A little gem for those shooting good porn.

[Paul Markham]

A little gem for those shooting good porn.

"Shooting good porn is about getting a model to convince the viewer she is what you say she is and not another paid model."

This is the tough part of porn and why many good photographers can't crack porn.

Amateur. = Person who looks like they are doing it for the fun of it.
Teens. = Person who looks like they are under 20.
Milf. = Person who looks like they are 35 plus.
ETC.

Setting, clothing, props, etc will help a lot so getting that right is required.

The essential part of good porn today is when the shooter says action, the model does what the customer needs and is willing to pay for. If she looks like another paid model doing another paid scene, customers will spot this and lose interest.

If she looks like she's having a ton of fun and totally into it, his cock will know and react. Then you have a chance of getting money out of the customer.

After the model's is performing right, capturing it comes into play.

Teaching someone to "seduce" models into stop working and start playing it for real is the toughest part of a pornographers job.

[SpicyM]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

Teaching someone to "seduce" models into stop working and start playing it for real is the toughest part of a pornographers job.

I fully agree with this.

That is the biggest problem of most porn scenes nowadays. They look fake.

[CyberHustler]

Thanks for the advice.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by SpicyM

I fully agree with this.

That is the biggest problem of most porn scenes nowadays. They look fake.

It's sometimes very tough to get a girl to act naturally, even new ones come in with a "porn" character. And sometimes it's very easy. And some times the last thing you want is for them to be natural.

[Va2k]

Amen brother Paul!! Couldn't agree more.

[Paul Markham]

So how did I resolve the situation?

Contrary to a few dick heads here thinking, I never had a problem "seducing" a girl. Either into bed or into being a good model.

Castings. No fucking around on phones and booking girls unseen for a days work. I had work for girls who brought IDs and said so. On the interview I was courteous, pleasant, glad to see them and set the pace. I established a nice guy who knew what he was doing and made the decisions.

I asked the girl if they had worked and interviewed those who had from there. Those who hadn't I told them I would describe all the work available and went from topless to gang bang hard core in stages judging the girls reactions to every level. This is the key. If a girl will waltz into Playboy or Barely Legal, I left it at that. If she needed to do gang bangs in every orifice I went there. With some cute broad minded ones I did venture a bit further than her minimum of what she needed to do.

Then I asked her what she would do and told her she could make money of not with that, if not I left it to her to change her minimum. When I knew what she wanted to do, I asked her more questions, in a pleasant way.

Solo girl = No problems doing some nude shots.
GG = Have you ever had sex with a girls. If not would she like to try it now with my assistant.
BG = Can you fuck when you're told to? Ask her to prove it now.

All the time testing their reactions, watching their body language, eyes and making a decision about her and how I should handle directing her in the studio. Then to the studio for test pictures and confirming she's worth working with.

TBH this was taught to me many many moons ago, when we were shooting movies on film. It was expensive to shoot a girl who was unsuitable or a waste of time or a bundle of trouble. When you've spent $150 on make up, $200 on the boy or more on a girl for her partner, clothing, film for a camera. You need to know if the girl can perform.

In todays market of digital cameras, little costs and an outlet for filler content, few need to bother. Back in the day when we made $3,000 a set we also were spending $300 a set and had to find someone to buy it. Plus wait for our money.

Even with Astral Blue I had many mail order clients for years who bought on previous satisfaction. Spending $30 for an hour of video. today they spend $30 and get 100s of hours.

[Captain Kawaii]

Originally Posted by SpicyM

I fully agree with this.

That is the biggest problem of most porn scenes nowadays. They look fake.

I agree, most valley type porn especially is just dead ass boring cause it is so fake. It seems to be made by and for guys obsessed with big cocks.

Personally I am obsessed with pussy.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by Captain Kawaii

I agree, most valley type porn especially is just dead ass boring cause it is so fake. It seems to be made by and for guys obsessed with big cocks.

Personally I am obsessed with pussy.

It filled a need. A lot of the porn you're talking about had Cable and Softcore as it's main market.

What you must consider is when a person walked into a porn shop he had a vast selection of titles, niches and styles to choose from. Anyone who had visited the Berlin or LV porn shows would of seen the different people vying for porn shops sales. The shops had limited shelf space, they only stocked fast moving stock. Sales were based on reputation and customers satisfied with previous buys.

To shoot a Vivid style video back in the good times, would cost $25,000 and up. Editing took a week or more. Packaging, duplicating, delivery and profit. All for a 5 scene video tape or DVD. So your tastes are obviously not like mainstream porn buyers.

Private used to fly crews and equipment to Bali, Thailand, Philippines, etc. Can you imagine the cost of those?

