Evil Angel (studio)
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| Private | |
| Industry | Filmmaking |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Headquarters | 14141 Covello Street 8C, Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California 91405, United States |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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John Stagliano (owner) |
| Products | Pornographic films, Pornographic magazines |
| Services | video on demand |
| Owner | John Stagliano |
| Website | www.evilangel.com |
Evil Angel is an American production company and distributor of pornographic films, founded and owned by John Stagliano.
Stagliano and Evil Angel pioneered the Gonzo pornography genre in the late 1980s. Several of the most acclaimed pornographic film directors have worked for Evil Angel, and its films have won numerous awards.
It has been described as "the top porn-film producer" in the U.S, as one of the handful of companies which dominate the distribution of hardcore pornographic films in the U.S., and as one of the most profitable porn studios.
The company's rise to prominence was fueled by the industry switch from film to videotape. In the late 1970s a feature-length porn film shot on celluloid might have cost as much as $350,000. In 1983 the VCR had been recently introduced, and producers were beginning to make pornographic films on videotape. A film using video could be made for as little as $5,000, compared to a minimum of $40,000 for a movie shot on film. Into the 1990s, by shooting its productions with video cameras, Evil Angel could still make films for $8,000. Stagliano initially had little knowledge of film making, but he made his first movie for $8,000 in 1983: Bouncing Buns, starring Stacy Donovan. For the next six years he made films for other companies to manufacture and distribute.
In 1989 he started Evil Angel, to sell his own films. The origin of the company's name goes back to when Stagliano was working as a stripper: "There was another guy in one of my shows named John. So this MC started calling me Evil John to differentiate us. This was when I was doing Dracula and chains. At the same time I had a girlfriend who called herself Angel when she did strip shows. She was a very nasty girl and I suggested that she call herself Evil Angel. She didn't, but I loved the name and wound up using it for my company."
The first Evil Angel film was Dance Fire, filmed in 1988 by Stagliano, starring himself, Trinity Loren, Brandy Alexandre and others. It would only be released on DVD 20 years later. Influenced by amateur pornography, In 1989 Stagliano hit on the idea of performing in a film whilst also operating the camera, so that the viewer experiences the film through the eyes of his character. The first-person perspective was influenced by the 1960s film Blowup. At the time this was in contrast to the majority of porn, which tended not to make viewers aware of the camera. This technique is today known as Point of view pornography. He formed his Buttman persona, and shot Adventures of Buttman. The early Buttman films were written, produced, directed, edited, shot and manufactured personally by Stagliano. The first two Buttman films had lengthy scripts, but the series soon evolved into an improvised, spontaneous format. In contrast to his earlier work and the standard porn of the time, Stagliano did not link each scene together to form a conventional narrative. At times the camerawork was shaky. Partly due to his lack of funds, he didn't use elaborate sets or locations. At the time porn films had a traditional storyline, with sex scenes interspersed with dialogue by performers with little acting ability. Instead of that format, Stagliano chose to film "one sex scene which has a beginning, a middle and ends at a climax. Trying to make all that relate to a bigger story is very difficult and creates all sorts of problems that get in the way of making the best scene possible." The distinct style of the early Evil Angel films would be widely imitated, and would come to be known as Gonzo pornography.
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Wikipedia