TIM lost its way?

[Truversebb]

In my opinion Treasure Island Media(TIM) is a long where’s away from where it used to be. It seems that 2 out of every 3 new releases, which are now infrequent are just recompilations of older material or one of their foreign subsidiaries( Mexico, Brazil, Europe). I miss the features of a New star appearing regularly and to have that guy featured for a while in a couple of movies. Example, Dawson(goes without saying!), John Dahl, Ethan Wolf, Nate Grimes…. Etc. every once in a while they put out something that “does it” for me. But  instead of being excited when I see a new film come out, I’m ready for disappointment. As a subscriber to their site new scenes are put out slowly and are often just sub scenes of whatever new movie they might have out. As far as full movies to watch on their site they are few and half seem to be movies that have been up for way too long. I could really go on for a while in this but I’d like to know what some of you think!

[baresubboi]

Yeah, I get that. 

I feel the 'classics' are better, not overproduced

[alwaysready]

there is a song from the musical 'oklahoma' that suggests they have  'gone about as far as the can go.' i think that is one of the problems with TIM. they used to put out vids that were at the edge, or over. but there are only so many edges you can exploit.

[ellentonboy]

I noticed he has used a lot of overseas locations (and men) which is fine.  However the videos do not meet the quality of the early 2000s.  It's like the rest of the industry caught up with him, and now the "shock value" is over.  There is something to be said for some of the less slickly produced video companies.  I would not pay to subscribe to his productions.  They also seem to come out bit by bit, I believe that may be due to video piracy and I can't say I blame him

So by the time you see the video in it's entirety you have seen the majority of it in segments.

I hate to call his competition, but Raw Fuck Club can produce some very nice group videos, the guys are attractive.  However, he uses many of the same models over and over.

Now I see Raw Fuck Club excerpts being released as well, with maybe three guys putting out very short clips.

I don't know if onlyfans is going to eventually take over, but the days of studio production videos, that are 60 to 90 minutes long, seem to be a thing of the past.

[hntnhole]

T.I.M. is legendary, ground-breaking, standard-setting, and the goal of other gay porn producer to meet/exceed.  I'm not surprised that so many other companies went after TIM the way they have; that's basically a sound business-plan.  Sometimes the King of the niche (in whatever industry) gets knocked off the perch, sometimes they react quickly and break even more new ground. That's just the nature of being in business.  The thing is though, no one will ever take away what T.I.M. accomplished.  As far as I'm concerned, TIM shits crushed pineapple, and my hat is off to them.

[leatherpunk16]

On 7/23/2022 at 10:13 AM, alwaysready said:

there is a song from the musical 'oklahoma' that suggests they have  'gone about as far as the can go.' i think that is one of the problems with TIM. they used to put out vids that were at the edge, or over. but there are only so many edges you can exploit.

Exactly this. By being so successful with the formula that worked at the beginning, they painted themselves into a corner. There's simply nowhere else for them to go unless they start going to serious extremes that no logical or sane person would consider. I'm hesitant to name those, lest they be against the rules of BZ, or (worse) inspire someone to actually do it.

[VersGuyAnon]

I think a key point is that so many studios are producing bareback porn these days, T.I.M. is no longer unique. Considering the success (?) of OnlyFans and JustForFans, I wonder if guys now prefer reality stuff. I know I've always preferred seeing real, amateur stuff (e.g. anon scenes on XTube, etc).

[LetsPOZBreed]

It did take a few years after the first TIM vids for the rest of the gay porn industry to catch up.  As mentioned above, TIM was ground-breaking (the fact that they unashamedly went bareback when other big studios stopped in the mid-1980's).  TIM saw an opportunity, though...When I used to rent my VHS (yes, I'm really that old) starting back in the mid-90's, there was always a small section of "pre-condom" videos from the 70's/early 80's that would still get checked out with regularity.  By that point, condomless seemed "forbidden" in gay porn, so it gave the viewers something that was drilled into our heads as being "bad" (either watching or participating).

