Red Light District Video

Red Light District Video (RLD) is an American pornographic movie studio headquartered in Chatsworth, California.

It was founded in 2002 by performer/director Vince Vouyer, a longtime exclusive director at Anabolic Video, and industry veteran Dion Giarrusso, who had worked as general manager of Elegant Angel. The plan was to emulate Evil Angel's setup where producer/directors would own their own movies, and share in the profits. Vince's own company, Vouyer Productions, owned his titles. Other initial directors there included David Luger and Brandon Iron, neither of which owned any movies. Most movies produced by RLD are considered gonzo porn.

In 2003 Platinum X Pictures was launched by Michael Stefano and Jewel De'Nyle (married at the time), bankrolled by Dion and Red Light District Video. Platinum X featured directors Manuel Ferrara, Brandon Iron and John Strong among others. The company has produced some of the best DVD's available.

Vouyer and Giarrusso eventually brought over many of Vince's colleagues from Anabolic in 2004. Erik Everhard, Lexington Steele, and Mike John joined RLD, where they could start their own production companies to be distributed by the RLD infrastructure. Steele's stay was brief, as he left to start his own studio, Mercenary Pictures, after only a few releases at Red Light.

Dion's silent partner in Red Light all along had been his brother, David Joseph. In 2004 they had a massive falling out, and Dion left the company. David took over the reins, slowly shifting from a business model based on producer/director ownership, to a model where he owned more and more titles, and could profit accordingly. He, for all intents and purposes, merged RLD and PXP, 'promoting' Stefano and Ferrara to RLD.

Through a relationship with Rick Salomon, Joseph was able to get rights to 2004's massive hit movie, 1 Night in Paris, starring Paris Hilton. [cite web | author = Sarah Hall | title = Gena Lee's Sex-Tape Scandal | url = http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=103a045c-50a2-4db7-b770-43df53c9d3b9 | publisher = E! Online | date = 2004-04-27 | accessdate = 2007-12-21] It has become one of the best selling adult movies of all time.

In early 2006, several of the RLD directors decided they weren't getting a fair shake, and announced they were leaving. Everhard and Ferrara joined Evil Angel; Mike John joined Jules Jordan's upstart company; and RLD founder Vince Vouyer left to start Vouyer Media, to be distributed by Wicked Pictures.

In April 2006, Dion opened up his new production company Combat Zone.

References

External links

* [http://clubredlight.com/track/girls_np.php/61/A/1/ Official website] "Caution: contains very explicit content."