COLT Studio Group - Overview

Overview

It has produced all-male erotica for over 40 years. Started in New York City in 1967, moved to Los Angeles for twenty five years and is now based in San Francisco, California. COLT Studio Group is the umbrella company for other brands such as:

• COLT Studio - If the look is Masculine, the name is COLT!
• Buckshot Productions - Clean boys doing dirty things!
• COLT Minute Man Solo Series - Bigger IS Better!
• Olympus Studio - The Best of Both Worlds!
• The Legendary Bodies Series - The Pinnacle of Masculine Erotica!
• COLT Gear
• Buckshot Toys
• COLT Leather
• COLT Basics
• COLT Mobile
• COLT Cash
• COLT Publications (magazines, note cards and calendars)

COLT also produces and distributes content online through its website and adult video retailers worldwide. The company licenses the COLT and Buckshot trademark for the COLT Gear, Buckshot Toys novelty line as well as COLT Leather apparel, COLT Calendars, COLT and Buckshot Magazines, and soon to be COLT Bars worldwide. COLT is known as the "Playboy" of all-male erotica.

COLT Studio was founded by photographer Jim French. French sold the company to John Rutherford and his life-partner Tom Settle (dba Prowest Media).

In 2003 John Rutherford, previously of Falcon Studios, and his life-partner Tom Settle (dba Prowest Media) purchased the company and changed the name to COLT Studio Group.

In 2007, COLT Studio Group celebrated its fortieth anniversary. Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom signed a proclamation declaring February 23, 2007 as "Colt Studio Day" in celebration of this anniversary. This proclamation was very controversial, attracting criticism from conservative commentators including Fox News' Bill O'Reilly.

Powerful, Erotic, Masculine

If the Look is Masculine, the Name is COLT!

For more than 45 years, COLT has shared with the world its unique vision of the masculine man through the photographic, film, video and other online mediums. When illustrator Jim French began photographing men four decades ago, he was at the forefront of a revolution that completely changed what we consider to be the pinnacle of the perfect masculine, male physique. COLT Studio also became the catalyst of a movement to liberalize the male nude figure by presenting men in an entirely new style. With a careful eye on body expressions, poses, lighting and composition, COLT images celebrate the erotic appeal of masculinity. Jim French crafted images that displayed the strength and the beauty of exceptional men as captured on film by another man and primarily for the enjoyment of other men. By choosing to present the models in their sexually erotic form, COLT charged into an era of a new acceptance of male eroticism. In the process of defining his creativity, French inadvertently gave gay men all across the globe a whole new avenue for enhancing visual fantasy and exploring sexual desire in print that translates now in all mediums. The models that he photographed rapidly rose to become icons in the gay community and beyond. In time, they defined the very meaning and essence of modern masculinity. Because of the sheer quality of the photography, these icons transcended the community from which they initially gained fame. As such, the name of COLT has become famous way beyond the audience of fans from which it had first sprung forth. COLT is the pinnacle of male erotica today and has become an iconic lifestyle for gay men across the globe. No other all-male erotic studio has produced high quality imagery for longer and more consistently.

Since 1967, COLT has created some of the most powerfully erotic images of the male nude, in the process blurring the lines between fine art and erotica. Through the exacting lens of their video and film cameras, COLT Studio Group's production team have sculpted human flesh into objects of true beauty – to be at once admired and desired by all. And because the focus has always been on the pure form, no image gathers dust; they are constant, enduring Imagery that lack any sort of dating whatsoever.

In 2003, it was time for COLT Studio to change hands and into none better than the multi-award winning director and producer John Rutherford. After nearly 15 years heading the production, art and online team of the Falcon Family of Companies, Rutherford was fortunate “to continue the legacy of what the legendary Jim French created, while blending it seamlessly with the continuing evolution of COLT Studio.” He, along with Kristofer Weston, Jerry Douglas and Max Phillips have produced and directed dozens of features so far for the new COLT Studio Group. Along with John and his team, came his life and business partner Tom Settle, as Chief Financial Officer. Tom has been involved with the motion picture industry for nearly 20 years, starting in the mailroom of Creative Artists Agency in Hollywood, and eventually becoming Chief Financial Officer of ESC Entertainment, the digital production arm of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Studio, before joining COLT Studio Group.

COLT photography, films and wide range of products have always been true to its brand and reputation as “The Most Trusted Name in Erotic Products” and as a result, the arrow-straight styling and high-end production levels and die-hard attention to quality have few conventions by which to date it.