The mainstream gay porn studios didn't exactly jump on board initially...certainly not to the level they eventually did.  It was still considered too "controversial" to release new bareback material.  It was only after TIM had a couple of early block-busters (ball-busters??)...namely the big Dawson flicks of around 2003/2004-ish.  Dawson's 20 Load Weekend (and it's 50 load sequel) changed gay porn...even gay hook-up culture and attitudes toward barebacking.  It also shifted the economics of the gay porn industry:  you had pent-up demand for a style of porn that largely hadn't been made for over a decade, and certainly wasn't made in this unashamed way.

So, yeah...TIM was definitely at the forefront.  It wasn't overproduced back then, and it was all about the sex.  No pseudo "plotlines", no cheesy porn background music, etc.  But once they had a few blockbusters under their proverbial jockstrap, the imitators weren't far behind.  Other bareback studios followed suit (SX video, HDK, among others) and the mainstream studios (Falcon, etc.) eventually capitulated as well.  Once the industry was dragged along, TIM then has to find it's new "niche"; though, they were already "out there" as it was, and I don't suspect anything more controversial would even be legal to make.  

But now TIM is now finding itself in competition with amateurs and free-agents (i.e. OF/JFF).  The long 60-90 minute videos aren't really made as often because most porn-watchers attention spans aren't interested in focusing on a video for that long.  Plus, I find that the obviously wired participants (see another thread about this) in many TIM vids to be a bit of a put-off.  TIM had it's day in the sun...there are a few scenes that I'll go back and watch online, but I've kind of moved on...as have many others.  I definitely get the impact it had on porn, hookup culture, and sex in general - but don't really see how it adapts itself from here to get back to the top of relevancy.

Edited July 26, 2022 by LetsPOZBreed
Correcting spelling and adjusting some of the wording

[onlyraw]

On 7/23/2022 at 1:13 PM, alwaysready said:

there is a song from the musical 'oklahoma' that suggests they have  'gone about as far as the can go.' i think that is one of the problems with TIM. they used to put out vids that were at the edge, or over. but there are only so many edges you can exploit.

What I love about the gay community is that even on a kink website talking about kinky bareback porn (or at least porn that was once kinky and edgy) we can still find a way to relate it to a broadway musical - 

thank you alwaysready!

[ErosWired]

14 hours ago, leatherpunk16 said:

Exactly this. By being so successful with the formula that worked at the beginning, they painted themselves into a corner. There's simply nowhere else for them to go unless they start going to serious extremes that no logical or sane person would consider. I'm hesitant to name those, lest they be against the rules of BZ, or (worse) inspire someone to actually do it.

I think this starts to get at it, in a kind of art-imitating-life sort of way. When you’ve led an unusually adventurous sexual life, and tried most things at least once, you reach a point where one day you look up and think, “Damn, I’ve been a kinky fucker” and you look at what there’s actually still left that you haven’t done and realize that there isn’t much, and what there is may be a little too out there even for you. You ask yourself: “Is that it? Is there no more? Have I tried all there is to try?” And the answer you receive is: “Pretty much, yeah. Should’ve paced yourself.”

The sad reality is that even for the most imaginative, there are only so many variations on the theme.

[hntnhole]

7 hours ago, ErosWired said:

You ask yourself: “Is that it?

.... and then you answer yourself .... hell no that's not all there is ..... and your Cock gets hard all over again .... and .... well ..... you get the picture .... 

[ellentonboy]

As some previous posters have said, there is not much more TIM can do, that has not already been done.  I think that studio should feel proud of what it accomplished, I mean it's the highest form of flattery to copy someone's material, and that is what other studios have had to do.  I've read certain heads of porn studios say they would NEVER do bb flicks, only to find maybe two years later the debut of their first BB "production".  The studios that faltered financially (Raging Stallion, Falcon) initially resisted going bb, though if you are old enough you do recall seeing Falcon produce bb productions BEFORE condoms were used.   Example of companies that shrugged off going bb and then changed their minds:  Lucas Entertainment (yeah that guy) and Sean Cody (I leave if they are on at a group party, but that's me).   Both of them were strictly condom for a number of years and then, wow!, suddenly the condoms are off.

