I can not share enough with you how tiring this industry can truly be when dealing with the twink actors/models. I do try my best to bite my tongue, but there are times when I feel the need to speak my mind and share my side of what I experience with these young adults. Time to time, there comes an opportunity to work with an actor who’s done some work with other producers, which is usually a blessing. These guys are used to having a camera in their face, used to baring all in front of complete strangers. Some are great to work with, have great attitudes. Others are full of drama and all about being in the spotlight. And of course, there’s the really difficult ones that just don’t work out. Chase Harding & Aaron Tyler text me out of the blue one night months ago while they were in town. Asked me if I was interested in filming some scenes with the two of them. I of course already worked with Chase, heard about Aaron, never had that opportunity being exclusive with Helix, so I had interest. But when it came down to how much they wanted to be paid. Well, I’ve received some ridiculous rates before, but they wanted me to put them up for a week in a penthouse suite at the Wynn Hotel & Casino here in Vegas. And if I agreed, I’d receive a discounted rate to use them in scenes. A discounted rate? When we’re talking about a 10,000 tab plus to put someone up at a penthouse suite at the Wynn for a week, who in their right mind would entertain this idea?? I of course, politely declined. In a recent blog over at Aaron Tylers blog he goes on to talk about sleazy producers, now including me of course because he and I were unable to negotiate a rate for him to appear in Twinklight. He left out his initial email on his blog, which I’ll post below. It amazes me that I go from having his respect, and him saying how well I treat my actors, that he would love to work with me, to being a slime ball producer, trying to take advantage of actors because he couldn’t come forward with a rate. I want everybody to know I NEVER turned down Aaron’s rate, because he simply never gave me one. And for someone who’s been in this industry to not know how much he wanted to be paid is complete bull shit. When I was going to work with Brent Corrigan, he gave me his rate. Turk Melrose, gave me his rate. Ralph Woods, gave me his rate. Now just because I may not be able to pay these actors their rates, certainly doesn’t make me a slime ball. About a month ago, I received an email from Aaron, which read: I hope everything is going great for you. And that you are having a great year. You have amazing work and although I know there was ALOT of drama caused by alot of people, I wanted you to know man to man, that it was never my intention to cause any bad blood between us. I have always wanted to work with you and hope that, that is still a possibility someday. Also, whatever anyone said about a rate in regard to me to you is BS. I know how the economy is and I also know that you film 1000’s of guys and dont need any divas or people with bs. I hope you can accept my apology for not talkin to you face to face on this matter! And also, for any thing anyone has said I said or did which isnt true, I have always had the upmost respect for you, from the way I have seen that you treat your models to the way that you film great work. Yours truly, Aaron Tyler So, in response to his email that he sent me above, I asked him if he would be interested in joining the Twinklight cast. The rest of our conversations went into negotiation about how much money he would be paid. That we of course had issues with before. I wanted to know what his going rate was, as almost every actor has a going rate. I understand an actor wants to get as much money as he possibly wants, but almost everybody knows my rates. So if I have the ability to increase a rate, I need to have justification to do this. It has nothing to do with being a slime ball in this industry. When you make a film, you have a budget and the most important element in film making is the budget. 99% of the time you’re going to go over budget. But if and when you do, you need to be able to justify it’s overage somehow. If it’s getting an actor in that has a large following that will add a few hundred, thousand DVD sales, then you take that into account and try to meet the actor in his request. This was my intention with Aaron. I wanted to know his following, I wanted to know when he was last filmed, how many scenes he did, and how much approximately he was compensated. Instead of coming back with a ball park, he directed me to his agent because he says it was getting too complicated. Couldn’t he simply return with 500-800/scene, or 1000-2000/scene, etc. ? I can move my numbers around my budget however I need to make them work, and my intention was to try my best to meet Aarons rate best way I could. Unfortunately, he didn’t want to share his rate, in which case I thanked him for his time. Given the circumstances, my feelings were his initial email to me was BS. I’m not new to this, I’ve been doing this for 8 years now and if an actor really truly wants to work with me, he’s going to show that in his communication. He cut it off when he directed me to his agent, as he didn’t initially direct me there. When it comes to paying an actor for scenes on a website, I have specific budget and actors are paid on a scale from beginning to experienced rates. They fall well within the going rate of web scenes. I’m told from actors I pay more. Some actors I’m told I pay less. None the less, both of these types of actors come back for work and I pay what my budget allows. I’ve worked with actors that receive thousands of dollars per scene who take less to work with me. Actors who come back time and time again. Why do you think that is? Because I’m a slime ball trying to take advantage of them? Anybody who’s actually worked with me knows that not to be true. When it comes to features, the budget is completely different. Actors are NOT paid the same rates as they are for web scenes. They are paid more. And their pay is all dependent on their experience, ability to perform, looks, audience, etc. Many factors go into their pay, and if an actor is NOT willing to put a price out there, he’ll never know if that price can be met. Aaron Tyler knows what his worth is, he knows what he wants to be paid per scene. He knows what I pay, he knows my work, he said so in his initial email to me on facebook. So, why make things difficult and send me to an agent? Simply give me your asking rate and I’ll tell you if I can meet it or not. Plain and simple. End of story. I hold nothing against Aaron Tyler, I don’t know him well enough to cast any judgment onto him. But with my experience with him, it didn’t feel like he was serious about working with me, so we went our separate ways. No harm, no foul. Aaron knows me well enough to know I don’t like to deal with drama even though it comes creeping on my door all the time. If Aaron is willing to come forward with his rate, I’d be happy to let him know if I can meet it or not. It is not personal, it’s business and if my budget allows for it, I’ll certainly do it. If Aaron decides not to work, I wish him the best in his future.
The rest is here:
Aaron Tyler….Twinklight?
