call BS on the whole affair, but congrats to the guy for getting some publicity even if the emperor has no clothes...har har.

Posted by: don lewis (was PetalumaFilms) at April 4, 2009 12:09 AM

I am so tired of porn docus. They're never honest, always a whitewash because 98% of the people involved are junkies and pathological liars. And when you hook up with AVN, it's a guarantee to be a giant fabrication. They've been lying about industry revenue for over a decade, and the media just ate it up which lead more suckers to invest and more naive girls to flush their lives down the drain by 25.

You want to do a docu on pron? Show these women after they leave the industry. The ones who are willing to go on camera would make an audience shudder.

Posted by: Martin S at April 4, 2009 06:42 AM

"For some reason, I've been knee deep in red-band trailers this week. First it was the new "Borat" trailer,"

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Awww, thank you so much for playing journalist with us today, Patrick. An acceptable answer would have been "the new 'Bruno' trailer", or "the new Sacha Baron Cohen trailer"; but the answer "the new 'Borat' trailer" unfortunately means you won't be staying on my monitor screen and I won't be finishing the rest of your article. Please enjoy a one-year supply of Turtle Wax and a fact checker.

Posted by: Hallick at April 4, 2009 09:57 AM

Not that I'm in the forefront of Goldstein defenders, but it's not uncommon to type a related word when you meant to use another, especially when you're writing quickly; I've done it myself. I'd cut him some slack on this one.

Posted by: Cadavra at April 4, 2009 12:18 PM

"I'd cut him some slack on this one."

The error is still there. I'll cut him some cheese on this one.

Posted by: Hallick at April 4, 2009 08:16 PM

A professional blogger in 2009 should know the difference between "Borat" and "Bruno". Nuff said.

Posted by: jeffmcm at April 5, 2009 01:09 AM

Sasha Grey and Jenna Haze are CHARMING.

Posted by: LexG at April 5, 2009 01:14 AM

That is a very interesting and useful statement.

Posted by: The Big Perm at April 5, 2009 07:20 AM

"'I'd cut him some slack on this one.'

The error is still there. I'll cut him some cheese on this one."

Well, of course! If he doesn't go back and correct it, then he deserves whatever he gets!

Posted by: Cadavra at April 6, 2009 12:17 PM

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)