The other thing I noticed is people mentioning that TIM performers looked to be ah, "under the influence".   I can tell you there are few production companies that look the other way with what performers use prior or during production.  I know of one company banned from using Air BNB locations to film because drug paraphernalia was left on the property.  Yet the owner of the studio had done somewhat of  a documentary on the development of his studio, and had the audacity to try and claim no drugs were used in the production of his films.  PLEASE give me a break.  Look at the expressions, the eyes of the performers (the bottoms in particular).  There is no way they could be sober.   To me, that's fine, that is sex, that is life.  But PLEASE don't lie to my face and say no drugs were used.  I am not saying EVERY studio uses them, but the majority do.

Funny, I was in San Francisco, and happened to have a pre-arranged meeting with a guy who I knew from a web cam site.  Now, he is not a performer, he did things like scouting for location shoots, "custodian of records paperwork", things of that nature.  It was fun because even though I was never on a "set" while filming, I did get to see his "office" and get a lot of the "behind the scenes" gossip about how certain performers disliked each other, who had overstayed their visa's and were hiding from US Immigration and how some performers had no idea they would be given or mailed a 1099 form for their taxes.  Now this was one of the major studios, everyone who watches porn on this Forum knows who they are.  They had major financial problems because one of the three owners had a major "enhancement" problem and three times in re-hab did not work.  They had to merge with another video company, once a major player in gay porn, and finally decided 'no more condoms'.  But this is my point, I asked him directly if "enhancements" were used, and he said absolutely not.   But why was I there to spend time with him when there were so many men to select from in San Fran?  Well, he was my first stop because he supplied "enhancements".  I asked if his business trickled down onto his co-workers, and he said absolutely not, he was involved with "enhancements' because of the outrageous rents and his modest salary.   But "oh no, are guys are all sober".  Yeah, sure they are, which is why one of your three owners had to go to rehab three times - give me a break.

So TIM seems to be putting  out less content, it isn't much different than many other production companies do today.  I am sure he will survive.  Will he dominate?  Probably not.   I don't know where I found the article, but a few years back there was something written about how "Dawson's 20 Load Weekend" revolutionized gay porn.  It happened to be the twenty year anniversary of the release of the video and it talked about Dawson and how the whole video came to be.  It was well done, some things I knew, others I didn't.  It gave some insight into Dawson himself, how he got to that point in his video career, and how, in my opinion, it was just a young man telling a video producer something he was willing to do, and that producer jumped on the idea, and rightfully so.

I don't think anything will come along that will change things dramatically.  I know of a FWB who had 1000s of VHS tapes, transferred them all to DVDs, and now I see studios want to sell you gigs to put into computers when you purchase their porn.  I think of that FWB every time I see sales for porn and telling you it will arrive in gig format.  I wonder if his head exploded by now, or if there will be a way (there probably is but I am not interested in finding out how) to get one gig and copy that to others.  But I am sure the IT gays amongst us, have figured it out by now.

Porn is part of gay sex, I know there are those on BZ that say they don't watch it, are not interested in it.  One very value comment I hear is that, some guys like to have it on in the "background",  but they are not really watching it.  For me, if I am entertaining, using "enhancements" I have it on, but am I really watching it, probably not.  Sometimes it is a great way to "break the ice" with someone you have never met (which is the majority of the time)

Porn Is like booze, it may not be for everyone, but it is never going out of style.  I don't think TIM's videos will go out of style, he may just not be "top shelf" much longer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ejaculaTe]

14 hours ago, ellentonboy said:

I don't know where I found the article, but a few years back there was something written about how "Dawson's 20 Load Weekend" revolutionized gay porn.  

You aren't the only one who remembers that article. [think before following links] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-most-important-gay-porn-film-ever-made_b_1658846  

[Pornlover]

TIM is not what it was even 10 years ago. It’s just another studio these days. Someone definitely needs to set up a new studio that does more spontaneous gonzo style porn. Something along the lines of old school TIM, HDK, and other studios that were doing bareback porn before bareback porn was mainstream. Just average guys fucking in slutty scenarios. Lots of hot verbals. Lots of raw/bareback talk. Lots of sleazy bareback fucking.  

[hntnhole]

1 hour ago, Pornlover said:

Lots of raw/bareback talk.

Agree with THAT .... neglecting the aural facet of rutting in Holes is cutting off .... well, the ears? to spite the face.  It turns my crank but good to be in a darkroom, rutting in a Hole, and a voice of some unseen guy somewhere close by starts murmuring BreedTalk in my ear.  The filthier the better.