From Skinflicks magazine
Read part 1 HERE
Links for reviews and videos of “A Deep Compassion” and “The Light from the 2nd Story Window”
Despite Jaguars booming popularity, and that of the burgeoning porn industry in general, everything still was being done in a shroud of secrecy, Moore says, because gay pornography remained illegal—to shoot, to develop, to ship, and to distribute.
Moore said copies of their films were hand carried to the theaters because of federal restriction banning pornography from being mailed.
“We had a beautiful blond girl take the prints to the theaters in a suitcase and nobody would suspect it. We made all airline reservations from a pay phone so nobody could track how the prints were getting to theaters. It was an unbelievable witch hun in those days,” Knight recalled.
In addition to distribution, it was difficult to find film developing companies to process the footage; those who would, did it underground, of course. The same was true with the sound developers. Because of the underground production, quality ranged from satisfactory to abysmal. The guys at Jaguar soon learned to do it themselves.
“In those days I was told if I was editing and anyone knocks on the door, not to answer it because it could be the Feds coming to bust you for making obscenity and pornography,” Knight recalls. “If they thought you were in the house, they could break the door down. But if you made no move and were very quiet, they couldn’t.”
Yet, despite the risk and frequent raids, the stalwarts continued to produce films, 26 in all. Why did they chance it?
“It was wonderful to make acting and dialogue movies. The sex was really a secondary thing,” Knight says. “We weren’t making movies to make sex movies. If you really look at them, we were there to make the acting and the dialog and to tell an interesting story, which happened to involve sex, otherwise we wouldn’t have been paid to make the movie in the first place!”
Guys got $50 or $75 to be in a scene. The entire budget of a movie was never over $3,000, Knight recalls “We had to make every inch of film count. We even used a special camera for the close-ups.”
Indeed, Jaguar’s close-up shots and unique photographic techniques caught the eye of other would-be directors of the era. “We made the camera float around like it was you wandering around the scene taking in the action with your own eyes. Director William Higgins once called our close-up lens the ‘dick lens,’” Knight laughs. “I pioneered it. I rented every kind of lent I could find with special adapters that would fit this special little three-minute camera we used, and I found out what lens worked the best. I didn’t tell anybody for years because it was our little trade secret!”
The professionalism of Jaguar sets and personnel are what made it stand out above other porn producers of the time. “Our movies were produced the same way Hollywood features were, with the best equipment, locations, and crew we could get,” Knight said. “Only the cast members were amateurs, which only added to the charm of their performances.”
Of all the Jaguar films produced, “The Experiment” remains one of Knight’s favorites.
“For ’The Experiment’, I told writer Gorton Hall that I wanted to make a movie everyone could relate to, that every one could remember their first time doing it as teenagers in a little shack. And the guy was going to confess to his father that he’s gay and how is the father going to handle it? That’s the whole basis for ‘The Experiment’,” Knight said. “And I know it worked, because people had tears in their eyes when they came out of the theater.”
While Many gay erotic movies today look like they are thrown together in an afternoon, Jaguar carefully developed the process, and it shows in their films.
“Making films of this caliber was very time-consuming,” Moore said. “We’d spend two weeks ahead of any production getting to know the actors at our houses over dinner. After the meal, we’d all sit around and read the script and really rehearse the dialogue. We knew the other stuff would fall into place.”
Despite their different approach to filmmaking, Knight said they encountered the same obstacles directors today face, especially the sometimes elusive search for erections! But Knight always knew how to handle the problems.
“Once the filming began, if we had any trouble with hard-ons, we knew the secret,” e said. “You’d simply turn off all the lights and walk out of the room for a solid 15 minutes. And then slowly tiptoe back into the room and unless they’re real idiots, these guys are hot and into each other. Slowly turn on the five or six lights that you’ve got, put the camera on your shoulder and start shooting! That’s how it was really done, honestly, because you just can’t force the action!”
The other “trade secret” that knight is proud of was Jaguar’s ability to coax impressive ejaculations from its models.
“I told other filmmakers that it wasn’t any real secret,” Knight said. “Just give your actors 1200 units of vitamin E every day for a week and keep them from having sex two days before the shoot. In general, you get much bigger loads!”
While Jaguar studios has been hibernating the past decade, Knight and Moore keep current on the porn industry in their present jobs as videotape editors. Doing editing work for some of the larger companies has given them good perspective about the differences between filmmaking then and filmmaking now. And they don’t always like what they see. Over-direction is a prime example.
