Bree Mills Talks with Captain Jack
Bree Mills is the hardest working woman in the adult industry. She already oversees Girlsway, Pure Taboo, Fantasy Massage and 21st Sextury and is about to add Girlcore, a new concept in adult, and the revival of the Vivid brand! She has a great team under her and is producing some great content. I talk to her about her new ventures and what she hopes to bring to the adult industry! Girlcore launches today so here’s a little preview!
Captain Jack: Tell me about Girlcore.
Bree Mills: I’ll give you a little bit of context into what’s happening with Gamma Films. We have our media sites that we run within Gamma Films; Girlsway, Pure Taboo which are sites that we built from the ground up, and we also have Fantasy Massage and 21st Sextury Network which we’ve acquired as part of our library over the years. After the success of Pure Taboo, it really inspired me as a producer to explore a lot of different genres and types of stories and situations. Some that I could see turning into a site on their own and some I could see turning into a television series, if we’re going to make the mainstream comparison. Not necessarily something that is a site that will update 3 times a week for the rest of time. I wanted to be able to break free from the mold of the update machine and really focus on making content in a different way. By not focusing on building up a certain mass of content I really take the time with each episode that I’m creating, trying to create next level shit, something that stands apart. We are in the process of developing and launching in January, a new master brand that will serve as the essential hub for all of Gamma Films’ existing studios, and also be a base where I can launch these types of series. This is still in development but one of the first series that I am launching is Girlcore.
This is essentially my dream lesbian project. It’s been 2 years since I wrote and directed a girl/girl series. The last one I did was The Faces of Alice. Girlway is still very much a big brand, a successful brand, but it’s really being driven by my writing team and Stills by Alan. I’m not too involved in the day-to-day creativity of that project any more. I’m also in a little bit of a different test space from the Girlsway universe. If I were to go back to do a new Girlsway project, I don’t know if I would do it justice since I’m in a different place. I wanted to create something that I represented what I wanted to do within the lesbian genre as it’s own thing. I basically took this as a little bit of a challenge to bring everything I could possibly want to bring into a project together. I wanted to create an anthology series where each episode would be its own place in time, its own character and its own story but have the story be connected by a few common themes. One of the themes I wanted to tackle was to pay a direct homage to a genre of popular fiction that was really prominent in the U.S. in the 1950s and 60s, the pulp fiction era. Within queer history and queer culture, lesbian pulp novels play a very important role. At the time, they were these exploitative, scandalous, expose’ paperback novels that you could pick up at these under-the-counter places. They had fantastic cover art and great titles but they really perpetuated a lot of stereotypes about lesbian culture like lock up your daughters, the lesbians are invading and poor, innocent women get brainwashed into feeling Sapphic thoughts. All these very stigmatized and dated concepts. At the time, when these novels came out, they were very important because it was the only representation of a gay person that they could see of themselves at that time. It was known as Survivalist Literature to people who grew up during that time period. These were people who would grow up to lead the Gay Right’s Movement which started in the 70s. I come from a background where I was raised with a real understanding of the Gay Right’s Movement; growing up and coming of age and coming out while it was very much not the way it is today. I had a real appreciation for these novels and collected them over the years.
So I wanted to do a series that took some of the most common themes or types of characters from these novels and re-imagined them in original stories. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do a period piece but I didn’t want to set it in the 50s. I wanted to re-imagine these stories in the decade which was my favorite decade as far as film making and music and obviously the decade I was a child in, the 80s. So I took the challenge of writing 6 original stories that featured these lesbian pulp themes and actually titling each of these episodes after some of these novels from the 50s. So, for example, A Delicate Vice is the first episode and it’s from the novel A Delicate Vice. I wanted to give a little direct nod to that genre by titling each episode after one of the novels. I took these themes but I re-imagined it in the 80s and I took that as a filmmaking challenge within my budget and within our means or scope. How can we authentically bring back that era? You’ll notice that each episode is more-or-less can be explained in a fairly contained space but that space is the 80s. We spent a lot of time in preproduction in set design and the wardrobe and the props. We tried to create these periods of nostalgia within our means and I’m very, very proud of the end result. We have an episode that takes place in a hospital, we have an episode that takes place in an office, in a 1980s classroom. Probably the strongest piece out of the series, A Delicate Vice, we spent 2 long nights on the streets of Hollywood driving around in this broken down 80s Mercedes. We really tried to create a lovingly and authentically these time capsules.
