In the mid-1980s, Poole, cash-strapped from earlier projects, attempted a new partnership on what would be his final film, "One, Two, Three" (1985). The film was “conceived on the basis of nothing more than a strong marketing premise”, the film’s six stars would tour the country on personal appearances at each city, with each night’s opening as a benefit for AIDS research. "One, Two, Three" has three loops, each with a successive number of actors, Slater starred in the first scene talking directly to camera, and bringing himself to orgasm. Filmmaker Chris Rage introduced himself outside New York's famed leather bar, The Spike, and took him home to watch "Raunch," "It wasn't pretty. It wasn't some Hollywood type movie. It was raw." Slater subsequently appeared in a number of Rage's films, and cites him as a big inspiration for being innovative and a risk-taker. Of mainstream directors he is inspired by Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and Quentin Tarantino. He left New York for Los Angeles where his skills in front of, and behind the camera brought him lots of work. In the early-1980s, the AIDS pandemic started in the U.S., around the same time, home video equipment was popularized; and the gay porn industry evolved to have options to address safe sex, and productions that felt more home-made. Gay BDSM magazine "Drummer" editor Jack Fritscher and a partner started Palm Drive Video north of San Francisco and recruited Slater and other men into fetish and kink to star in films that provided fantasy without exchanging bodily fluids. Slater later said, "In 1986, I'd established my image, and learned how to make a film. So I started directing and producing." He was a popular porn star because he mixed a “hyper-masculine sexuality” with acting talent. In April 1989’s "Drummer" (volume 127), editor Jack Fritscher ran “J. D. Slater Is ‘Dirt,’” with his poem of the same name and photographs of Slater shot by Fritscher from his Palm Drive Video feature, "Mud and Oil" (October 27, 1988). They were friends, Fritscher called Slater “the most consistently witty man I have ever met”. Fritscher also lists Slater as an “essential contributor” for "Drummer".