In my review of Pulse Pictures’ new release Dollface I mentioned that Pulse seemed to be adding a lot of varied titles to their catalog. In response to that review and those remarks specifically I got the following email from Mark Hamilton of Pulse. It’s a good read, explains a lot about where they are going with the company and is reprinted with permission. (Thank you Mark.)
Mark Hamilton Writes:

Hi Rog,
I hope all is well with you.
Thanks for the ‘Dollface’ review. Actually, the review was better than the rating, but I’ll take a generally positive review over a good rating any day!
I did want to give you a little insight into our thinking as far as Pulse Pictures goes. You made an interesting comment in the review that ‘they are adding all kinds of different titles to the mix and it’s hard to put a finger on them’. You are actually right on target with that, because we have decided (deliberately, I promise!), not to get trapped into one type of genre with Pulse Pictures. Partly this has to do with the glut of gonzo on the market, and that the barrier to branding a new company as a top long-term gonzo player is ridiculously high these days (essentially 4 movies a month x $25k for all in costs x 12 months to get fully established = $1.2 million dollars). As we both produce and distribute, we perhaps don’t feel the same pressure to churn out the 4 gonzo releases a month, every month. I think a lot of the second-tier gonzos (actually pretty much everyone outside Anabolic, Red Light/Platinum X and Evil Angel) are encountering serious problems arising from the need to constantly deliver new releases every week in a tough market, and where both sales and collections are more of a challenge than ever.
Also, and more importantly, we thought it was essential to release titles under Pulse Pictures that we either really liked, or that came from directors who we believed in, regardless of their genre. At some point, it’s difficult to keep everyone happy, so we really felt that if we stayed true to the idea of believing in each movie we released, consumers out there would at least know that plenty of care and thought went into the movies. It’s why we have stayed true to the consistent jewel case packaging (despite its cost!) and high quality editing, DVD menus, and also why some months we’ll release four titles, and other months just one. Ultimately, if there is a movie that we like, we’ll release it, regardless of its category. We have taken the same approach as a distributor, and we’re convinced that our diversity of exclusive studios gives our customers more reasons to call us if they are looking for a certain type of movie. We are able to offer everything from major brands like Vivid, Club Jenna and Falcon Studios to more specialized movies from smaller studios like Erocktavision (high-end lesbian vignettes), InPulse Pictures/Lennox Films (movies for women and couples), Burning Angel Entertainment (most often described as Punk/Alt Porn) and StraightCollegeMen.com (amateur straight guys gone gay). We now exclusively represent 25 studios and around 3,000 movies, and truly believe that each studio offers great quality and value to adult consumers. There are a number of companies out there who’ll distribute anything they can get their hands on just to generate additional income, and it only hurts them in the long-term. We’re able to stand by every studio we represent, because we know that they are all passionate about the movies they produce, even if those movies may not be to everyone’s taste or liking. We will only carry a studio if 1) we know that the studio believes in their movies 2) we believe in their movies and 3) if we can successfully articulate the belief in the movies with our customers!
As for Pulse Pictures, while we understand the argument that a company needs a consistent identity, we would rather take the approach that consistently good releases, even with a variety of styles,is more important. Evil Angel has succeeded not just because they release the same type of movie, but because they have maintained a high level of quality over the years. In fact, we’re very proud of the fact that Pulse Pictures releases are second only to Evil Angel in ratings from over 13,000 reviews on AdultDVDTalk.com.
If you look at our titles to date, I guess we could be labelled , first and foremost as a gonzo company . We have 7 great Bryan Xin movies ( the most recent release, ‘Come to Mommy’ ,came out of a trip Bryan took to England and features 10 scenes and a bonus DP) and we also also hope there’s a Xin original non-Vivid feature on its way. In addition, we have 2 strong Van Styles releases (‘Black Up In Ya’ and ‘Twisted Youth’), 3 movies in collaboration with Jekyll + Hyde ( we rate Kevin Moore highly) . Finally, on the gonzo side, we are releasing some Denis Marti titles, the first of which, ‘Anal Aristocrats’ , was a really solid effort from him.
We did mix it up a little with Kimberly Kane’s ‘Naked + Famous’. Kimberly has great potential as a director, and I think you’ll see more titles coming out from her, either through Pulse or from other studios. Also, our big movie of the year, and the only one in gatefold packaging and not the Pulse superking jewel box packaging, is ‘Black Light Beauty’ from JacktheZipper, and it may not be to your liking! However, we are thrilled with it. It has some truly stunning moments, and we can but hope you’ll see them in that movie too!.We are self-confessed fan of JacktheZipper -he may not fit the typical mould as far as porn directors go, but he is incredibly gifted and will continue to get better and better. As for ‘Dollface’, we actually purchased the rights from a U.K company, after turning down about 100 largely forgettable gonzo movies that we were offered from the same company. ‘Dollface’ (it’s original title was ‘La Femme, La Corsetrie’) seemed like a unique title that we hadn’t seen before.
In addition to ‘Come to Mommy’ and ‘Black Light Beauty’, we have a new series, the romantically-titled ‘Face Pounders’ starting at the end of this month. This falls into the classic hard gonzo category, and features beautiful models in some very strong scenes.
So there you have it, Rog. With ‘Black Light Beauty’s August release, we will have put out 18 movies, 15 of which fall comfortably under the gonzo category, and 3 (Naked + Famous, Black Light Beauty and Dollface) are more stylized, ‘all-sex’ releases. This ratio isn’t going to change anytime soon, but I’ll keep you posted…
I hope the above adds a little clarity to what we’ve been trying to establish with Pulse Pictures. Your support, not by necessarily giving good reviews, but by giving balanced, comprehensive reviews ,is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark
Pulse Distribution
www.pulsedistribution.com