Another thing I wanted to do is bring in one of my favorite musical artists to work with me on this project. There’s this electronica artist and DJ and he’s also a filmmaker called Pilot Priest. He’s put out 6 or 7 records, he’s not a big name but he’s a well known DJ in Canada. He’s someone I discovered right around the time I started writing porn scripts. I came across this guy from a friend and I started listening to him and I was blown away by how amazing his music was. He put out this one album in particular around 2010 called Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. This was a project where he took inspiration from film scores of the 80s and he tried to re-imagine them into his own original pieces. I have literally listened to this album for pretty much everything I’ve ever written. It was just this thing that I loved an it was the unofficial soundtrack to my writing. I followed him and I didn’t know him but I realized about a year-and-a-half ago that he was following me as well on social media. He actually wrote me out of the blue and said, ‘Hey, I love your movies and would like to score something for you sometime!’ I was kind of like, ‘What? Are you kidding?’ He’s been scoring everything I’ve ever written anyways! We started to talk and we have a lot things in common like our approach to filmmaking. We just got along really well and I told him about this series I was putting together that took place in the 80s, I would love to license his songs from his Original Motion Picture Soundtrack album. We were able to work it out with his agents who, at first, were a little bit wary. He really wanted to do it and I thought these 6 original tracks and would have one of them for each of the episodes. The music makes the series. It truly does. My favorite genre re-imagined in my favorite decade and using all of the filmmaking challenge at this point in my career that I wanted to challenge myself on with my favorite artist and songs that I know inside and out.
Because I shot this over the course of 6 months and really focused on making 6 of the best episodes, I was really able to cast exactly who I wanted to cast. I really worked my production schedule around getting these girls to play these characters. Girlcore, as a whole, features over 20 performers who are in it. It’s an all-star cast of the most popular performers, not just in the lesbian genre but in general. For fans of lesbian content, I don’t think you’re going to get a better lineup than what we’re bringing in terms of star power to this project. That was another thing for me, can I bring in all of my favorite people that I love to work with who I know genuinely love other women and really capture in terms of the lesbian sex itself.
CJ: So after these 6 episodes, are you continuing with this?
Bree: What we’re going to do, is we’re going to binge release the first season. Those 6 episodes make up the first season. It’s releasing October 23. Anyone that goes to Girlcore.com can sign up to have all the episodes of the season. And once they join, they’re going to be imported into our members area that we’re building for our master brand. So they’ll not only get access to the Girlcore series, but they’ll get access to everything else that Gamma Films offers. All of Girlsway, all of Pure Taboo, all of 21st Sextury and all of Fantasy Massage. So people can join that way or if they are already a member of another Gamma Films site, they’ll be able to watch all the episodes.
CJ: You said you had some of the more popular performers, so who do you have in it?
Bree: We have April O’Neil, Alexis Fawx, Cherie DeVille, Kristen Scott, Shyla Jennings, Jenna Sativa, Whitney Wright, Casey Calvert, Sarah Vandella, Angela White, Georgia Jones, Aidra Fox, Emily Willis, who is probably one of my favorite starlets this year.
CJ: She’s just so sexy!
Bree: Oh my God, you should see her in this! When we were filming this, I see a lot of girls over the years and I’m not super affected, I’m focused on other things but Emily was in the Private School episode dressed like one of the girls from Heathers. Craven Morehead and I were just blown away. She’s never looked hotter!
CJ: The 80s is my era too! I love that decade!
Bree: One of the other things I tried to do is every episode, I tried to pay homage to in terms of the fashion and the wardrobe, I tried to pull out the classic examples of femininity and sexuality from the decade. Kristen Scott was styled to look like Joan Jett. Emily Willis and Aidra Fox were like the girls from Heathers. April O’Neil was made over to look like one of Robert Palmer’s backup singers. If anybody remembers the decade and pop culture from the decade, they’re gonna be ‘Ohhh, that’s what she did there!’ The last episode is not a spoof or parody of Fast Times at Ridgemont High but there’s a moment in it that’s a nod to it when the pizza delivery person comes into the classroom!
CJ: Mr. Hand! Well, if you’re paying homage to Fast Times, you have to do the Phoebe Cates scene too that was the subject of many a teenage boys masturbatory moment in the 80s! Including myself!
Bree: That’s’ actually one of the projects that I’m going to do for Vivid, which I’ve taken over production of is going to be taking some of these moments in pop culture that you masturbated to before internet porn and go a step further. What would happen if we took that and turned it into a sex scene. I’m going to do a lot of that in the next year.
CJ: I was going to ask you about Vivid. Have you taken it over yet? What’s going on with it?
