Girls rates in LA are from $700-$1000 for BG scenes if they are hot. It takes about 3 hours to shoot a hardcore scene with setup, wardrobe, video, & stills. Good male talent is from $300-$700 depending on the quality of your stud. (My boy Chris Strokes makes $700 a scene and shoots 5-7 days a week for Bang Bros and other big companies that pay his rate) + $300 for 3 hours at a decent location.
So to shoot a high quality in LA cost anywhere from $1300-$2000 depending on how cheap of talent you use (you get what you pay for)
Lets say the shooter only profits $300 on the shoot thats $100 an hour
10% of the profit goes to CA state income taxes
20 % to the IRS
That brings it to $210 profit. You can make that waiting fucking tables in LA and that won't afford you any decent equipment with the cost of living out there.
Even at $100 an hour you just risked being sued for STIs and even prosecuted for obesenity laws. You give up your regular friends, family, and go under the social radar to be a pornographer.
Its not at all worth it even at $100 an hour to be shooting hardcore porn in LA. Fuck all the idiots who think otherwise. The company I was working for wanted me to work cheaper since there are guys in LA that will shoot just to be around pussy. When you can make a lot more shooting mainstream what is the point? It use to be a lot more lucrative than it is now and next time you question someone's rate ask them to break down the costs. Most people just don't get it as a lot of morons in this thread. There isn't much money left in porn unless you are shooting for the companies that actually pay. A lot of companies that want cheap content will fail when you get what you pay for in this industry. I use to make as much as the models as a shooting but for me to have to cut that in half and demote myself to less than I made shooting mainstream before porn is just ridiculous. A lot of the producers that will shoot for nothing are mopes that went and bought a camera from Best Buy and call themselves producers. Those type of shooters will only make you look bad to the agents and they wont send you the top girls. On top of that these type of producers will be the shady types and can lead to your company ending up in a courtroom soon.
I thought I was doing well in porn for a while in LA but even when I was getting the rate I wanted most of it went to taxes & equipment just to keep up with technology. Once I had spent tons of equipment to help develop artistic shooting operations for a major company I was shit on and replaced by a crew that I trained myself. I was told they would be shooting in another region so I was to train them but in fact they took over my whole shooting operation. They even stole my production assistants/makeup artists.
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