Raging Stallion co-founder and Falcon Studios head Chris Ward announced last month that he is retiring from the business, saying that he’s looking forward to getting to do some writing and spending more time at home with his partner Mo Duran, and his cats.
The Sword sat him down for an exit interview of sorts, before he heads out the door and hands the reins over to fellow AEBN partner, NakedSword CEO Tim Valenti.
The Sword: So, before you directed any movies, you starred in one, correct?
Chris Ward: Yes, I got started in porn back in 1996 when I starred in and directed a film for Steven Scarborough at Hot House called Hole Punch. The movie was a big success and I became their main director for a few years. This was where I learned the ins and outs of the industry, and of directing. I met JD Slater one day and we decided to start our own studio, Raging Stallion, in 1999. We grew that company into a powerhouse and began winning lots of awards. We took best picture and best director for many years in a row. We merged Raging Stallion with AEBN in 2009, and then with Falcon and Hot House in the years that followed. Today Falcon Studios Group owns Falcon, Raging, and Hot House.
How many movies did you direct in total? Which do you remember best?
I directed several hundred films and produced several hundred more. I most enjoyed doing the big block buster films—they were fun and we had lots of money to spend on great actors and great sets. Grunts stands out (it cost a quarter million dollars). We swept the GayVN awards that year winning almost every award. To The Last Man came the next year, and it also swept the awards. Then Focus/Refocus did the same. People stopped coming to the awards show because we always won, so I think we inadvertently killed off the GayVNs! From my earlier years I really enjoyed Raiders of the Lost Arse and Arabesque. There were many great movies and many great actors over the years.
Over the years you’ve discovered a lot of the industry’s big stars who ended up with long careers, for porn stars, both at Raging Stallion and at Falcon Studios Group. Who are your favorites?
That is a tough question, because there were so many. The list of the “greats” must include Francois Sagat, Shane Rollins, Michael Vincenzo, Roman Ragazzi, Mark Everett, D.O., Kyle King, Damien Cross, Logan McCree, Ricky Sinz, Ryan Rose, Tom Vacarro, and about five hundred more! It has been a rare privilege to work with these wonderful men over the years. It was a big gay dream come true!
Eventually you handed the reins over to some other directors. Who have you mentored?
I trained almost all of my directors from scratch. For many years JD and I directed all the movies ourselves. After a few years he directed the Centurion Pictures line, while I did the Raging Stallion line. All of the other directors, with the exception of Tony Dimarco, I trained myself. I started them as grips, then promoted them to my cameraman for intensive training. I am a very controlling director, calling all shots and camera movements, as well as directing the scene itself. My cameramen were basically “camera operators,” which provided them excellent training to shoot my kind of porn. David Hempling, who is still with us doing DVD authoring, was one of the first, then came Ben Leon, followed by Steve Cruz, Bruno Bond, and now Nick Foxx. We also hired Tony Dimarco when he left Lucas Entertainment back in 2009. He and I worked together on fifty or so films, with him as my camera man. He was a great find because he took much of the directing burden off my shoulders. Today I rank our directing team at the top of the porn pyramid—Steve, Nick, and Tony are the best in the business bar none.
If you had to choose one thing to sum up the thrust of your adult work, what would it be?
High quality. When we started Raging I wanted to launch as a top-tier studio, competing with the top five or six companies from the start. I did not want to go out there on the low end and compete with hundreds of smaller companies. Plus, I had been trained to do great work at Hot House, so I knew how to make first class porn. Thru the years we have always turned out top quality, award winning movies, shot with great skill and starring excellent performers. Of all the movies I directed, there is only one that I am not proud of (not naming any titles!). Quality counts!