Elegant Angel

Last updated
Elegant Angel Productions
Company type Private
Industry Pornography
Founded1990;34 years ago (1990)
Founder Patrick Collins
John Stagliano
Headquarters
Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California
,
U.S
Area served
 United States, Europe
Key people
 Patrick Collins, (Co-founder, owner, President)
Graham Travis, (General Manager)
Products Pornographic films
Divisions Elegant Angel Europe [1]
Website www.elegantangel.com
Footnotes /references
[2] [3]

Elegant Angel Productions is an independent pornographic film studio located in Canoga Park, California and owned by Patrick Collins. [3] The company is considered one of the early pioneers of gonzo pornography, and its films have won numerous awards.

Contents

History

Elegant Angel (EA) was founded in 1990 by Collins in partnership with pornographic film maker John Stagliano as a subsidiary of Stagliano's Evil Angel Video. [2] [3]

The two labels soon became a pioneer of Gonzo pornography, along with other producers such as Rodney Moore and Ed Powers. Stagliano had pioneered the Gonzo genre in the late 1980s. [2] [4]

In 1996, Collins established Elegant Angel as a separate company, and in 1998 it ended all cooperation with Evil Angel. [2] [5] His departure from Evil Angel has been called "less than amicable", and he and Stagliano are apparently "ex-friend[s]". [5] At the time Collins said that Stagliano "couldn't run a business, and would fail without him". [5] According to Stagliano, "Patrick's a bully", "and he wasn't doing his job properly". "I should have fired him years ago". [5]

Israel Chapa Gonzalez who was a designer, cameraman and often performed on screen, joined Elegant Angel in 1996 as a set designer. [6] On 27 May 1997, he shot dead Glendale police officer Charles A. Lazzaretto and wounded two others at the company's warehouse in Chatsworth. [7] [8] Throughout the night he exchanged fires with the police and at 6am next morning police entered the building and found Gonzales dead from a gunshot wound. [6]

Operations and management

In 2004 the studio stopped production for two months. [2] Collins then refocused the company on producing niche-themed pornography, and discontinued some series that had more ambiguous themes and were not selling well. [2] The firms logo and box-cover art was also redesigned and simplified. [2] It hired a new DVD authoring contractor, and launched a new PR campaign. [2] The company then went back to producing as many as eight new titles a month. [9] Production was also halted for a month in early 2004 when the studio joined the moratorium on filming caused by Darren James's HIV infection. [3]

In August 2004 the company opposed calls from Democratic California Assembly member Paul Koretz for the adult industry to use condoms. [10] In response to the HIV outbreak in the industry in March the same year, Koretz had threatened to instigate legislation requiring mandatory condom use. [10] EA head of production Graham Travis responded that there was consumer demand for scenes without condoms, and that forcing condom-use would force some studios out of business. [10]

From June 2006 onwards Elegant started to see a sustained increase in DVD sales. [2]

In 2007 the company started launching a number of paysites. SwallowSquirt.com was launched in April, followed by BigWetAsses.com in June, and PornStarSquirt.com in September. [2] [11]

In June 2014, Collins announced the installation of a new management team at EA. Premiere Sales Group president and proprietor Drew Kennedy was selected as the new president and So-Cal Wholesale Distribution owner Gabriel Guzman will serve as COO. [12] Collins changed his mind after a week due to complications from his pending divorce. [13] Guzman instead started ArchAngel Productions in October 2014 [14] and another company, Exquisite Multimedia, purchased the content of Elegant Angel in 2015 in order to form a partnership with Patrick Collins's ex-wife, Cindy Collins, who owns the trademark name "Elegant Angel". [15]

Films

Elegant Angel has produced several multi-award-winning film series including Buttwoman, Big Wet Asses, [16] Cumback Pussy, and the Sodomania series. [4] [17] Several EA films were included in AVN's book on the Top 500 Greatest Films. [4]

In 1993 Collins bribed a Hungarian transport official to allow him to film Buttwoman Does Budapest on the city's busiest Number 18 tram, as it travelled through the Taban Park neighborhood. [18] [19] The bribe was US$100 and a box of chocolates, and Collins became the first American pornography director to film in Budapest. [19] The film starred Collins' wife Tianna, and features public sex scenes in front of the city's main tourist attractions. [18]

Niche-themed series that followed the 2004 hiatus included Cum Drenched Tits, teen-themed films like It's a Daddy Thing, and ethnic-themed releases like Up That Black Ass, Big Black Wet Asses and Latin Booty Worship. [2]

Some of Elegant Angels' most successful series have focussed on the niche of female ejaculation. Squirtwoman was the first, followed by Swallow My Squirt, Flower's Squirt Shower starring Flower Tucci, Cum Rain Cum Shine and Squirt in My Gape. [2]

More recent series include Blow it Out Your Ass, which focusses on milk enemas and anal creampies, and the snowballing line, Sperm Swappers. [2]

Actresses

Actresses who have starred in EA films include; Cytherea, Flower Tucci, Brianna Love, Jada Fire, Alexis Texas, and Riley Reign. [20] English star Nici Sterling appeared in many of the company's earlier films. [21]

Tiana Lynn starred in Cum Rain Cum Shine in 2004. She then started working for the company behind the scenes, as a receptionist and in public relations. Lynn quit performing in February 2006 to work in Elegant Angels' sales department full-time.

Directors

Patrick Collins originally directed several of the companies films himself. He had previously directed the Sodomania series whilst working with Stagliano. Collins would go on to direct Squirtwoman starring Cytherea, Cum Rain Cum Shine in 2004, and the solo masturbation line All By Myself. [2]

Collins praises the contribution of cameraman Michael Cates to the studios early success. [22] Cates later directed films including Sodomania 7 and Sleeping Booty. [23]

The studios original directors were Collins, and the young team of Rob Black, Tom Byron and Van Damage. [2] These three had previously worked for Collins creating films under the Extreme Associates label, when Extreme was a partner of Evil/Elegant Angel. [2] During this period they directed series like The Blowjob Adventures of Dr. Fellatio,Cumback Pussy,Miscreants, and Filthy First Timers. [2] In 1997, Black, Byron, and Damage left Elegant Angel to establish Extreme Associates as a separate company. [2]

Mason and Jake Malone directed for EA at the start of their careers, however both left in early 2004. [2]

Thomas Zupko directed three films in the Big Wet Asses series. [2]

William H was responsible for Tails of Perversity 2, and the Flower's Squirt Shower and Big Wet Asses series. [2]

Marc Wallice directed the series, Marc Wallice's Tales of Perversity. [24] Wallice had previously acted, however turned to directing when, after a false HIV test scandal, he was revealed to be HIV-positive. [24]

Performer and director L.T. joined Elegant in early 2006, and worked on lines including Big Black Wet Asses and Up That Black Ass. [2]

Writer and director David Stanley also worked for Elegant Angel before moving to Wicked Pictures. [25]

Distribution deals

In late 2003, Elegant Angel arranged for Devil's Film to take over the exclusive distribution of Elegant Angel titles in the U.S. [26] The deal was dissolved in early 2004, in a mutual agreement by both companies. [2]

In October 2006, Elegant Angel entered a deal with LFP Broadcasting, owner of Hustler TV, for Hustler TV to distribute Elegant Angel content over cable and satellite pay-per-view and video on demand television. [27]

In November 2006, Elegant Angel announced that it would distribute its videos in Europe exclusively through Red Light District Video, [28] but in April 2007, Elegant Angel launched its own European division, Elegant Angel Europe. [1]

Awards

The following is a selection of some of the major awards EA films have won.

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References

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