To say that Ivan is a film buff would be a tragic understatement.
Not only does the AltErotic director — who was recently inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame — have a healthy respect for the history of the adult industry, but he’s also a student of Hollywood. Before we officially begin chatting about what the life of a porn director is really like, he’s eager to show off his movie memorabilia.
“I collect Super 8 film cameras and have Super 8 film from the original ‘War of the Worlds,’” he tells XBIZ. “I’m also a big blaxploitation fan, so I have stuff signed by Rudy Ray Moore from ‘Dolemite’ and I’ve been an extra in a Troma movie, which was really cool because I love how weird and schlocky those movies are.”
His personal preoccupations and pop culture touchstones clearly owe much to coming of age in 1980s Los Angeles, where Ivan’s family ended up after immigrating from Russia during the Cold War.
“We left in November of 1978 and got here four or five months later, in 1979,” he explains. “It was a long journey.”
Upon arrival, young Ivan quickly experienced culture shock.
“I went from the cold, communist world of Mother Russia to the ‘80s in LA, where everybody’s happy and dancing, and there’s food on every corner,” he recalls. “What a time!”
During this formative period, he watched everything from “Three’s Company” to B movies featuring big boobs and even bigger guns.
“I loved schlocky stuff from Roger Corman and Andy Sidaris,” he says. “I still have some on VHS somewhere. People tell me that I’m strange but I’m not — I just grew up on strange shit.”
Ivan’s passion for movies did not abate as he got older. He earned a degree in cinematography from the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, a prestigious school with a well-respected motion picture department. He was encouraged to enroll by Robert Wise, the Oscar-winning director of “West Side Story” and “The Sound of Music,” whose wife knew Ivan’s mother, a fashion designer.
These days, at AltErotic, he’s able to indulge his fondness for the influences of his youth with projects like “Ink Motel 6,” part of a series produced in the style of 1970s and ’80s movies. According to Ivan — who should know — it features “really cool lighting, odd characters and really weird storylines.”
“I write, edit and shoot everything, and do all my own lighting too,” he adds. “And though I’m not a performer, I’ll sometimes throw myself into some of the movies as comic relief.”
In “Ink Motel 6,” Ivan plays a pornographer named Ivan Dragon.
“I’m recreating the shower scene from ‘Porky’s,’ where the girls are taking a shower and the guys are watching them through the glory hole,” he enthuses. “I have my old VHS Panasonic camera, so I’m going to stick the lens through the glory hole.”
For the cover art, Ivan works with an artist who creates in the style of old-school sexploitation movie posters. Some models, he reports, want to be in the “Ink Motel” movies simply because of the cover art.
In case it’s not obvious, AltErotic is more than just a job for Ivan.
“I live and breathe AltErotic,” he avows. “When I first joined the company six or seven years ago, I was literally paid pennies on the dollar, but Sasha, the former owner, gave me creative freedom, and I’m so grateful for that. I plan to keep this going even though he’s not around anymore.
Even Ivan’s LA condo is designed for models to stay and shoot with him.
“I have no privacy,” he admits. “This is literally what I do 24/7.”
On the rare occasions when there is a break in the action, Ivan will check out an old movie at the New Beverly Theater, where he fondly recalls meeting his filmmaking heroes such as Quentin Tarantino and John Landis — the latter of whom actually offered Ivan a glowing quote for his 1999 horror short “Y2K: Shutdown Detected,” which was shot on 16mm.
Ivan typically travels back and forth between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, where he likes to build elaborate sets in AltErotic’s shoot house. He also enjoys visiting the Antique Mall of America to buy vintage costumes and appliances, and scouring eBay for unique items such as a ham radio that promptly caught fire as soon as he plugged it in.
“It looked good as a visual prop, so I didn’t even ask for my money back,” he shrugs. “I’m just not going to plug it back in!”
Ivan stockpiles old pagers, flip phones and boxy TV sets that can help add to a film’s mise-en-scene.
“I’m 55, so a lot of the stuff I have is mine,” he laughs.
Three years ago, Ivan also jumped into wrestling photography. Now he takes thousands of pictures at each event, and is proud to have won an award for Deathmatch Photographer of the Year.
“If I get paid, it’s gas money, and if I don’t get paid, I don’t really care,” he declares. “I just love the escape of it, and the visuals. When you’re there, it’s like you’re watching a real-life horror movie because of all the blood. It’s very intense and I’m very proud of the work I do there.”
He is equally proud of what he and his team at AltErotic have built.
“We’ve created a safer environment and a more sober environment, and that has helped to spark more creativity, which is very important to me,” Ivan says. “We’re also doing a good job helping models brand themselves, and they seem comfortable and happy working with us. In fact, I think there are several girls in the industry who have our logo tattooed on them.”
