Shooting your own content

I'm assuming you were shooting for a year, buying all the equipment and costing in your time.

Start thinking about it, content providers can contribute please.

charly I would love to see that article please.

But I voted 300.00 maybe a little high. but most ppl forget to figure in modeling fees, sudio fees, office fees. Your time editing, promoting, service after the sale. Hosting and hundreds of little things even thou spreadout the year adds up

There are more costs than that when you start to total it up, but not as high as $300.

ICQ me your email address and I will send it.

It's going up on another board soon.

The idiot who put up $50 must never had shot a model in his life.

$300 doesn't even cover the cost of my camera.

On my calculation I used the Nikon D70 and $1,000 for a video camera.

Also start a list of things and costs of what you need to shoot your own content.

Cameras, Lights, etc.

It will shock you.

I spoke with a photographer/videographer a few weeks ago in LA who's been shooting for close to a decade, and we were discussing this...he said "everything costs $1000 these days" -- and he right.

First off, the poll is way too vague...even for ballpark or "fairly basic" discussion. What are you shooting? Solo masturbation of bukakke? And do you want an estimate for equipment, too?

How about what I call the "hidden costs" no one ever seems to really bring up here...set fee, hotel rooms, toys for the girls, condoms, water and/or soda for the models, baby-wipes, DV tapes...

Everything costs $1000 these days...I'm sticking by that...for your "fairly basic" answer. I don't care if you're in LA, Miami, Toronto...or Lincoln, NE. Unless you're bullshitting a girl to work for free, and it's a solo masturbation scene...

Everything costs $1000 these days.

Paul,
you just need to mention, that the costs are not alculated on a basis where you shoot just your wife (girlsfriend and probably yourself) for a whole year

Well I think you are going a little over the top for solo girl, for boy girl could be more, but you are right what are we asking what the content is?

So let's say it was a guy new to shooting doing solo girl.

He needs to buy Equipment, props, clothing, location, models, etc. Anyone want to chip in with some more things feel free.

Good point, for a site like that you have to shoot it yourself, but getting girlfriends to do it for free is dream land for most.

Over the top? Maybe for solo girl...but B/G? Go check out my site, spunkmouth.com. Last girl is Delilah. Her rate is $750 for B/G. My male talent was another $350. Set fee was $150 (cheap, the guy who owns the studio takes care of me) and toss in another miscellanous $100 for DV tape, bottled water, and maybe some Pepsi. That's $1350 my friend, and I'm shooting/directing. If you aren't, add $250 or so more. Oh yea...lube, baby wipes, and don't foget copies for model releases and ID's!!

Quote a solo girl $100 an hour. Maybe $75 if you're "iffy" on her looks, or she's got some tats that don't reallywork well. If she's really hot and you quote her $100, she might laugh at you. It all depends.

Have her bring her own clothes. (Aside: I know a newbie photographer who went out and spent $500 on lingerie after he got his camera...cause he was "really picky about what the girls wore." The result? He was ripped off left and right...by the girls, other photographers, and people who "just wanted to borrow something quick.")

Got a pal that'll let you use his house for a shoot? That's one idea...hotel rooms are quick and easy. Just be discreet. $100 for a nice one? $150? Where I live, depends on time of year...summer, and I get smoking deals on really nice suites. Pro sets/"porn houses" in LA can run hundreds a day...usually they're $200 an hour or so.

The Canon GL-2 I shoot with was $3000 with a case, give or take. It's worth every penny. Add $350 for amateur lights (that I think work just fine) another $400 for a Pelican case for the lights so you can cart them around, another $600 - $1000 for a good digital camera, and a miscellaneous $200 for mem sticks, lens cleaner, filter, and DV tapes.

How much is that? You do the math. I'm too tired.

Tips cause I'm in a good mood: try to schedule a shoot at the end of the month, when rent's due (usually models offer discount rates...especially if you can use them for 2 or 3 sets), always treat all models you hire with respect and dignity; make sure you have water, soda, and maybe some food on set; always tell the models they can have someone present if they feel uncomfortable; never, ever try to get a BJ or fuck a girl on the side (word gets around fast if you pull shit like that), and always tack on another hour or so to however long you think your shoot is gonna take...you think 2 hours -- probably more like 3 1/2.

I can't think of anything else right now. I'm sure I will in, like, 5 minutes.

Don't tell Eva that.

Ok here`s my look...

I have canon D300 with Tokina AT-X PRO SV 28-70 - $1200

3 x 1K tungsten light
2 x 0,5K tungsten light - totally $200

some interior decorations - $200
hours of reading materials on the net, hours of reviewing photos from others porngraphers...

office $300 per month including hi speed internet...

with this equipment I can do photos like this:


I paying:

solo girl $200 per 6 hours of work (thats 5 sets) additional 50 - 100 bucks with video.

party content - girls kissing, flashing tits and pussy $50, some lesbi sex in tub $80

I have tons of beautiful czech girls, some good locations but just few customers. I have lovered the prices of my sets to half and sending my submissions to some content brokers right now to get same sales.

