I mean i watch the stuff enough, I’d like to know a little about it. I could spout off a few anecdotes I’ve heard like the hub of it basically being in CA and actresses making around $1000-$5000 a scene, but really I don’t know a thing. Do we possibly have a resident actor/actress with us?
I guess I’d just like to understand the whole industry. It’s said to make millions but literally anything I ever watch is FREE. How are they making any money?
Also, I wonder about the girls who are in this. I once read that most of the girls in it do 1 video and then they’re out. This makes sense to me since I can’t remember seeing the same girl twice. And no offense, (to anyone who might) but most of the girls in porno are beautiful, so what are they doing in porno? I doubt any girl I know will do porno. Even more, I can only imagine the social stigma one faces when other people learn of their occupation.
Making a lot of money, that’s what they’re doing. And why do you think that beautiful women wouldn’t be in porno? Doesn’t it make sense that porn (and all other kinds of modeling) would seek out the most beautiful women possible?
You never know.
This isn’t 1950. Porn has gone mainstream. Most people don’t care, and if anything, are impressed. Most interviews I’ve read with porn stars have them claiming that they’re on perfectly good terms with their parents and family.
We (used to?) have an Australian “soft” (nude, les, “real” girls) porn producer (Abby Winters? Which is a great site, BTW) on the board, and I think at least one of the gay Dopers has done porn vid (or was it just photoshoots?) but I don’t recall anyone involved in the regular California porn industry being here.
That is a big issue in porn right now, believe it or not. The industry is scrambling to find ways to provide its customers with something more than the free sites. Of course, a part of it is still going strong, be it live shows & DVD sales for people who still don’t quite get the 'net. They’re out there, the lousy peasants :p.
But as for internet pay sites, yeah, they’re in a crutch right now. Some actresses are willing to break the mold and work for much less than the usual rates (you can imagine how well *that *goes with their peers), others try to get closer to their fans and provide them with things free sites can’t, be it audience interraction, dialogue, taking requests and the like. Even inviting random viewers to participate in the shoots. Doesn’t really work, though.
Related Cracked.com article (yeah, I know… it’s still a cite. Might be slightly NSFW).
FWIW, regular TV is facing exactly the same issues : TV productions are funded in large part through advertizing. But people with TiVo and Hulu watchers don’t watch them… so advertisers are slowly but surely pulling their money out. Once the internet generation hits 50, all bets are off.
There’s a couple of good message boards out there where porn industry insiders post. Adult DVD Talk is a good one. I’ve learned a lot about the industry from there. Very interesting stuff, but of course, very NSFW.
There tons of free stuff out there, and [del]much[/del] most of it is crap. The pay sites that I’ve actually subscribed to have had better production values, better-looking actresses, and all around better stuff.
And if you happen to have a particular, hard-to-find fetish (like, say, you get off on pictures of nuns shitting on Smurfs), you’ll be more likely to find what you want via pay sites.
I’ve known a couple of men who made gay porn and they said they would get between $300 and $400 a scene"
The real reason they did this was because when the “escorted” they could charge more for the name value and of course they got a steady supply of hot men to have sex with, without having to look.
I have never understood why folks waste their time watch porn on a computer.
Standing on a garbage can looking through a neighbor’s bedroom window is much more exciting.
Well, back in the pre-Internet, VHS glory days, they were making *billions.*They’re suffering from basically the same problems as the newspaper and music industries, in that the Web is totally wreaking havoc on what had been a successful business model.
I briefly dated a girl who later became a porn star. We keep in touch. She’s done enough videos that she’s been recognized (which she finds a bit embarrassing). She’s a beautiful, intelligent, funny girl (looks like Natalie Portman). The reason why she got into the industry was that she loves the work and she makes a lot of money. I haven’t asked her how much, but one time she mentioned that she made 10 grand in a weekend and I suspect that might be typical for her. She does bondage type porn which pays a bit more. Plenty of people are willing to pay for certain fetishes or good-quality type stuff. The sites often tell you a lot about the actors and fans develop ‘relationships’ with certain actors and trace them through their careers. She has posted some of her fanmail on her blog before and talked about how some of her fans will pay $$$$ to get any sort of footage of her.
She keeps the information from her parents, but she dates other porn stars, so it hasn’t been a problem for her. I’m sure it will bar her from certain types of careers, but she says she never intended to be in those industries anyway.
