Nova Studios - Theft and Embezzlement

Theft and Embezzlement

Nova Studios began licensing many of Scott Masters' pre-Nova loops and early Nova Studios material on video in 1980. Unbeknownst to Nova, however, Masters' lover (who had acted as the studio's chief of production and financial manager) had been licensing much of the same material over and over to a wide variety of customers without permission. As this material began to flood the marketplace (much of it in degraded quality), the studio's financial situation deteriorated significantly.

Masters attempted to keep Nova Studios afloat by finally producing sound films. Masters had refused to make films with synchronous sound until 1983—long after most other gay pornographic studios had not only begun using dialogue synched to the actor's lip movements but also had moved from film to video. Masters' friend, William Higgins, had been recording sound for his films (but not using it) since 1978, and Falcon Studios released their first sound film in 1979. "I hated sound at this time. Because of my experience with Greek Lightning, partially, and I said, 'What will sound do for these films except make them ludicrous?' Because the kind of people we use in these films can't talk, can't act, have no background—they can't do any of these things, and it's just going to be absurd to make them say things when they aren't going to say them well."

In 1981, Nova Studios bowed to public demand and financial pressures and produced It's the Life. The film was a disaster. Star Giorgio Canali's English was so poor that he mangled his lines. Struggling to recite dialogue in an unfamiliar language, Canali could not maintain an erection. Masters eventually gave up and shot the rest of the scene without sound. Nova Studios would not produce a sound film again until 1983. That film would be Brian's Boys, starring Brian Hawks. But in the intervening two years, Nova Studios lost critical market share.

The same year, Nova Studio began dubbing older silent loops. The company added music, limited narration, and asynchronous sexual sounds to the older films and began re-releasing these to make money.

Nova Studios also continued to find bright young performers. During 1983, the studio would discover and cast such notable adult film performers as Rick Donovan, Jim Bentley, Tim Kramer and Danny Connors.

In 1984, Nova Studios hired Chet Thomas. Thomas was an editor, and he worked on several of Nova's final films. They also released their final two sync-sound productions, Heroes (which featured the debut of Cole Taylor) and Something Wild, with the above stars as well as Scott Avery, Bobby Madison/Brian Michaels, and Randy Page.

But that same year, Masters' partner embezzled the company's bank account and fled with the master print of the latest Nova Studio release, Boys Town. The company subsequently discovered that the company's taxes had also not been paid for several years. Faced with a large tax bill and $60,000 in debt, Nova Studios licensed the remainder of the company's products to a third party.

Nova Studios ceased to make gay adult films in late 1986.