A Buttman/Ben Dover Gonzo scene cost a lot less. $500 to $2,000 for a top girl and then travel and expenses. Still cost money to get it onto the shelves and shops didn't stock slow sellers.

The illusion that "Amateur" fans were not being satisfied, is because online companies could largely only afford to shoot amateur. The ones that stepped up to the higher level rarely did badly. Today little has changed few can afford to get great content.

I hate fake amateur as much as fake porn valley. At least I know porn valley does it for a reason. Amateur shooters do it because they don't have the skills to get a girl to be natural or be a good character in front of the camera. It's easy to spot and being a shooter I can make a good guess why she thinks the guy is a dick head or a perv. Because she's a good judge of character.

[epitome]

Paul you should spend some time on Tumblr to see what is popular today because it is different than what was popular around the time your career fizzled out.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by epitome

Paul you should spend some time on Tumblr to see what is popular today because it is different than what was popular around the time your career fizzled out.

Yes things change, but there's no truth in the claim that porn valley only could produce the fake porn many think. The video market was very broad, if you had been to a porn video/DVD show you would know.

Look at your sector of porn. Are you making the money that Corbin Fisher is? I'm a bit ignorant in their sector of gay and just assuming they make decent money. Yet the model applies to many examples. DVTimes and us for instance.

The money is in producing what others can't and still has a market. We could shoot sets to sell to magazines, from the stores and lastly the paysites. They were the smallest part of the business because of the saturation of teen sites online we never chased it hard.

Few online shooters could sell to magazines, simply not good enough or couldn't afford to wait 6 months to get paid. They also didn't sell to the DVD markets, lie we did.

Few had stores that stayed open.

Tons shot for sites, for peanuts.

They didn't make the money we made with out "small" market.

Your site looks like cheap Russian teens content. Can you afford to shoot the Corbin Fisher end of the gay market? I will assume no. Their sector is less saturated, so less popular is balanced by less supply = more money for them.

Your end is over saturated, so more popular is balanced by over supply = Less money for you.

Start shooting stuff others can't shoot, the better end, and make more money.

My career never fizzled out. I ended it. But still making money. https://gfy.com/showpost.php?p=19237483&postcount=63

Not a lot, but 4+ years of doing very little has it's toil.

[Paul Markham]

So now that ipitom has gone. Back to getting the most out of a model. Because without that, you'll never shoot good porn.

From the beginning you've established you know what you're doing, you're a professional and you're in charge. Lead the model to where you need them, give them the instructions and do all this with a smile. Don't let them dominate or you'll lose their respect. Tell them what will happen today, how it will happen, get their confirmation all is fine.

Before they arrive everything is set and ready. You have double checked everything. Check the lighting, use a light meter, shoot a test shot, shoot ID shots. Then start the shoot. Shooting stills first allows you to establish a great rapport with them. Direct them as much or as little as required, joke tease, cheeky, flirt and flatter was my way, others used a different way, charm, sexuality, craziness to get the most out of models.

Have in your laptop a slide show of all the poses you want when shooting stills. Cover all the positions you want in the video, tell the models that is required in the video.

IMO this is essential for good solo girl work as it builds a bond between shooter and model, so when they look into the camera, they are in fact looking at the shooter as a buddy. Even with couples work it's best as it establishes the shooter as a good guy in charge.

Short break and into the video. Essentially doing the same. If it's starting to go wrong, stop and start again. From the beginning or from a cut. Such as a zoom in on tits, ass or pussy in the position you cut then SLOWLY zoom out. Never let a bad scene carry on, 9 times out of 10 it will get worse.

Don't move around too much, don't zoom in and out too much and do it slowly. Make sure you know all the angles you want, all the shots and be aware of any problems you might encounter. Like a bedstead getting in the way or too little room for the model or shooter. there are so many things that can go wrong, a shooters job is to be prepared. Like Baby Wipes ready for her pussy. Just in case.

The degree of control has to be adjusted to the model and style. A great model who loves shagging herself with a huge dildo during an amateur movie needs less direction that a crap model doing a Penthouse shoot. Still even Amateur style needs the shooter to give directions to a model who doesn't know what to do.

A tip if you want close ups. Don't only zoom in. shoot the scene through, then afterwards shoot the close ups separately and lay the visual with no audio over the full scene relevant part and leaving the original audio.

Have breaks between set and video, breaks between scenes. Cup of tea, coffee orange juice, smoke. what ever. And if you have staff, sit and talk with the models about the previous scene and then the next one. While the staff move lights around, then off to check and tell models to get ready.

Anyone can point and shoot, that end of the business is flooded. rise above it, the airs great and money better.