Porn’s wunderkind and Vivid-Alt founder Eon McKai and his army of auteurs are taking adult entertainment to new heights it may not be ready for. All we know is that we’re fans… and you fucking should be too.

When you made the jump to Vivid in 2006, there was speculation that moving to a mainstream corporation would inhibit your creative freedom. Has that been the case?

It was like when some indie band got a sweet deal out of one of the meager labels back in the 90’s. Vivid knew that I was going to do things differently. From my early dealings with VCA, I knew all the issues that would come up, so I got everything in my contract. I insisted that my stuff hit the street totally unfiltered. Not to say that Vivid did not push me and my people to become better at what we do. It’s good to have a challenging voice sometimes, so you realize what is important to your work.

Do you feel that Vivid-Alt has been able to penetrate the mainstream adult entertainment market and is that even a concern of yours?

It depends on which part of the world you’re shopping for porn. In Australia, Vivid-Alt out sells the regular Vivid titles. But, overall I think you pick up an alt-porn movie because you’re going to have a different relationship with it than you would with some movie with a # at the end of it. Seems like these are good movies if you’re looking to watch an adult film with someone else or at a party even.

Describe your selection process for finding the directors and the talent for Vivid-Alt.

It’s a scene just like music and art and I’ll tell you I talk to everyone and keep my eye on all the growing voices out there. No one has yet to just come out of nowhere. If you’re active in the scene and coming up, we’ll know about it.

What Vivid-Alt productions are you most proud of and which have been the most successful?

Out of the stuff I’ve directed Girls Lie and The Doll Underground are my faves. Being able to nurture the directing careers of Kimberly Kane and Winkytiki have been amazing. I knew that the alt-porn scene needed more voices to survive. Also, it gives me a creative community to work in. I now have contemporaries that I can be proud of.

When you first came onto to the scene, they labeled your style as “punk porn” and now it’s more commonly known as “alt-porn.” However, I’ve read on your blog that you despise the label “alt.” What title do you feel the genre should be called and why?

Honestly at this point, it was to bring some continuity to early PR efforts. In 2004, I met Jonno who ran flesbot.com. I asked him what he called this stuff. I remember going to Joanna [Angel] and telling her we need to stick to saying one thing… alt porn. As far as the biz side of things goes, they had a label to put on the shelf and a reason to write about us. Even though the origins of “Alternative” started in the 80’s, if we stick to the definition it’s more about subcultures. I don’t see subculture scenes slowing down anytime soon. So, if we can free our minds from 120min on MTV, we could ride this one for quite awhile. We might be nearing the same slump the word “rave” went through after our brief honeymoon with it here in the states.

Are you seeing anything in adult entertainment internationally or even domestically that is fresh and inspiring?

I’m not really inspired by business models or other studios’ tent pole projects, but I’m inspired by some people in the biz who I respect. I like what babeland is doing in the female owned sex shop movement for sure. Outside of porn on the net, I think what is going down with image hosting boards 4chan and /b/ is amazing and is not tied to $$$.

What does the future have in store for Eon McKai and the Vivid-Alt brand?

Vivid-Alt needs to make the move to the internet in a big way. As a stronger brand we have had a nice long run selling DVDs so we have been able to put it off for quite some time. So, with one deep breath we dive in and see how we can interact with our audience in a new way on-line. I think community is a big part of Alt-porn on-line, so it will grow into something new. As for myself, this is a perfect moment for me to stretch out a bit and do some other stuff. In a time like this when everything is in flux, it’s the perfect time to play around… a lot.

Taste it:
www.eonmckai.com
www.vividalt.com