For those who are interested in party content here is look from our office (about 50 bars and clubs in one street)

figure two cameras 2300 each. Lighting Kit 200. Bulbs 4-7 bucks each for 3 hours use. Tape 15 bucks for 2 retail. 8 bucks wholesale. Whores, 300-1000 depending on how hot they are and how much they let you do. Studio 2k a month or motel 60 bucks a shoot. Post production approx 3 hours to edit a 1.5 hour tape, 6 hours to render: time is money. Wear and tear on equiptment $400 per year. Good attorney to deal with externalities 150-400 and hour. (as per basis)
It adds up, but I still prefer to do it myslef and get *exactly* what I want rather than out source and get something i'm not 100% satisfied with.
Cheers
Duke

Cuzma - i see a new content provider pop up in the czech republic every week. The market is WAY oversaturated and there are fewer buyers now than ever as well, because the webmaster gold rush is over.

just like the gold rush days are over for the webmasters, so they are as well for content providers. You need to do something to differentiate yourself from everyone else shooting content, and lower prices arent going to be what works.

so many variables in a shoot - i voted 300.

the one thing that annoys the ever loving shit out of me is people who thing models will take a cumshot to the face in eastern europe for a ham sandwich. These models - for the most part - are very professional and dont work for peanuts.

Kinda scraping the bottom with that equipment....

I spent more on my lighting than that equipment.

My camera 1300$
My lights 100$

That is about it.

My models costs me 600$ - 700$ for a one day shooting.
( Around 5-6 hours )

But, as I told you, I am not as professional as you.
Seems like my members like my content a lot though.

I was keeping the prices down for a newbie to start up with.

We have a Nikon D1X, Nikon D100, Sony VX2000 and another Sony video which I forget the name of. Aslo have around 15 Studio Flash heads, MultiBlitz and Bowens.

Plus 7 Tungstens.

You mean this professional style of picture?



Shot it on print film, 18 pictures and made $300 from it, not bad for 10 minutes work. Sold to a magazine as "Readers Wives" they pay $50 a picture.

Shot 14 of them that day all sold for $100 to $300 a set.

you didnt provide nearly enough info. you have to figure out all the costs besides the model on each shoot like equipment, camera, advetising, etc and divide that # by however many sets you shoot in the year. if you only shoot 2 sets and have to factor in your equipment then you wont get anywhere near 300. i think the # is higher than any # you have listed though.

I was asking you what you think it costs and giving you some examples.

I wanted to know what people thought it cost to shoot over a year, one day a week, buying all the kit, getting the models, etc.

Funny how so many here think it costs $300 or more. Now try and get someone to pay $300 for a custom set that they have exclusive.

I know what it costs, I want your opinions.

deopends what your shooting, how much video etc

I mean you can hire 1 hottie for 800 - 1000 bucks and get 5 15 min sets out of her (maybe more or less)

Not cheap! But at times I can get away with a $200 shoot because I don't have to pay myself. A good shoot way more than $300!

That sounds much better!

Bet all those tungstens heat your place up pretty fast....

Good in the winter a bummer in the summer.

but we have a 2,500 sq ft studio and the need for so many lights is so we can move from one set to the next and keep shooting without having to move everything. This place is a bloody conveyor belt churning out porn. Just trying to keep the quality up to minimum standards.

$100 for the girl, $50 for the room

Here are my figures, they are rough and kept to a minimum.

Stills Camera. $1,300
Video Camera $1,000
Studio Flash lights. $500
Flash metre. $300
Props, $20 a week, $1,000 a year.
Photography books. $100

Total $4,200

Location. $80 a time time 25 = $2,000

Models $300 to $500 a day for solo girl.
One a week $20,000 a year.

Total $24,200

Shooting six sets or videos a day = 300 a year @ $80 each

Correcting/editing 2 days a week + 1 day shooting = 3 days.
3 days at $200 a day = $600 a week another $100 per video.

Total cost $180 per set or video.

This is a minimum budget that would be hard to keep within, but I did it to show bare minmum, so $360 for a solo girl image set and video. That with the best will in the world will be poor. No one can get into a car and drive it shoting porn is harder than driving a car.

How well that will convert your members or sell to other paysites is anyones guess. The first year most people are learning how to cope with the shooting and do not develope a style or technique, so the content will look like every other newbie shooter on a limited budget and experience.

this is pretty much bang on. but talent costs are going up, we're getting more girls/pimps asking $900 and $1000 for b/g, and add $100 to that for the agent fee. For some reason it's the smaller talent guys who are asking this, the big agencies are still at $800 but these guys who pop up out of nowhere want more.
A good male performer is going to cost $300-400. Male talent prices are going up too.

Then there's all the time chewed up trying to book the girl and negotiate, phonecalls, emails, and the flakes - a flaked shoot is often unrecoverable, it's a lost day and $$$ you'll never get back.

This girl cost us a grand to shoot for somebody




A location rental is $300-500 a day if that's what somebody wants.

My guy Brian has spent $8,000 on camera equipment since January 1, I told him that's his problem not mine and that he spends too much on that shit but he says I wouldn't know ..... hehe.....i do know .... he spends too much on camera stuff.

