Ludovic Lemoux is the director for Inexes, also known as New Deal Productions, one of the largest Gay producers in France. The studio is located in Bordeaux, in the South-West of France, approximately 300 miles away from Paris. Ludovic himself shares with us about his views on French films and the gay popularity that's been sweeping throughout Europe.

Q. How long have you been in the Porn business?

A. Let's say the company has existed since 1994; which is about 12 years; but we've been making movies only for the past 7 years now. Basically, our company is a distribution company. We used to sell movies to other companies through catalogues. Then we went on and started to produce our own.

Q. What made you decide to change direction?

A. Actually, we didn't change. We are still the biggest VPC-Mail order catalogues- in France. We are the number 1 distributor of GAY. Now, instead of just selling others' labels, we decided to make our own; we can better take care of our customers because we know their needs: we know what they really want, what they expect, indeed. So the idea was very interesting and here we are…

Q. Do you think, then, that things have been better for you since producing movies?

A. Yes, indeed. Let's say, there are very few French producers and people were more and more asking for “essentially FRENCH” products.

Are you saying French movies in general, or just gay-French?

Oh, I'm meant gay-French. I don't know about others, but as far as we're concerned in this company, we don't do anything but gay in both, production, and distribution. We are specialized in gay. Before, there were German or American Gay, nothing French. There was then a high demand for movies with French-speaking actors. That's basically what our decision. Now, we haven't only been making movies in France; we also shoot movies in Spain, the Czech Republic and other East European countries. But, like I said, the idea from the beginning was to make movies in French because there was a need for it.

Q. Have you ever been awarded for your movies?

A. Not Yet. As a matter of fact, we haven't been to any existing competitions yet; I'm sure we won't be overseen if we were… We've been so far concentrating only on the French market and we are doing well.

So there are no Award shows for Porn in France?

No. Nothing, yet… We just started this year to show up at International Fair, Berlin. Things are getting better. Venus is coming to Paris in 2006 and I see it as a good international opportunity.

Q. What brought you into this business?

A. I will say that I got here fortunately. Let's say I met a charming lady who was in Gay Catalogues business in Paris-she still is-and I had suggested that we become partners to make better-looking, best-selling catalogues. We worked together for a year then we separated. Then I created my own catalogue and sold it by mail.

Q. So-just out of curiosity-, are you, yourself gay?

A. Yes, I am.

Q. What are your favorite movies?

A. Very honestly, I am not a big porn lover although I work in. Let's say, I had more than one reasons to produce this type of movies than any others… but I would not say that I'm a big fan of porn. Not really. But in the other hand, I see a lot of them now in a professional perspective, not just by interest to the product itself.

Q. Is there any Star that you'd rather work with?

A. Listen, in my company there are very few gays. I think you don't need to be one in order to be a good graphic-maker, a good Webmaster, an accountant, or magazine assembler… The difference with Paris, where most of my challengers are located, is that they live in a sort of “absolutely” GAY circle- where every body is basically homosexual. We are in Bordeaux, 300 miles away from Paris and things are very different. I can have anybody working with me, as long as they're good at what we do.

And who would be your favorites stars in business?

Oh, my favorites are the Czechs.

Really?

Yes, because they are the most professional. The fact is, French actors are more

amateur-like. They work for fun, do 1 or 2 movies and they're over with. It's not a job for them. They do it when they want, when they need extra money, things like that and it's very difficult to rely on them in a long term. Czechs meanwhile are professional, serious, and skilled; it's their “job” and they are hard-workers, thus, reliable. I think it's way more convenient to work with professionals.

Q. So, How do you find your actors, and how difficult is it?

A. It's easier in the Czech Republic, because it's a profession and they have agencies that promote them. It's more difficult in France in the other hand and for obvious reasons… you have to go through small ads to catch the postulants or we some times put our own help-wanted signs up in some newspapers, our magazines, or our websites and let candidates apply for it.

And how do you proceed: By test or some other processing?

