I Hate The Current State of the Porn Industry

[Easter Egg]

"Basically Tecnoligy f*CKED it up."

Actually, I believe it's quite the opposite.
It was the porn industry that initiated a lot of new technologies, or at least has been at the forefront of it. Interactivity, (streaming) videos, chatrooms, webcam technology, online payment options and subscriptions business models. All these things have become key issues to take the Internet as a promising and serious medium, not just for geeks and nerds.
Remember the times , say 1996-1998, when Internet started to take off for the mass? 90% of all money earned online was on behalf of the porn industry.
And the entire "decent" industry has been adapting all this stuff, fom Amazon to CNN.

Maybe we've been creating a monster ourselves, one that has grown to big and can't be controlled anymore.

About the digital video/DVD revolution. One way of thinking: Thank goodness that area is no longer exclusive to the guys who were already healthy wealthy bigshots back then. Thankfully one does not have to take a second mortgage to buy some equipment or rent an edit-suite to start in this business.

The downside of this "technology for all" is of course the fact that every moron these days can start from scratch at the fraction of the costs comparing with 10 years ago. Video-editing, dvd-production, online shops, adult premium rate pay sites. Hell, the little 13-year-old neighbour's son can do that. The technology is out there, and it seems like no-one cares about skills and experience, for the demanding market is out there also, eagerly waiting to spend their money.

In the case of porn, some parts of the industry can possibly blame themselves for the current situation.
The already etablished Prehistoric Big Shots probably killed their own industry and market, when they decided to put their back catalogue on DVD, (which could have been a good thing). But in most cases, these DVD's are made straight from a 20 year old Betacam masters or even worse. No remastering, manytimes even showing an incorrect tape tracking at the bottom of your screen.
You're right, they flooded the market with this crap. And were sold by truckloads.
So anyone who ever bought this crap maybe starts thinking: "If those guys like Metro/Cabalero can get away with this, perhaps I can do that myself, and also fulfill my needs for watching girls getting fucked in front of me and perhaps making some money too".
And the market gets flooded with more crap. "Gonzo movies" did have a meaning back in the days of Ben Dover. Today "Gonzo" is almost becoming equivalent for "crap". A real shame.

BUT REMEMBER: Good porn is made by people, not by technology! Made by those who are really involved in what they're doing, with passion and love for their work, and the experience in knowing what it takes to stand out above the rest.
And for the people on the lookout for a few and quick handful of money, in the end that's all they will get. That attitude won't pay off in the longer term.

And if you get a crappy performance from lousy East European actors (wanting to make a few quick bucks and don't bother, because it pays better than cleaning hotel rooms) in front of a cameraman (wanting to make a few quick bucks and also doesn't bother, he is just proud on his 1000 GBP DV-Cam and already believes he is Stanley Kubrick), with bad lightning and so on, and a self-proclaimed producer (also wanting to make a few quick bucks and doesn't bother, as long as he can tell some juicy stories on a family birthday party:" Yeah, I'm a Porn Producer"), well, believe me, no 50.000K equipment, let alone a home PC, will be able fix it in the editing or postproduction process. If it doesn't have soul and involvement in the first place, it won't be there either at the end when the DVD hit the shelves. Just play such a disc at home, and you can almost smell from a distance what the situation was like on the set).

But I am pretty convinced that consumers today are becoming more and more critical about, and demanding on the products they would like to spend their money on. And they're absolutely right in this matter. Why spend 30 pounds on a shitty DVD when the same money will buy you a perfectly mastered 2 disc special edition of a Hollywood blockbuster, or for even less?

My point is: the industry itself should seriously reconsider its position and responsibility for bringing out good quality products. Porn has become a very mature business, despite its image amongst the so-called decent citizens. Current technology and Internet should be embraced as new ways to reach your customers.
Porn has come out of the closet, which was labeled as Obscure, Filthy, Criminal and so on. Like all things in life (good or bad) it has emerged our lives because of TV, Satellite, Internet. This is 2004, like it or not.

And about our customers, I was at the Venus Berlin Trade Fair last year.
The Public Hall was jampacked with "sad, lonely guys who never had a girlfiend if they were even more unlucky they had a bitch for a wife who fucked them once in a blue moon lights out... wanted to get nearer to the actresess who they held up as gods"
And most of them were carrying digital cameras...

[Deuce Bigolo]

Aint that the truth

Without the internet I'd still be happily avoiding porn like I did for
20 years after buying/watching some sub-standard American drivel in the 80s

The internet brought information & a choice

The downside being the saturation factor.You need a team of experts to find the gems amongst all the produce being offered.

Too many reviewers have a conflict of interests I suspect

No substitute for quality & impartiality

cheers
B....OZ

[TerryXXX]

Wow - pretty much stating the bleeding obvious here. Nice one Phil - thank God for the sad lonely gits wanking in their semis in Morden. Now they've all got laptops for lapdancers - go to bukkakes for a ton and dump their loads over the nearest female. Whats the world cumming to? Gotta admit there doesn't seem to be lota style around - why not just do an English re-make of Behind the Green Door? Call it Round the back of the Conservatory.
xxx

[Holden MacGroyn]

I worry about you sometimes Reenie.

[mike,,hunt]

just a thought ,but do any of u think that the simple fact porn is in a piss poor state is because copyed dvd's from car bootsales are so cheap now not many folk buy the offical ones anymore .. i'm not saying it's the right thing to do but were i live u can buy 4 for a tenner ,,all new films, and are mint pic.. it's got to kill it in the end .. anyway i'm pisssed cya ................................................ohhh by the way i an't brought any honest guv..

[Holden MacGroyn]

That's absolutely disgusting.
It's that very reason that is killing the porn trade.
I mean why pay thru the nose for 45 minutes of overhyped pretentious shite when you can get 4 for a tenner down the boot sale.
Disgusting.
Tell me which boot sale and I shall go there and confiscate the lot.

Check how nobody has a sense of humour on this. It'll be like "Well would you find it funny if someone pirated the work you do" blah blah. Truth is, they do Pirate the stuff I'm in and to be honest, I don't care as caring wont stop it.

I find it odd that some porn people try to make their product sound better than some nasty skanky Gonzo effort and this in itself explains why it is so expensive.
Gimme a break.

[Officer Dibble]

"Skanky"? ?Skanky?? Hmm...yes...hmm...Yep, I like it. It truly seems to encapsulate the quintessential essence of banal, urban, porn. One can almost feel the grot coalescing in its vowels. Just let me try it out a bit more - Skanky, skanky, skanky... Skanky, skanky, skanky... Skanky gonzo! Wheyhey! I do believe he's nailed it!...Bottle of Moet for you Sir.

Officer Dibble

[Holden MacGroyn]

I don't drink.
But a crate of your finest porn delievered free of charge would be a fine vintage.

[videokim]

I agree with Phil on this one, in the 70's & early 80's people were just as happy with soft core as they are now hard core. Like fashions if a few people went back to this it would start a trend of its own as a lot of people find it far more sexier, i'm now filming a series of naughty amateur films which are just soft-core as a experiment which will be released as a 18cert.

Kim xxx

[Ben Dover]

Bloody hell Phil, I think you've just about summed it up. Well done Sir!!!