“Sex between two guys does not need as much direction that some people today put into it,” Knight maintains. “The most direction on a set should be, ‘Move your hand, you’re blocking the camera.’ If you let the guys go on naturally with what they’re doing, you’ll get much better sex. Some directors think they have to coax the actors minute by minute through the scene. I say talk the scene over with them before, tell them what you want to see, and then you will only have to direct them on occasion, not the entire way through it. We hear some directors these days and it seems like they just like to hear themselves talk!”
Moore agrees, “We tried to pull of a sexual performance by making it more real and believable, and covering it more in a documentary style rather than choreographing it and being intrusive,” he said. “We preferred to have only the cameraman on the set with the models, but as the business progressed, still photographers were included to capture material for the magazines and other printed material.”
The coming of video occurred at the tail-end of Jaguar’s production hay-day. Jaguar was one of the first to recognize that the new medium would revolutionize the pornography industry. Yet it still came as a great surprise to them!
“In our wildest imaginations we dreamed that our movies might possibly air over some oddball network or television station in the year 2000, but no one ever imagined anything like home video!” Moore admits.
When video arrived in ’79 or ’80, a lot of companies that are in existence today transferred their silent 8mm library to video. “They did this very reluctantly, because people were scared of copying and piracy,” Knight said. “You cannot copy an 8mm film very easily. When the 8mms were transferred to video, they would play a record for sound because video had built in audio. Jaguar had the upper hand because we produced our films for the theaters and we knew sound.”
Even to this day some of the silent era companies that are still around have not quite grasped how important the sound is to the tape. “It’s maybe 50 percent of the experience,” Moore says. “People are so hung up on the visuals. Really, I think the visuals have been perfected, it’s time to start paying attention to the audio, and more to the scripting and the dialogue.”
Aside from the medium, Jaguar always had messages in their films. “Most of them were like, ‘It’s okay to be gay,’” said Knight. “All had very masculine scenarios, like guys out in a field running, or on a riverboat or out sailing. They have a very rugged theme, none of them are the least bit nelly.”
Knight and Moore have spent the past few years restoring the Jaguar Classics Library and transferring it to video. Of the 26 films, 23 are available! Of the other three, only two remain. “Baredevils” is the next slated to be transferred to video, but it sustained water damage in an office fire. Knight is working to restore as much of the film as can be salvaged. The third film, “Midnight Geisha Boys” was confiscated in a police raid and is lost forever, although a trailer for it does exist on the Jaguar Trailer Reel videotape.
For those interested in getting a general idea of the Jaguar line, the Jaguar Trailer Reel, available from the company, is the place to look. These are the actual advance trailers that appeared in the movie theaters which showed the film. In addition to scorching sex clips, you’ll get to see the witty ad campaigns and slogans that Jaguar was known for.
“We really were famous for our ad campaigns,” Knight said. “For example, ‘Get that Sailor’ had the slogan: ’60 minutes of dynamic manpower which culminates in explosive action as they finally get that sailor!’ Anyone who watches the Jaguar trailer reel will see the funniest anecdotes about these movies.”
Promo for the lost Jaguar Film
The reel for Midnight Geisha Boys was stolen by the police in a raid sometime in the 70’s. They say ‘confiscated’, but–bitch, please.
The “[This movie not available]” was on the actual preview reel. I can’t find the entire trailer reel.
Knight and Moore aren’t resting on their laurels, however. Plans to resurrect Jaguar Studios and produce new movies, perhaps one a year, are already underway.
“We want to make a new Jaguar movie for the 90’s,” Knight said. “Already people have told us that we must make sure we cast some of the average guys everybody can relate to, and I agree!”
One thing Knight is firm on (no pun intended) is model erections. “We’d never show them not hard,” he promises. “If they’re not hard, we’ll come back another day and reshoot it. Everybody has a bad day,” Knight says. “I know it’s not economical to reshoot but if you watch any successful movie they’ve probably taken advantage of an extra shooting day now and then.”
When is the first of this new line to appear? “We hope to produce the first one this summer!” Knight says.
This interview seems to have taken place around 1997. To the best of my knowledge, Jaguar Studios never put out another movie. But the gay community, and specifically Hommi Publishing, owe these men–and all the other authors, publishers, actors, and directors–a huge debt of gratitude. If it hadn’t been for their struggles against the oppressive regimes of the day, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.
TR
