Dave Cummings - Maximizing Your Content Investment

These are the ones I use the most.

Using the fingers and counting her in 5.4.3 silent 2 and 1 and then point to her.
Raising/lowering an arm to tell the model to stand up or sit down.
Rotating the hand to tell her to turn over, turn around, change position.
Doing the fingers and thumbs opening and closing to indicate it's time to say something.
Zipping my mouth when she talks to much.
Raising my fist in the air to tell her to raise the tempo.
Doing a silent fake moan to indicate I want more noise from her.

Just tell them before what you want, it saves talking to them and editing out the sound of your voice. Only good when you're shooting a scene where the models are looking at the camera and you.

I always found talking to them stops them doing what they should be doing and sometimes they even reply "OK" which means you have to cut. She/he should have a good idea of what to do and you discuss everything before you start to shoot. It's not fool proof but it works better than nothing. Remember you're the man with the money and you're the one who has to sell the product.

Saw some DVD content with the shooter telling the model what to do and doing it so badly she was stopping what she was doing to listen to him and then nodding. About as sexy as watching paint dry.

Good stuff!!!

Thanks:-)

lot's of good advices, thanks again. there's tons more

Wow, great thread! Useful info on GFY - I am proud to have been a part of the catalyst for this exchange. Thanks for listening! If you want to advertise or be a guest contact me [email protected].

Cheers!

Lots of information for people getting into shooting content (and some useful info to veterans as well) here's a bump for a biz thread

great thread.

Hey Dave, thanks for coming on board with the interview. Seriously one of the best people I've worked with..

Professional porn shooters are never worried about sharing knowledge. They know that with the basic knowledge we inject our style and personality and the work looks different. But still appeals to the same people.

This post will stir it up I think.

The people who make the final decision on whether your content works or not are not affiliates, not even the serious affiliates who send up to 10,000 hits a day. It's the surfer who BUYS porn and not the surfer who looks at porn. Numbers of hits are no longer a good link to the number of sign ups.

If you produce cloned porn that has no individual personality and character why should anyone sign up? Tube sites are full of this stuff and these surfers might of had to buy a membership 4 years ago, now they don't. Yes what ever efforts you put into producing a great scene it can still be stolen. But better the surfer wants YOUR porn then any porn. Better that your porn has a theme and believable fantasy that is individual then the same porn that 100 other guys with cameras produce. When you have an individual product it's worth protecting.

So it's essential in todays market that you target a fantasy the BUYERS will spend money on, produce it with flair and have something that people are looking for. Then it's the choice of chasing it down on the free sites or buying it. Today to sell you need content people WANT to buy, rather than content to buy.

20 years ago when I started to shoot videos it was easy. Sit a girl on a sofa, tell her to strip, jerk off and cum. Repeat the same scene in the bedroom and bathroom and you had a tape to sell. Stick an advert in soft porn mags and a few other places. And it was easy to sell that video 100 times for $40 in the first 3 months. Over it's life time 300 sales were average. Yes $12,000 from a tape that cost 400 tops to produce and $2 each to duplicate and post.

Today it's a very different business and if your site is full of girls on a sofa or bed getting their rocks off and little else why should anyone buy? It's all over the Tubes. Sadly that was the way many in the business went, buying content on price, people with little preparation shooting content in the belief that all it needed to be was exclusive and the results are clear to see.

Unless you have content shot 20 years ago. That in itself can make it unique. LOL

Make your content individual to you and your site then it becomes worth buying. Maybe you have access to a fine lady like Lady Sonia or a similar star, maybe you have access to a farm, swimming pool, aircraft or woods near by. What ever can be done to make the content different. And that means every scene. 100 scenes of 100 girls going through the same routine can get a bit boring no matter what you do to spice it up. Unless you're shooting solo girl making sure she's real. Her personality can be enough to make the scene different from the last one.

Use your imagination, because you can bet the BUYERS are.

