Comments on Producer Bluestone!

[Bluestone]

Thanks Blue it's going to be a long week till db gets back!

By the way, I'm also away this coming long weekend. So, it will be quiet around the Bluestone Mansion for the next week. Feel free to start your own threads, or add posts to existing threads, and discuss what you would most miss if Bluestone Videos was gone for more than a week.

Would it be a certain actress... a certain character... a certain peril or mode of death... or another feature that you'd miss if you didn't get a regular fix of Bluestone magic?

Blue

[xj900uk]

You are going away, Blue? Again? Which of the bevy of beauties you keep locked in your bedroom closet will you be taking on your little... 'sojourn' this time?

[Redgunner]

If it's Krystal I'll be so jealous!

[Bluestone]

You are going away, Blue? Again? Which of the bevy of beauties you keep locked in your bedroom closet will you be taking on your little... 'sojourn' this time?

Well, I'm taking my favourite beauty of all, but I suspect that you can't guess which one, can you? Anyway, she's a real babe and that accent makes her even sexier. Eat your hearts out, guys.

Blue

[Richpartist]

I miss good scripts............Just kidding ......well........

[Textual]

I miss good scripts............Just kidding ......well........

Seconded!

While we all know and love the current cast of characters and troupe of actresses, I would love to see new faces and — yeah — new superheroines! (Though I do miss you, Teen Bat. )

Blue (if you'll allow me to engage you here), is it that you feel you have to play it safe, to maintain your current customer base? The customer does not always know what he wants! Stuffing a video with as many elements as possible — or even as many deaths as possible — is not the way forward!

I for one would throw a bunch of money in a pot for Blue to go and make the movie HE wants to make, taking as many risks as HE wants to take, to see if he can shake things up again.

One idea I'll throw out there: I would love to see silknblood.com become a subscription site, where monthly paying members could stream (not download; that would still cost extra) all the content — and then Blue would have the money he needs up front to pursue his own vision!

A driver of piracy, in my opinion, is that a lot of the videos (not just here, but across the SHIP genre) end up not being very good, relative to the cost. If users could try before they buy/download, then maybe piracy would go down.

[xj900uk]

Whilst we are throwing ideas around, I'd love to see a new regular sexy villainess. The closest we have come to that so far is Mink as Cat, who walked the line.

[Richpartist]

I'll just say it then,the last three or so videos sucked.There was some good things here and there but the story and acting has been horrible.And again when I contributed $200 for a few elements(alot of money for me)then I expect to see them in there and not what was going to be one BIG video turned into two and the elements I paid for basically ignored in the 2nd one,and not even told that there was going to be two videos in the first place,and not given a chance to contribute more to see some of those elements in the 2nd video.Have to be honest,I expected more from Melody,I mean "Melody" since we will probably wont be seeing her much.Natasha was good but chocked out then nothing????I still believe Blue is one of the best with some of the best women working for him but lets be honest(as buyers) with our views.

[Richpartist]

and another thing......

[Whiteknight]

Yea I stopped contributing a long time ago. For me it was a lot of money and the elements were barley in the video or was not in it all together. I even paid for a custom and what I was trying to convey and wanted was almost totally missed. I had not bought a video in a long time but hey it was Melody and some of the biggest stars on bluestone so what could possibly go wrong. So I bought a couple and found and plenty could go wrong. I know that she is never coming back but I miss Thrall as SuperNova. Those were the good old days.

[Textual]

Let's pause and reaffirm that Bluestone is one of the best — if not THE best — producer in the genre.

And in my opinion, he's one of the best because he himself is a FAN of the genre (which I'm not sure is true of other producers). And as a fan, he knows what works and what does not. His videos are EROTIC, not merely sexual — a key distinction.

What I want to understand is, what changed? Bluestone's videos used to be more than just about the elements, the actresses, the characters, etc. It was, first and foremost, about the STORY: setting up the superheroine as cocky and in-over-her-head; building her up, by giving her some early successes; and then soundly defeating and humiliating her. (For me, this was especially true of the storylines involving sidekicks, who were mostly powerless, but too cocky to realize it. Come back to us, Teen Bat.)

Bluestone can tell us what changed (if anything), but from my perspective, the issue is piracy. Because of piracy, Bluestone could no longer guarantee he'd make a profit. So he needed to fund the videos upfront, by soliciting contributions from customers who wanted to see certain elements or actresses in the video. As a result, the videos became primarily a compilation of elements, featuring tried-and-true actresses (rather than fresh faces), and the story starting coming second.

If that's the issue, I have some ideas on how to solve it. Among those ideas, how about paid membership? I would be willing to pay some monthly figure to give Bluestone the FREEDOM to focus on the STORY first.

