Being Joe Gage

Posted on 25. Mar, 2009 by James Sheridan in Video Clips

An Interview With the Legendary Director

Director Joe Gage has directed a total of 20 movies for TitanMen, starting with his first contribution to the TitanMen library, Mens Room Bakersfield Station, to his latest installment, Slow Heat in a Texas Town (available now at TitanMen.com). To commemorate the release of Slow Heat, Titan film editor James Sheridan sat down with the notorious director and asked him some of the questions that he has wondered about while editing Gage’s movies over the years. During the interview Joe Gage touches on some of his sources of inspiration and just what was going through his mind when creating some of his most memorable TitanMen scenes. Throughout the interview there are several embedded video clips from the movies that Gage reflects upon.

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You recently finished up your contract for 20 movies with Titan Media.  Tell us a little about  your latest Titan title Slow Heat in a Texas Town?

The movie deals with several themes I’ve explored before: inter-generational interaction, working-class conflicts, seduction and the power shift that occurs as a man experiences man-to-man sex for the first time.

It was a fun movie to work on.  I shared a little preview with our readers a couple weeks ago.  The response has been pretty good.  I would like to talk a little bit about you creative process.

Okay

In Slow Heat in a Texas Town you bring back a couple performers from some of your earlier films. One of my favorites, Josh West, comes to mind. You always seem to have a mix of guys with different body types.  How do you approach the casting process?  What makes a good mix?

I’ve always liked the idea of having a stock company of players, men who are comfortable with my approach regarding both dialogue and sexual performance requirements. The world isn’t overrun with them, so I have a tendency to use the guys who can deliver over and over if I can, and if they are right for the character.  I like to use a broad range of types from young to old, for contextual reasons—as you may have noticed, the world (even the fantasy world) isn’t entirely made up of perfectly turned-out, youthful body-beautiful types. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Clip from Slow Heat in a Texas Town

One of the things I like best about your movies is that they have a story and a memorable cast of characters.  Where do you get your story ideas?  While watching I find myself filling in a mental back story for all of the characters, even the ones that are not the main focus. Is this something you give a lot of thought to?  For example, Dylan West in Deep Water Beach Patrol comes in and another character says “Don’t let him in, he is always starting something.”  He does come in and within moments a jack-off party breaks out.  I really started to wonder about the other times he had come over.  How do you come up with these characters?  Are they based on people you know in real life?  More specifically how do you pick the names? Gunnery Sgt. McCool comes to mind….

I maintain a Name Bank—first and sometimes last names taken from news stories or the names of people I meet—that I use to populate my tales. I also have a Story Bank filled with ideas that are sent to me by guys who have a scene or a situation in mind that they’d like to see on the screen. I hang on to these until a project comes up where they fit in. And I won’t  lie—some of it comes from personal experiences, as well as simply from my own perverted imagination.

I  also love the little details in your movies, from the little bear figurines in the living room in Back To Barstow to the George Bush portrait in the baseball players scene in Alabama Takedown. The set actually fills in some of the back story.

Exactly. Moviemaking 101: The devil is in the details. I look for items to insert into a scene that will add some flavor. (I refuse to say ‘spice’.)

Another thing I love about your movies is your use of dialog.  Most adult movies, including the majority of Titan titles have none.  I think at one point in Slow Heat in a Texas Town Chad Manning refers to his naked “bohunkus”  I also recall Ken Mack using the word “tallywacker” in Lifeguard: The Men of Deep Water Beach.  These examples may seem a little silly, but I also love  how you use word play turn the action during the burglar scene in 110° in Tucson. Blu Kennedy goes from saying “Don’t,” and “Stop,” to “Don’t Stop…”  This is not your average porn dialog.  How do you decide what words a character should say?

I love character and situation dialogue in movies, and it’s been my stated purpose in life to bridge the gap between “mainstream” movies and “adult” movies. The more similar they become, they hotter they will be, as we invite the viewer to resist the suspension of belief and to envelop himself into the dream. Really. I’m not kidding here. Main. Purpose. In. Life.

Clip from 110° in Tucson

I would like to talk a little about some specific movies.  My favorite Titan/Gage movie is Arcade on Route 9 and I think it incorporates all the themes that run through your movies.  Out of your 20 films for Titan which ones are your favorites  and why?

110° in Tucson. Love the location work and the omnibus approach to the story. And the chemistry between a number of the men went totally red-line.  Mens Room Bakersfield Station. Big fan of both sex in public situations and of big dicks.  Arcade on Route 9. This one was a combination of several stories that had been sent in to me or told to me by buddies.

One of the most memorable scenes I have edited for you was the Godzilla scene in Deep Water Beach Patrol. That was inspired.  Where did that come from?  Was that a hard sell?

As a sci-fi nerd, of course I had always wanted to do a scene of guys getting it on while giant monsters ravaged the city around them. One day it came to me to reverse it and make it gigantic guys demolishing a city while having sex. It literally came to me in a dream. And no, mushrooms were not involved in the process. Hard sell? Yes. But the powers-that-be finally allowed me to give the envelope a little nudge—something I tried more than once at Titan.