Ivan typically wakes up around 6:30 a.m. and starts editing. He prefers to get a jump on the day.
“If you wake up early, you get a lot more done — and nobody bothers me because most people I work with don’t get up until later,” he confides.
In addition to his responsibilities for AltErotic, he shoots OnlyFans content for a handful of well-known performers whom he has known for years.
“That keeps me incredibly busy because editing takes longer than production,” Ivan notes. “You’re only on set for four to eight hours — 10 if it’s a long day — but editing can take more than a day because I’m very meticulous. I want to make the models look the best they can with hardly any Photoshop.”
Ivan appreciates technology, but remains doggedly old-school in some ways.
“I’m old,” he says simply. “If you try to teach an old dog new tricks, it’s not going to happen. I’m comfortable with Final Cut X, and there are so many companies coming out with really cool plugins. For 90 bucks, BigFilms will send you hundreds of different environments, from battlefields to post-apocalyptic cities and fantasy lands. It’s all AI, obviously, but it’s cool because they also offer explosions and monsters.”
Ivan says he likes to start editing immediately after wrapping a shoot.
“I’ll jump on the computer, dump the footage, and edit a quick little teaser that’s like a minute long,” he explains. “I’ll get the royalty-free music and use all these little plug-ins, and I’ll send it to the talent the same night. After keeping people on set all day, I want to show them what the rewards are, instantly.”
After a particularly successful shoot, Ivan sometimes rewards himself as well — with an order of chili cheese fries if he’s in LA, or a salmon teriyaki bowl from Teriyaki Madness if he’s in Las Vegas.
Even while scrambling to finish multiple AltErotic projects, Ivan is simultaneously looking ahead, busily recruiting alt models with tattooed eyeballs, split tongues and elf ears.
“Most companies won’t touch those girls, but we do,” he affirms. “Every day, there are DMs from models who want to jump into the industry, or OnlyFans girls who realize that when you shoot for a company, your brand is going to get bigger and grow faster. I’m constantly bringing these alt models to mainstream porn events and awards shows, where I get them to present onstage. It’s a 24/7 job — almost like I’m a doctor!”
Since Ivan is always on call, the models at AltErotic have come to see him as something of a father figure.
“They call me ‘Porn Dad’ because I don’t flirt with the girls or touch them,” he says. “Instead, I mentor them and I tell the new girls the ‘do’s and don’ts’ based on what I’ve seen happen in the industry.”
As far as his personal life goes, Ivan acknowledges that it can be hard dating as a porn director.
“In almost 23 years in the industry, I’ve only dated two models and both relationships went bad,” he shares.
After discovering that the person he was engaged to was cheating on him, Ivan fell into a deep depression that sparked a health crisis when his diabetes came back. Still, he hasn’t given up on finding love.
“My whole thing has always been, I want to be a power couple where we can share the same vision and build something together,” he reflects. “It’s just hard because our industry is all about who’s ‘hot’ and rarely about whether they’re a good person, or a creative person.
“If I did date someone, it would have to be somebody in the industry who has their own life and understands that I’m a selfish artist and I want to create on my own time,” he adds. “But I’m not a jealous person. I know what our industry is about. In our industry, your body belongs to everybody, on- and off-camera. For me, it’s about your heart and your brain. I don’t know if it’s going to happen, but we’ll see.”
For now, Ivan is focused on getting his health back in order.
“I do intermittent fasting, which is easier when I’m on set because I’m so busy,” he says. “I also got rid of as many carbs as possible. I eat carb-free meals, like carb-free pasta and keto breads, which are not cheap! But you can either spend money on healthy food, or save money and pay for it later with your health.
“I also have my elliptical, so I try to do 10,000 steps a day, even if I have to walk in circles in the living room at night like a madman,” he laughs. “When it’s football season, I’m on the elliptical all the time because it’s easy to watch a game and walk.
Ivan describes himself as a big sports fan — when he’s not buried in work.
At the moment, work is all about “Ink Motel 6,” which the director promises will be the most high-profile entry yet in the series. The current plan is to have it out by August, in time for the next round of industry award nominations.
It isn’t about trophies for Ivan, though. Or money.
“I’d rather die broke but happy, with my creative soul filled, than work for somebody where I’m shooting production-line porn and I hate waking up every morning to go shoot another stepbrother-stepsister scene in a laundromat,” he proclaims earnestly. “I’m not interested in any of that.”
Fortunately, Ivan seems to have found an “alt” path — one that suits him way better.
“I just kind of do what I do,” he says. “And it works out.”
