Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
Jay...I've shot a lot of porn and been around a lot of porn.
And I promote X-Art stuff.
So I see their work. It's nice. Boring, but nice.
What on Earth causes those scenes to be so expensive? The location? WTF?
It isn't like they are a mainstream movie telling a story on some exotic location. Most of the scenes are either indoors or by a pool. Just like all porn.
They could be shot at any nice home in L.A. or Vegas... or anywhere.
So why are the costs to shoot that so high? I don't get it.
Are they spending days at a time to shoot those nice little vids? I'm not seeing a whole lot of acting or dialogue in the promo materials.
Just cheesy music and the camera set to make a lot of bokeh in the background for that "soft" look.
Am I missing something? I'm not seeing anything that should cost any more than a normal shoot.
Matter of fact, a group sex scene would cost a lot more than what I'm seeing on their site.
Don't get me wrong. It looks pretty. But just looking at it...I think it could be shot for a lot less than a "normal" porn scene. Unless they are flying everybody in private jets to exclusive 5 star hotels and eating caviar.
Call me crazy, but I don't get it.
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Robbie,
I could break it down line by line for you but this is not the place to do that. Here are some basics though:
You need deep sets. That means a regular bedroom will not do. Once you get to the house you have to stage all the furniture to get that setup/look. That takes time and manpower. We often move king size beds from upstairs to downstairs hallways etc. Then you need to light that deep set in different stages. Since it is deep you are really lighting the foreground, the background, and the subjects, all with different ranges of light. Then you need to set up dollies/ sliders and in some cases jibs. They have to be all balanced and sandbagged etc. Not to mention trucked in and carried to wherever you are shooting. All that extra time spent setting up and balancing lights and moving them in is costly. I use 15 plus lights all the time.
The furniture and the clothing need to match and so you need to buy appropriate wardrobe the day before. (all this btw is standard in mainstream and was standard on every Penthouse Magazine shoot I ever was involved in when Bob Guccione owned it) These scenes cannot be shot with less than three assistants. Makeup is more detailed. Just like with Penthouse Centerfolds you are looking at 3 plus hours of makeup and not by some random porn makeup artist. I pay my MUA girls at least $500 a girl and I only use specific MUA that can actually do it. Trust me with these girls and this type of shoot only the best MUA?s will do. There is a small circle I share with Holly, Dean, Tammy etc. You also can not shoot sound in camera as that will not work with DSLRs to achieve the quality we get. So you need separate sound recorders and a sound person to run a boom.
So we have several crew members that have to be paid and a lot of time needed for makeup and setup. Locations are also costly when you are in these types of homes and since there is so much setup one can only get 2 shoots done in a 12-14 hour day. This adds to the cost as well since you can only split the location by in half. If I was shooting gonzo I could shoot 6 scenes in the same time.
Not everyone who watches these glamcore films will appreciate the subtle details and quality flourishes certainly. They are not the target buyers. Just like any niche (Fetish is a good example) it is the specific details that make it good and the people that appreciate that niche see it right away. We also pay a composer to score our scenes and that costs as well. Most of my scenes for babes did get cheesy music added unfortunately but that was (in my opinion) a bad call on their end. They are my client and it is their product so they are free to do with it as they wish.
Also the private Jets and Caviar does add up ;)