But I'll leave it to Bluestone to tell us what the issue is.

[Whiteknight]

Bluestone is not one of the best producers anymore, but he could be. The second that he allowed an outside element to influence his work it changed forever. Piracy can not be allowed to become an excuse or a crutch every time a business does not make a profit. Malls and their department stores used to own retail with their catalogs. Then the internet came along and the stores stopped carrying the catalog. They might have changed business to cater to the younger crowds but they lost their real source of income, the baby boomers.
Many businesses again changed for the millennial generation. Now having lost all of their older generation buyers and with no clue to get them back how can the business keep from filing for bankruptcy?
Asking for contributors for videos was not the worst idea in the world but it became one when the elements that they contributed to where barely shown or in the video at all. This made it so only a select few viewers were having their needs met and alienating the rest. Then really not doing the best job in the world in bringing the contributors elements to life or just barely showing it at all does not win loyal viewers.
I agree bluestone can be one of the best producers out there of the genera. But the fix has to made soon. If bluestone feels that I do not have empathy about his problems with pirates he would be wrong. For I know what it feels like when I have contributed money to the elements of many videos to be later disappointed in what I get in return. It is the very same feeling.

[Textual]

Bluestone is not one of the best producers anymore, but he could be. The second that he allowed an outside element to influence his work it changed forever. Piracy can not be allowed to become an excuse or a crutch every time a business does not make a profit. Malls and their department stores used to own retail with their catalogs. Then the internet came along and the stores stopped carrying the catalog. They might have changed business to cater to the younger crowds but they lost their real source of income, the baby boomers.
Many businesses again changed for the millennial generation. Now having lost all of their older generation buyers and with no clue to get them back how can the business keep from filing for bankruptcy?
Asking for contributors for videos was not the worst idea in the world but it became one when the elements that they contributed to where barely shown or in the video at all. This made it so only a select few viewers were having their needs met and alienating the rest. Then really not doing the best job in the world in bringing the contributors elements to life or just barely showing it at all does not win loyal viewers.
I agree bluestone can be one of the best producers out there of the genera. But the fix has to made soon. If bluestone feels that I do not have empathy about his problems with pirates he would be wrong. For I know what it feels like when I have contributed money to the elements of many videos to be later disappointed in what I get in return. It is the very same feeling.

You're right, of course: if piracy threatens your existing business model, then change the business model! And the answer, probably, is streaming — just look at what happened to music, and look at what is happening to movies.

I want to think about this more — and I want to give Bluestone a chance to respond — but essentially, a new model might involve producer/studios like Bluestone/Director B banding together with other producer/studios to license their videos to a single distributor with a lot of scale (rather than serving as their own respective distributors, with sites like silknblood.com). And that single distributor would stream the content for a monthly membership fee of $40 (maybe also giving users the option to download a video after 30 days of that video publishing, for an additional cost of less than $10). These price points are out of nowhere; I'm just thinking about what I'd be willing to pay.

And the membership site wouldn't just have ENTIRE LIBRARIES of content — imagine every video Bluestone and a bunch of other producers have ever made, all under one roof, available to stream — but could also house the entire community's unified forum. And sell merchandise. Maybe even serve some ads!

Maybe what I'm describing is possible, or maybe it's not. But the point still stands: a new business model is required!

[Richpartist]

Great discussion,and the responce?VIDEO COMING SOON.

[DaStrangler]

You're right, of course: if piracy threatens your existing business model, then change the business model! And the answer, probably, is streaming — just look at what happened to music, and look at what is happening to movies.

I want to think about this more — and I want to give Bluestone a chance to respond — but essentially, a new model might involve producer/studios like Bluestone/Director B banding together with other producer/studios to license their videos to a single distributor with a lot of scale (rather than serving as their own respective distributors, with sites like silknblood.com). And that single distributor would stream the content for a monthly membership fee of $40 (maybe also giving users the option to download a video after 30 days of that video publishing, for an additional cost of less than $10). These price points are out of nowhere; I'm just thinking about what I'd be willing to pay.

And the membership site wouldn't just have ENTIRE LIBRARIES of content — imagine every video Bluestone and a bunch of other producers have ever made, all under one roof, available to stream — but could also house the entire community's unified forum. And sell merchandise. Maybe even serve some ads!

Maybe what I'm describing is possible, or maybe it's not. But the point still stands: a new business model is required!

Being a technology consultant myself, I had suggested a similar solution a couple of years ago here and here. But for that, members have to stop being impatient and let the download link available to them after certain days (as suggested by you, a very good suggestion, IMO).