Brian shoots pretty much solo girl, not much b/g.
He just sent me this a few days cuz he likes me to feel sorry for him. For the first quarter of 2004, Jan-May, here are the model/agent fees he paid - $42,736.00

My other guy Marco shoots alot of boy/girl video so his model/agent fees for the same period would be much more than that.

It's an expensive proposition. So please spare me the offers of $1,000 for an exclusive b/g movie.

all depends on what part of the country or world u r shooting, and what type of content.

$300 or more most of the time.

It's easy to just toss in a bunch of fees and say it would cost this much or that much. But in reality if a small time guy is going to do his own shoots he is going to make it cost effective.

The equipment is a moot point IMO as you have to have it if your going to shoot, it's just a fact of doing the biz. So there is no real way to save cost there. But things like office fees and studio fees, that can all be worked around. As that's what small successful biz people do, they save money and find a better way to do it, which fit's their pocket book.

You may pay the model $300-$500 but you will be getting several photo sets for that money, and it will be exclusive. If you figure out the price of buying all that exclusive content from a content supplier, my guess it would be double the price.

Now of course a professional operation will have major benefits over the smaller guy, but I think a smaller guy can compete if he plans everything right. If you figure the costs out, you have to figure it as buying exclusive content from the content provider. Because that's what the guy would be shooting for himself, so we aren't talking $30 photo sets.

I would 100% agree if you aren't after exclusive sets then a content supplier would be way cheaper. However not for exclusive sets, IMO if you need a lot of it, then it would be cheeper to shoot it youself.

crockett your biggest assumption is that any guy can pick up a camera, find good looking naked girls and start shooting decent porn he can sell.

Then he has to find one nice looking girl a week to hit my figure of 300 sets a year. I'm one of the most established guys in the business and I can't find that many.

Add to it costs of lawyers, insurance and then the bil goes up. Plus do you really think it's wise to let lots of pennyless girls walk through your home?

The small guy ends up with a site that looks absolutely no different from 1,000 others. But at least he's living his dream.

When shooting MOST of the costs are variable. Only the location and the equipment rent (if any) is fixed per day. If you're using an external photographer (i.e. not shoot it yourself), his fee could be daily too.

So you should generally try to shoot as many videos/photos per day as humanly possible. One model is not able to keep up but I have found through experience that 3 work best. So at the end of the day you can have 9-12 videos/sets. Divide by the total costs:

>3 Models
>1 photographer (could be you)
>top location/studio
>any additional equipment (lighting?)
>catering (I know most of you are cheap so you may skip this one)
....

It'll be 200-300 for most

yea, I know what you are saying, but a 300 shoot per year isn't exactly a small operation, that's shooting almost every day of the year. You just said in your first post shooting content for yourself. What I was talking about is a small time guy that is shooting content for his own sites. I didn't think you were talking about shooting content to sell.

If it was me and I was doing it, I would be shooting for a few small single girl sites, or something totally niche. I wouldn't try to compete with the mega sites with a 1,000 different girls. Those sites IMO for the most part suck anyway. I would find a few girls and work with them, I wouldn't be trying to pull in new girls every week.

I will agree a one man outfit could in no way compete with the larger content producers, in selling content. I was also just taking the guy being able to shoot as a given, if he couldn't this would be a useless debate.

How did you start out btw, were you on your own or did you start it up as a working biz with a few employe's?

why would anybody shoot content for anyone else? as a webmaster using exclusive content you should make more with your content than anyone will ever pay you for licenses.

and $1000 for a model? if her name isn't jenna jameson she better be lubing up every orifice for a midget fisting gangbang if she wants that kind of money.

Is this a pitch for let me shoot your content for you ? lol When my wife and I started our site 4 yrs ago , I had a cheap shit hp home use digital camera and two paint lights. We were free for the first year so it was school time . The first year we went pay we didnt touch that money and just put it back into the business upgrading equiptment and skills (classes, books) We are one of the more expensive in our niche and softcore, we do pretty good because our images our very very exclusive. The only place you can see them is on our site. Exclusive is what makes the surfer buy not some bought content that everyone and his brother has no matter how more cost effective it is . OH and by the way the first five g/g scenes we did we paid the models from $75 to nothing , they wanted the opportunity to sleep with my wife.

hey tony,

what's your site?

(i'd use the search but it seems to be disabled)

I am just wondering if so many webmasters go for the $300 why they always ask for an exclusive set at $50 ???

Lots. More than you think unless you are in the know. Pays off in the end if you are good, perverted, imaginative and mature business minded.

It's one thing to buy everything you need to shoot photos... its another thing all together to be a good photographer.

I have tried many times over the years to shoot decent photos of models and have given up. when you pay for good content, you also pay for good quality. it can be money well spent.

"I have a camera" does not necessarily mean "i consistently shoot great pics of cute models who i manage to bring the best out of everytime i shoot them"

"I bought a camera" does not mean "models enjoy working with me and feel comfortable with me thats why they are always smiling and happy and look very sexy and appealing in my photos"

Look at all the Russians and Ukrainians who "have cameras"... the models usually have a look on their face like they were just sentenced to 20 years of hard labor and are headed to the Gulag. Thats not quality "porn". Thats just a naked girl.