Barry there was a lot more around in the late 70s and 80s than the type of porn you talk about. Well there was where I lived. There was amateur, gonzo, girl next door, glamor. Styles have changed a bit, but the only real change was the teen market exploded as a whole niche itself.
Pre video, you had to know how to film. Because film was very expensive, it couldn't be put onto a monitor to check if the lighting was right, editing was a whole different field. Even loading an old time film reel was a pain, had to be done in the 100% black out or light would ruin the film. It was loaded onto cassettes. Getting porn film, was a lot of trouble as few labs would handle it. The whole thing was a big deal and cost a lot of money. And easy to fuck up.
Then duplication, do you know the problems involved duplicating a film reel as opposed to duplicating a Beta tape to VHS?
Therefore there was very little produced, compared with the video days that followed. A movie was pretty well guaranteed to make money if the hurdles were jumped. The returns on a single film would leave you breathless. Compared with Hollywood for dollars invested and dollars profit, it was on par with the block busters. Smaller market YES. Micro supply YES MOST CERTAINLY. This resulted in great returns.
The situation was that the people wit the skills to produce movies were not your amateur porn producers. They were trained people who wanted to hit the biggest market. Why spend the same amount of money on a film with a limited audience when for the sale money you can hit one with a much larger audience?
Still there were amateurs producing porn. On 8mm B/W and color.
Read this to get an insight into the 60s porn business in the UK. There were lots of little people doing things on the QT that never made it into the big wider market. Many because it was illegal and the "professionals" had the top end dominated. Still the first Color Climax's would today pass as amateur. The photosets and films I was posing for were definitely amateur.
All this changed when Beta Cam cameras came down to a price, some who couldn't afford or shoot film, could afford to buy. Suddenly taps were cheap, 60 minutes I think were the first. screw up a scene, rewind and shoot that bit again, put the image on a monitor, edit on a reel to reel edit deck. No processing to get it developed. And duplicating was a breeze. Buy 100 VCRs, 1 beta cam player, 100s of leads and hit a button.
When I first started shooting video in 78/79. I used a video camera and trust me it was amateur. All of
Astral Blue is amateur. Some of the models aren't. But the style was amateur.
The video camera caused an explosion in porn production. All of a sudden many could shoot and produce porn. Those who did it well and marketed themselves right, made money and prospered, those who didn't died a death.
Need I tell you about this man?
The only difference between this and today is what exactly? Walk up to a girl on the street, talk her into doing something naughty and sexy, film it, sell it.
And so it goes on.
The biggest difference between today and then? We didn't give it to a 1,000 so 1 would buy and call it marketing or selling.