Of course it's hard, but the rewards are clear. People do not send traffic to sites that don't convert as well as others, owners of those sites can't afford to spend money on content and traffic like they used to. Because the final decision is made by the man with the credit card.

I think it's pretty well accepted that we are losing customers to Tubes. And it's not because they are free. Because if the people on the Tubes never spent money Tubes would disappear. The "Free Porn" is a smoke screen to hide the real reasons.

Tubes offer more choice.

So how can we compete when producing content?

With the girls, letting their personality take over the scene. So we have to make sure the members know who the girl is, what she likes and why she's doing this. It's hard and you have to explain to models it's not about opening their legs and revealing the crack. It's about opening their mind and revealing who THEY are.

Assuming who she is, is worth revealing!!!!

Bottom line is if she's just doing another faked cloned scene, the members will not want a second month of more girls doing the same.

Will read and learn. Need to leave for content. So far our non excluisve sales could be much better.

With the girls, letting their personality take over the scene. So we have to make sure the members know who the girl is, what she likes and why she's doing this. It's hard and you have to explain to models it's not about opening their legs and revealing the crack. It's about opening their mind and revealing who THEY are.



Very true. it is all about vibration on DNK level. If model fake any idiot will know becuase only mind makes him idiot but DNK knows all.

For all you Dave Cummings fans...

Come see him in person at Cybernet Expo and sit in on his workshop! Gaining from his knowledge is well beyond the price of admission. And hell... the ladies love him so there is no telling what might happen at one of the parties ;)

The man really knows how to captivate the audience!

http://www.cybernetexpo.com/seminars.html

June 27, 2009 -- 10:00am - 11:20am
Producing and Directing Adult Videos with Dave Cummings
Porn legend Dave Cummings is a producer, director and star in countless adult video productions, and a member of the AVN Hall of Fame. The oldest active porn star in the industry, Dave is an expert on producing, directing and distributing adult videos. In this incredible addition to the Cybernet Expo lineup, Dave Cummings will teach attendees how to produce and direct their own adult videos with minimal startup cost. Dave will discuss essential topics like what equipment you'll need, finding proper locations for shooting videos, how to find models and how to work with talent. This is your chance to learn from a legend about what it takes to produce quality adult videos on your own, so make sure to set your alarm and don't miss this incredible opportunity to learn from the best.

Instructor: Dave Cummings (DaveCummings.com)
Track: Intensive Training Series

Yes it's hard to get some models to reveal anything but a plastic porn character. Seen it loads of time the moment the camera starts rolling out comes this fake, plastic porn star persona. But I learned this a long time ago. If it's easy everyone does it and there's no money in it. If it's hard and you can crack it selling it is easier.

The biggest problem we have is so much of the content on the Net has little individuality and the buyer can get the same anywhere else. A site with 1,000 videos all similar comes down to a site with a similar video a 1,000 times. We need to give members more reason to sign up.

My way is just how I see it.

As for non exclusive sales could be better. Our sales are holding up, slumped and now steady.

I have a nightmare buying in content for the teen paysite. Most scenes I see are just a girl on a bed doing the same every other girl does and to be honest I think we got lazy because some of our content went that way. Contrary to the myth non exclusive was not saturated and still is not. If the myth had been true we could of afforded to shoot more inventive and scenes with personality. At the moment I'm unable to shoot, unable to do anything but post on the boards, CHEMO SUCKS IT OUT OF YOU. But it's going well and when I'm fit I will be shooting again.

The situation is then down to what the market will pay for a scene. Because like everything else you get what you pay for.

If you have any non exclusive scenes that are different to the normal content then you can hit me up. That goes for you and anyone else with non exclusive video teen scenes for sale.

It's non exclusive that saved us over the last year. If we had gone the route of shooting exclusive content for others we would of been sunk.

Sales are slow and it's strange when you think of it that sites are cutting back on the exclusive they buy and not even boosting their members areas with non exclusive. Maybe they've all moved to buying DVD content. But the solo and lesbian sites must find that tough to find.

Changing market.

And sorry for not posting more, had a few very bad days.