We cannot afford testing. Our actors come from every corner of France-even if France remains little compared to the US. What we do is, once we call a new candidate, we let him play in one or two scenes and just go from there.

Q. Are Gay movies getting popular in France or are they still hidden?

A. It's getting popular, since there are more TV stations showing porn now and most of them are our customers. There is even- since last year- a TV station specializing in gay called “PINK TV”. They also show general porn. And there is “Canal+” and other TV stations showing gay-porn also. Evidently, it's a new product, we sell less of gay than Straight, but we're getting there.

Q. Canal+, do they show GAY?

A. They do mostly straight movies. Just a little bit of gay through pay-per-view, which most channels now do. But they basically show straight movies.

Q. Now, if I may ask, how many porn movies have you seen so far?

A. (Laughs) I think, I never bought any porn movie in my life. But I did see my first porn years ago. I must have grasped one just to see what it looked like, when they first came out, and who was it from? I don't quite remember, certainly one of the most popular- Falcon, may be.

Q. Do you advise your actors when you shoot movies?

A. Let's say, there is a distinction here. There are movies that I myself feature in- those are all the ones that we make- and there are those that I actually shoot myself--where I hold the camera; there's very few of those. And for the actor--I don't know how others do it– as far as I'm concerned, I advise and give directions to my new actors, especially like how to present yourself on camera, what attitude is best, things like that. You've got to get used to it. Generally when I shoot with new stars, I always put them with a senior so he can kind of guide them. So yes, I do give advices.

Q. It must be hard to be an actor, how comfortable are they?

A. I think that it's a matter of trust and confidence. We work with very young stars, 18-25 years old and you just have to make them feel comfortable. At the beginning, I used to watch movie-makers a lot and I kind of found them rough. You know… You just have to explain clearly what you expect of them and it'll work. Frankly, since I started to make movies, I really haven't come across blockage, or it barely happened.

Q. Do you sometimes use ideas other than yours?

A. It happens. Some have been around. So they will tell me what they've done with other studios, how they did it, or they will just come up with some ideas to work a scene, the set up etc… Yeah, I use that, why not?

Q. Has there ever been misplays and how did you handle that?

A. I really can't think of anything right now; generally, the atmosphere is great. We've had some crazy laughs and things like that, but nothing awkward. I can tell you one thing, we've seen couples going beyond the shootings.

Really?

Yeah, it'd happened several times. After the shooting, guys move in together or show preferences for one another etc…

That's kind of sweet.

It's romantic.

Q. Have ever thought to change your content one day?

A. Oh, it's happening already. We've been doing a little bit of Bisexual lately- But what I would really like to get into is lesbian. In France, unfortunately, it's very, very difficult to find actresses. There are fewer lesbians in France compared to gays and there are fewer ways to find actresses. There are almost no lesbian magazines or newspapers, no catalogues, which makes it very difficult to contact and recruit some. Then you have reluctance playing a part too. But that said, it's still something that I look forward to. In the other hand, we will definitely not go straight. No, for sure.

Q. Why not?

A. Oh, just because there are a lot of people so good at it and doing it already. It'll be difficult for us to find something to add in. I'd rather go towards an area that still opened, less crowded, with more things to bring in still, than getting into something that's already maxed up by people with bigger financial capabilities.

Q. Do you have any competitors, and if so, who are they?

A. We have very little competition in France in a sense where each of our competitors only makes 2 to 3 movies per year, and we make the same amount per month. But in a European scale, I would say the Netherlands and Czech Republic are our main challengers. They have big producers, professionals, and they make 2 to 3 good movies per month as well. But again, they are only producers. We do production and distribution of gay, and there are very few people like us in Europe.

There is a definite line when it comes to gay films, and certain aspects that viewers look for. What Inexes has managed to do, is to find those aspects, and use them to their fullest advantage. They've been a success in being one of few that do what they are capable of doing.

Inexes' content can be found on AEBN's site http://aebn.net or on Movie Monster: http://moviemonster.com