Do you like actual storylines with your porn?

Cafe Society
#1

Suggested by this thread.

I say yea. I can’t stand the vast, vast, vast, pretend-I-wrote-vast-200-times majority of video porn because there’s no story, and story is what keeps my attention. I need plot. Non-inspid dialogue. Conflict. Round characters. Character development. Hell, I don’t even object to metaphor, subtext, and social commentary, though those last three are optional. If it goes straight to the sex with no setup, rationale, or thought, then it wouldn’t matter if it were starring Monica Bellucci and Natalie Portman fulfilling every obscene kink in my perverted mind.

But that’s just me. Anyone have a different opinion?

#2

The less talking by the actors and actresses, the better.

#3

Absolutely. It’s a pity that modern porn is just a bunch of random scenes. I actually tend to make up the character’s backstory when I watch a plotless one.

If I did, I mean. I- I just read the articles. They are not mine, i was holding them for a friend.

#4

Yes, I insist on a plot, no matter how inane.
And a cheesy soundtrack!

#5

No, no, you hold DRUGS for friends. Porn you either buy for the articles or because you were fooled by a deceptive title while in a rush at the video store.

#6

No. The storylines are always stupid and detract from the experience for me.

Like one that I caught bits of while at a bar a couple weeks ago. It apparantly involved soldiers who were on a mission out somewhere. For some reason or other, they all wore ripped shirts and padded jockstraps or similar underwear. In one scene they were setting a bomb to destroy some enemy building but got all hot and bothered and decided to fuck. (never mind that they were being chased by the enemy and had to be very quiet)

Give me random scenes over that crap any day.

#7

I can take or leave plot, but I hate the “gonzo” style stuff where the scene drags on forever. There are only so many positions, and time in each position I can tolerate. Thankfully when plot is present, it naturally keeps the sex scenes shorter and too the point.

#8

Perhaps I should have specified stories that make sense. But then, those are practically non-existent in contemporary visual porn, or so I’m told (I’m a text guy).

#9

A friend from grad school used to say, “Pick an orifice and stick with it.”

Myself, I tend to prefer the classic-era, say early-70s to early-80s, stuff, and most of that has at least an attempt at a plot, or some sort of framework to hang the story on. I hate when they try too hard, though.

#10

Storylines are OK, but what I like to see is foreplay before the bangin’.

#11

No plot, no costumes, no characters, no makeup, no weird storylines, no over-produced, glam professionals. Just gimme the business, nice and amateurish. Seriously.

#12

I’ve seen some high-quality gay porn with plots, and have to admit I’ve stuck around to see what happens at the end. Some of these guys do seem to want to act and tell a story.

But, I don’t think I need a plot so much as a scenario. “Ooh, professor, my term paper is late. Is there anything I can do?” “I can think of one thing; c’mere.”

#13

No no no a thousand times NO! Point a camera at two people having great sex. My favourite porn producer, Treasure Island Media, completely rejects the notion of porn as art and makes their films as sexual documentaries - that, for me, is the way to go (and I’m obviously not alone in thinking this as they’re currently the most successful gay porn studio).

#14

I can agree with that. Set the scene for me and let them go at it.

#15

I’ve seen this discussed several times, and there always seems to be a solid majority that hates porn with a plot. But their reason seems to be that the porn with a plot that they have seen has such bad plots and such wretched acting that no plot is better than a bad one.

But what I’d like to see is a good film with actual sex. For instance, if the film Body Heat had actually included a hardcore sex scene between Kathleen Turner and William Hurt. Or if the amazingly hot bedroom scene in A History of Violence between Maria Bello and Viggo Mortensen had included penetration.

There are any number of independent films that have featured explicit sex, but the directors are usually so worried about being seen as “pornographers” that they work hard to make sure that the story is as non-erotic as possible.

Even in gonzo porn, the sex is that much hotter if the actors are having sex for a reason. I’m a big fan of a British gonzo director/actor called Ben Dover, and half of his shtick is talking the girls out of their clothes and into sex. Either it is actually happening, or a lot of women willing to have sex on camera are a lot more talented improvisers than anyone would have imagined.

#16

Teeheehee!

Yeah, I just need a premise and foreplay. The latter being more crucial.

#17

I don’t care about storylines. I watch porn as a visual aid only, and only after I’m already in the mood. I just want to see naked bodies and penetration, and only want to hear flesh being pressed and non-vocal expressions of pleasure.

#18

A scenario is okay, but enthusiastic and attractive performers are paramount. I’ve seen a few porn movies with a passable plot and halfway decent acting, like “A is for Asia,” but I’d be hard pressed to remember what actually happened in them. Hot scenes from those movies, on the other hand…

I think one reason that most people prefer less plot is not only bad acting or bad writing, but also because building up characters makes them less generic. It’s harder to use that person as a proxy for yourself, and that’s what most people — particularly men — do when watching porn.

Women usually want stronger identification with a character than men do, or more details so that they can place themselves in the fantasy. That depth of setting is probably the main reason that women prefer written erotica. Even in woman-friendly porn, there’s usually very little depth to the characters regardless of how much more attention the film makers lavish on the setting, mood, and costuming, and it’s for the same reason; it’s harder to identify yourself with one of the characters if there’s too much substance there. Since written stories are usually told from the point of view of a single character, and in erotica she may or may not even have a name, all they have to do is replace the character with themselves.

#19

In porn, specifically, like in the back of the video store? No. But I suspect many women get off on hot scenes form movies that aren’t specifically pornographic (say, Wings of the Dove), so in that case, the plots and characters are definitely important. Or the complete opposite – penis, vagina, etc. – the middle-ground stuff is usually just an embarrassing showcase for bad acting (and that includes the ‘Oh yeah baby I’m cumming!’ Totally takes me out of the moment).

#20

In the digital/DVD era, dialogue and exposition are the things you fast-forward through. Sad, but it’s a fact of life.