Guest Blogger: Van Styles
Get To Know Van
In an effort to expand the porn voices represented on this site I have enlisted the help of porn insiders and fans as “guest” bloggers. If all goes well many of them will become regulars. We have already heard from Tina Tyler on a number of issues and now it is time for our second industry blogger, Van Styles. I’ve known Van for a while now and he is a very talented and interesting guy. (And I don’t say that solely because he introduced me to my future wife Asa Akira.) I had a chance to interview Vanin 2005 (Read Interview Here and then again this summer at Erotica LA (Up soon) and he always has something interesting to say.
For his first blog Van has given us an overview, a getting to know him sort of thing. If you have any questions or topics you would like Van to cover, send them on in. I’ll make sure he gets them. I hope you enjoy it.
A Bit About Van Styles
By Van Styles
So some odd months back Rog and I were talking and he mentioned the idea of me being a blogger on his site. I liked the idea of it just as a fun way to express any thoughts or views I might be having that day or week or whatever. But in true (fill in the blank here) styles I procrastinated hard. And on his recent bulletin on his site made me feel like my teacher letting me know I have been slacking.
So here I am contributing my first blog to Rog’s site. Well since this is a first blog, I guess the proper thing to write about would be a introduction for those of you who may not know of me or rather know much about me so as they say, I will start from the beginning….
Hi there my name is Van Styles and I am a pornographer. I am 28 years old and live in sunny Southern California (the San Fernando Valley to be exact). I was born in Queens, N.Y. and moved out here when I was young with my family for a new start.
I grew up in a part of the valley called Chatsworth and as any person who has any interest in porn what so ever knows it is the “porn capital of the world”. Now if that isn’t something to brag to your friends about back east then I don’t know what is.
I use to find it funny when I was younger and I would check out porn videos (as in vhs) I would see parts of the area I lived in shot as pick up spots which made me feel connected in some random way to a cool industry.
Aside from a normal growing interest in seeing hot women do things a young man would only dream about, I got involved with skateboarding (which led me to where I am today). Now when I started skating it consumed my life, I remember selling all of my super Nintendo games and system through the recycler to get enough money to buy my first skateboard. At the time skateboarding was very underground, no shoe deals, no reality TV shows on mtv,no big endorsements of any sore, back then if you skateboarded you did it purely for the love, not cause it was trendy or the thing to do…. you just did it. After looking back I think that porn has the same vibe to a degree… you do it cause you want to.
Fast Forward to me being 21 and running a skateboard camp for kids out in Northridge, a I come across 3 young kids who would change my life. They were the 3 sons of Christian Mann who at the time was Head of Video Team/Afro Centrix productions. I had learned of their dads business from the youngest who had informed me his father was responsible for such great titles as American Booty, No Man’s Land and My Baby Got Back.
Since Christian and I would have conversations upon him picking up his kids, I brought up what I head learned from his youngest and expressed I thought it was cool. And for some reason Christian took an interest in me, maybe it was due to the fact I skateboarded with his kids and they had fun or maybe it was something else.
He had a job opening in his office and I jumped at the opportunity to work for a porn company. And he happily took me into his company. I was amazed at the simple fact of books upon books of polaroids of “go see” pics (which is where girls go to a company so producers directors can get an idea of what girls look like in person) and endless rows of porn dvds and vhs. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
Well after some time of working there (about 6 months I would say) Mr. Mann expressed a project he wanted me to produce for him. This project was Skate Trixxx. A fusion of skateboarding and porn which I was all about being that it involved two things I love the most. When all was said and done I think it was a great project and am still very proud to have worked on it. And I think Mr. Mann took notice of it and was somewhat proud of my accomplishment on this project as a producer.
So some odd months down the road he made a choice to get aggressive in the gonzo market and decided he wanted me to be a director. Now up until this point my dealings with camera work has been for skateboard videos but I have always been a huge fan of video work, editing, photography etc. so I was all about this opportunity.
So I got myself a Sony VX-2000 and started shooting, some of the early series I shot for Video Team was Chocolate Cream Pie,Like It Black and Deep in My Ass and Mamacitas. It was also during this time that I had met Jules Jordan through Christian Mann. Now I had seen his work he did with RoseBud and his Earlier Evil Angel stuff and loved what I had watched. It was porn the way I wanted to see it and the girls looked great not to mention the camera work/lighting etc.
I am not sure but some how we became friends, he was a great influence in my work. He showed me technical things that I know he didn’t have to but he did as well as where to buy the wardrobe, some editing tips etc. I definitely give him credit to my growth in this business.
I later on developed a series for Video Team that seemed to have made some people notice me which was Azz Fest, this was one of my most favorite series to shoot for them since it involved girls with ass which I have always had a fascination with. After sometime of directing for Video Team I got an offer from Hustler Video to come over direct for them. At the time I just felt as if I needed a change. Christian had been like a father to me, and I wanted to see if I can stand on my own so I made the switch and it was also a good learning experience. I was in awe working for Larry Flynt’s company, the man is a legend in so many ways and the Hustler Brand Name is house hold.
I got to shoot some good stuff with them as well get my name out to more people,it definitely was a good time working with Hustler think very highly of the people who work there.
Just as all things in life must change, another opportunity came my way via Vouyer Media. A good friend of mine suggested I give him some movies and he would get them into Vince Vouyers’ hands since he felt that what I shoot would be a great compliment to Vouyer.
A couple of months later I get a call from Vince saying he watched some of the movies and liked what he had seen and suggested we meet up. Now until this point I think I was non existent to Vince, he had not known of me on any level other then slight introductions at parties here and there. But I had definitely known who Vince was….
anyone watches porn enough would know.
He is another person who has contributed to pushing me to better my craft and I liked that he had constructive criticism towards my work.
So after working on a couple of projects for him he offered me a deal to work exclusively for him and I accepted bringing me to the present day.
I still live in Chatsworth, and still skateboard as much as I can.
But more importantly I get to work for a company like Vouyer Media and shoot the type of porn I would like to see (and hopefully that all of you enjoy seeing as well). I wake up everyday being very thankful for where I am in life and the good people I have surrounding me. And I know that even a bad day at work for me is still a good day compared to some people who work jobs they don’t enjoy at all.
So this a brief summary of who I am. I hope to be updating rog’s site with some blogs more often and hope you all enjoy reading them.
