2012 AEE Report–XCritic Speaks To the Well Respected Leader and Vice President of Girlfriends Films Moose

By Rob Perez

In an industry where the talent are the public face of the industry, behind the scenes Girlfriends Films Vice President Moose would be considered a superstar executive as he leads his superstar team to another stellar year of unbelievable growth. As a key member of Girlfriends Films, his bold leadership has propelled the studio as a titan, in league with the other major studios in the industry. Speaking from the AEE convention floor, Moose explains to XCritic the keys to the studios success and what exciting projects Girlfriends Films has planned for in 2012.

Congratulations on all the success Girlfriends Films has had over the past year.

Thanks. We appreciate it too.

What’s the secret to the studio’s success?

First of all it’s Dan O’Connell. We have the best chief, leader out there. He works harder than anyone in the company. He’s been a great role model but he also got into this industry and found a niche that no one else was taking care of and started making films for women and hoping that men would follow and were couple-friendly. Everything from the boxcovers to the real sex on set to the great marketing program, a great charity program. Just being involved and get involved with OSHA, Free Speech (Coalition), the .XXX. Just trying to be a leader in this industry because a lot of people don’t grab the reigns and try to make it good. Our industry has such a bad name that we feel we have to let the people know that the girls that work with us are great girls, educated girls. The people who we rent houses from to the people we do business with, it’s not a shady industry.

I’ve been in the industry as a writer for seven years and I can also tell you that it’s not like that at all.

It’s professional, it’s corporate. If you look around here . . . we’re on our 10year anniversary right now. We just brought out a calendar and a sex book, we’re growing and doing different things now. But back when Dan first exhibited here, there were 60 new studios and we’re the only one from those 60 that were here 10 years ago. Everyone thinks the porn industry is amulti-billlion dollar a year industry . . . there’s a lot of piracy out there, a lot of pirated stuff, a lot of free stuff on the tubes, torrents, clouds. We battle just as much stuff as Paramount and Disney or those companies. We’re doing 33, 34 productions a month. We’re filming non-stop. And we have a great company, a great name.

I would say you’re one of the leading studios overall in the industry.

It’s funny in that it happened in the last couple of years when we first started to become a leader and also with DVD sales, with broadcast or mobile deals. It’s an honor. It’s good but we want to continue doing better for the industry and also better for the girls that work here. This OSHA condom thing, it’s unreal that an AIDS healthcare foundation is pushing towards our industry so much but it doesn’t do anything for the mainstream companies. It’s amazing how much our industry gets beat up especially with this AIDS health foundation guy.

Now that the LA City Council has passed the mandatory condom law, as a lesbian studio how does that affect you and what are your own thoughts on it?

It’s not fair. The adult industry has made its own rules, its own testing. Since 2004 it has worked and there has not been an AIDS spread. For people to tell other adults that are protecting themselves, they don’t tell stuntman that they can’t jump off buildings. I used to be a fireman and I was able to go through burning buildings. I was able to go next to cars that were on fire that could have exploded. I was in many dangerous situations, and this is more a thing to push condoms and condom sales. It’s kind of shady how the corporate world is working around that. The thing is we could always say, “We’re a lesbian studio let’s not get involved.” We believe we’re an industry. If we don’t stay together on everything that comes up, like we just got done with an in-motion suit, if we don’t come together we’re not going to be able to protect our industry and we’ll disolve. No matter if it’s condoms or dental damns we’re going to be involved but as far as I know, it’s LA. There’s still Ventura, etc. It’s just LA. They’re taking money from their city just because they want to sell condoms. Dan and I have been going to OSHA meetings and being heavily involved in them. It’s crazy what they’re trying to push unto the adult industry.

I have noticed over the last several years this sort of push to control the industry.

And OSHA has no money. If it wasn’t for the AIDS Health Foundation none of this would have passed, none of this would have happened. So it’s funny that a big corporation is pushing the adult industry and OSHA around.

Can you tell me about what Girlfriends Films has planned for 2012? Any new series . . .

We’vegot some new series. We’re also looking around, seeing toy lines, seeing different stories. We’re looking at getting a very creative shoot-house so we can actually do some more dialogue and have a set location where we can actually control the set. We also want to do better productions, maybe take the sex out and go towards the mainstream a little bit. We also want to check out other things out there besides just doing DVDs. There’s toys, there’s lingerie. We did a lot with our membership site last year, the book, the calendar, the motion suits. Now we’re looking to get more things on our plate and see what 2012 has in store.

Do you still plan on releasing six titles a month?

Yes, definitely. And we’re looking to maybe do some distribution deals. We do have a strong distribution channel. We make sure our products go overseas, product stays in the states so we’re looking at taking on more distribution lines.

It seems that in 2011 the studio made a strong effort to get the name out there. Was that due to a strong marketing campaign or did it happen by chance?

Itwasn’t just 2011. It was 2008, 2009, we kept on doing more with our marketing plan, branding ourselves, getting involved and it just doesn’t happen in a year. It took several years to build up. Also, its doing these trade shows, having a nice booth, having 15 girls here, getting people like you guys to come in and get our word out there, our message out there, our girls out there. I think it’s a combination [of that] and winning Studio of the Year (by XCritic), we feel that we deserved that because of the hard work. Sometimes you go, “Holy cow, did we really get that?” but it’s an honor and we are growing in this industry.

Do you believe the other studios now see Girlfriends Films as a force to be reckoned with?

They all know because of our DVD sales. We talk with the other owners. They know who we are. We’ve created a friendly playing field. We don’t have many studios that are true competitors to our line or our products. We have some people that try to do one or two videos a month but nobody’s bringing in the market—the lesbian videos—that we are each month. Stores count on us to have that on their shelves for their customers. You know they offered us an upfront booth but we wanted to take something in the back so we can do shows for our fans and not be all crowded up front.

Do you ever see a possible partnership between your studio and another studio?

Definitely. I think its exciting to do joint ventures. We got great broadcasting/cable deals with Hustler, Adam & Ever, we have great relationships. It will be interesting to see what the future has to hold with partnering up. It’s a creative thing. Also with the toy companies we’ll talk to them and see what we can do with maybe a toy line.

Visit www.girlfriendsfilms.com.

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF GIRLFRIENDS FILMS.

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER @RobGPerez