Bree: Gamma Entertainment struck a deal with Vivid Entertainment this summer to essentially take over the day-to-day operations of Vivid’s broadcast business and their internet business. That obviously includes Vivid.com. Vivid Radio is still a separate thing that we’re not involved with directly. We’re really focusing on the broadcast side of the business which is a pretty big side of the operation. And also, the internet. Vivid hasn’t produced original content in almost a decade and has instead relied on licensed content and the sex tape stuff which they were more known for in their latest reincarnation. You ask anybody if they know a porn brand, if you ask anybody on the street, most likely they’re going to say Vivid. Vivid still has a huge reach in terms of its brand and its equity. It completely revolutionized the adult industry. What I’m going to be doing is spearheading the revamp and essentially the relaunch of Vivid.com next year which will include some new recurring content. We’ll be bringing back some of Vivid’s most iconic series, one of which I’m very excited about is Where The Boys Aren’t. That was the first porn I ever watched. We’ll be looking at how we can take some of Vivid’s most classic series and re-imagine them for the web. Also, we’ll be looking at a couple remakes at some of the big films that they’ve done. We’ll be looking at a new era of programming through Vivid.com. And then Vivid will become part of the master site. We’ll have all the catalog of Vivid.com including the original content it built up over 30 years and the licensed content that its built up over the years too. That’ll all be part of the master site that we’re launching in January.
CJ: You are a busy woman! I don’t know where you find all the time!
Bree: I don’t do it alone, that’s one thing!
CJ: I do some many interviews, I think 80% of the girls say they want to work for Pure Taboo. I know some girls have actually written stories for the site. How do they go about doing that?
Bree: This is something that’s been one of the great surprises from the Pure Taboo project and I think one of the most important things that has happened. We’re so close in working with our actors. Whitney Wright, for an example, has shot for us dozens of times over all of Gamma Films’ sites. We tend to gravitate to people we like working with. If they have a talent for what they’re doing, not just in the sex performances but in the acting, when I’m writing, I think of people. Once you get in my mental rolodex, we’ll bring you back. What’s been really nice in the relationships that we’ve built with the performers, we’re so collaborative on set, those that have ideas, that bring me ideas, it’s a natural part of the collaborative effort. I know that a few girls approached me early on approached me. Kristen Scott, for example, said she wants to do her first DP but she didn’t want it to be gonzo, she wanted to do a story. She asked if we could do this and I said, ‘sure!’ We talked and I asked what kind of story she wanted to tell. That was the first one and then it inspired other performers that said they had this story. They would send me these high level concepts and I essentially served as an editor. I would let them know that ‘Hey, we can’t do that legally’ (laughs) or what could be achieved during a production day. I take their final story or what they provided and I clean up the formatting a little bit and get it ready to go and then we produce it. It ends up being something where, now, I think next month I have 3 or 4 of them that I’m doing. Performers are coming up to me and say, ‘I have this story that I want to tell.’ It’s fascinating what they’ve done with it. Lena Paul is a good example. She came up to me and said, ‘I have this experience in my life that had a big effect on me. I want to tell this story that even though it’s not what happened to me, it nears some of the fear and anxiety that I have because of this personal experience. I want to do it because it’ll be therapeutic for me.’ Obviously, that’s a very powerful thing. I shot the scene and I make sure that when we’re doing the collaboration, they’re involved in the casting with people they want to work with. When we launched it, she really went out on her own and made it a #MeToo moment and made it a statement that she wanted to put out to her fans. She took the platform and made it her own. Whitney very much did the same thing. She wanted to do a story that delved with a few issues and she went out and promoted it. For me, that’s great. It keeps the engine going and gets the word out. It’s also very authentic and very organic. More and more performers come to me with ideas and more and more, I’m inclined to green light and help them create it. Gir
CJ: And how can find out what’s going on via social media?
Bree: Girlcore is @Girlcorecom. My Twitter handle is @thebreemills. And for people who want to check out trailers and such, Girlcore.com. And members of Girlsway will also be able to watch the series for free.
I am a QUEER FILMMAKER. I am a proud gay woman. @Girlcorecom marks the 1ST GG series I have written and directed in 2 years. It is my most personal project. PLEASE WATCH THIS TRAILER for Ep1, starring @kennajames21 @CherieDeVille. IT'S MY SOUL
https://t.co/9Oi1zv8mVy #Oct23 pic.twitter.com/gD7qM8rWVP
— Bree Mills (@TheBreeMills) October 19, 2018
Bree Mills Movies, Photos, Talk
Pornstars, set up an interview with Captain Jack – message him through any of his forum posts (envelope icon,) or hit him up on Twitter.
The post Bree Mills Talks Girlcore.com appeared first on Adult DVD Talk Pornstar Interviews.