Clip from Deep Water Beach Patrol

Leah Wilde and Scott Wilde blow Logan Robbins

Speaking of hard sells,  In Crossing the Line: Copshack 2 you actually talked Bruce Cam in to letting a female,  Leah Wilde, be in a Titan movie, in our first-ever bi-scene! That was something that in the decade I have been working for Titan I never thought I would see.  I would have loved to be a fly on the wall for that.  What was that conversation like?  Where you happy with the scene?  I was on the set for a while that day and it seemed like all the performers were into it, although Leah looked like she had never put on a “strap-on” before.

Again, nudging the envelope. The idea started as a full-fledged Bi-feature, then it was finally agreed upon that I could insert one Bi-scene within the project, if it worked realistically, which it did. Leah Wilde came up to the Titan studio the afternoon before she started her scene after shooting several “straight” movies in a row down in L.A. When she was walked into the still-photography studio and confronted with handsome stud who stood posing for the camera with a raging hard-on, she smiled and said, “I’ve been fucking ugly straight guys all week—this is gonna be fun!” And it was.

Tyler Cane sucks off the wheelchair bound Kai Grant

Another scene that I can imagine being a tough pitch was the wheelchair scene in Campus Pizza. I think it came out wonderfully.  How did that come about?

Saw a hot young guy one day in a wheelchair under the Santa Monica sun in an open-air café and the story came to me in a flash. Brian Mills (alarmed): “He’s gonna be in a wheelchair?” Yes he was. And it worked out fine. I’m working on something at the moment with a deaf character. There’s room for just about anybody in my world.

Spencer Quest seduces Luke Pearson

Another moment people still talk about is the scene with Spencer Quest in 110° in Tucson.  I think this scene really illustrates your talent at making the seduction be even more powerful than the sex itself.  This is something most directors never attempt for a number of reasons.  Tell us a little about your memories of that scene.  What was it like working with Spencer Quest?

I love drama—it’s the basis of all storytelling, and without conflict, however subtle, there can be no drama. The power exchange that goes on during a seduction scene can be riveting if all the elements in place. In this case, they were. Spencer was astounding, especially as this was his first time ever in front of the cameras. He rocked that scene and played it to the hilt. Spencer Quest was (and is) a dreamboat and I miss him.

Before Closed Set: Titan Stage One you had not done a lot of fisting in your movies.  What was that experience like?  I have to say it was a really good fisting segment.

The fisting scene in Deep Water Beach Patrol is better, and fisting’s not usually even in my bag ‘o tricks. Sometimes you just go with it and let they players take it where they want. Here, we did and came up aces.

One thing you do feature a lot in your movies in jacking off.  You are the first director I have worked with who paid this much attention to what all the viewers at home are all doing.  Tell us a little about what is  appeal of shooting jack-off footage for you?

I suppose more than anything, my movies are about cock-worship. They’re easy to worship when you can see ‘em clearly—like when they’re masturbating.  The jacker(s) is/are also, of course, standing-in for the viewer. Interactive participation, if you will. What can I tell you? I love jack-off.

You worked with several Titan Exclusive performers: Dean Flynn, Tony Buff, Tober Brandt, Diesel Washington, Spencer Quest, Hunt Parker, Cole Ryan, Who were some of your favorite performers (exclusive and non exclusive)  to work with during your stint at Titan.

Can’t have a favorite child. God won’t allow it.

Cole Ryan

Speaking of Cole Ryan, was he really a virgin?  Inquiring minds want to know.

He said he was. Call me gullible, but I kinda believed him. What? I wanted to believe him, you say? Whatever. Massive pre-cum, don’cha think?

Yes he could drip for days.

Your latest titles for Titan were shot in HD (Copperhead Canyon, Home Invasion and Slow Heat in a Texas Town) and are available in the new Blu-Ray format.  What challenges if any did you face moving from SD to HD.  Some how I get the impression that the larger frame size works for your aesthetic sense.

I grew up in awe of Cinemascope and always longed for the day I could work in a widescreen format. Billy Wilder said widescreen is only for filming snakes; I beg to differ. Wide vistas give a story scope and majesty, if I may get all pretentious. And hard (big) dicks in profile remind all of us of the existence of a Higher Being.

I asked you about your favorite movies , now what are your favorite scenes you have shot for Titan?  I have to say I love the Matt Majors scenes in Cop Shack on 101 and 110° in Tucson.  Somehow the night time setting makes them exciting and realistic, you don’t notice you are on a set.   What scenes really worked for you?  What ones did not come out as you intended.

Clip from Cop Shack on 101

Matt Majors with the prom guys the limo in the woods at night from Cop Shack on 101 is my favorite scene of them all. It has a very 70’s euro-porn look that we were going for and actually got. Can’t tell you the number of times the screening of that scene has turned into, uh, something else, if you know what I mean.  Copperhead Canyon was a project that was rife with problems—for the most part, none of them due to the cast or crew. Several scenes went off in directions not originally expected. I’ll leave it to you to decide which ones.

Outdoor shooting is one of the things that Titan is really known for. I know the logistics of working outdoors is much harder.  How does being out side of the studio affect your process?  What do you prefer?

I like shooting under the sky day or night, but at heart, I have to admit that at heart I’m a studio guy. I like the control it affords, plus the access to decent water pressure.

Thanks for taking the time to chat with me and the Titan blog readers.  I  have really enjoyed working with you on these 20 movies and I know your fans have loved watching them.

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