British industry

[RobD]

with the Brit industry getting bigger by the day do you think we will ever have an industry to match our European rivals, such as France, Italy or Germany?

Its of course unrealistic to expect us to ever match the size of the US industry, but I really think that in order to do better internationally the Brit industry has to a bit more innovative and original, so much Brit stuff is quite narrow in its audience, either going for a particular fetish or making the same ben dover gonzo stuff thats been going for years.

Don't get me wrong, Im a big fan of Gonzo and love the Marino/Omar/Ben Dover style but I don't think its ever going to compete with the likes of Rocco and Evil Angel as it really revels in its amateur nature, say what you want about USEvil angel/style porn but it really knows how to sell itself, hot, intense professionally filmed scenes with a consistently high level of hot female and male performers.

Iv gone off on a bit of a tangent I know and I could be wrong, what do you all think?

[videokim]

Brit Amateur is easily the best is the world so thats why quite a few of us still make it, if we lived in Spain / Europe it would be easier to make money than here because the UK suffers one of the biggest restrictions selling porn apart from various deeply religous countries where its banned altogether.
In Spain you can sell adult movies in any shop & yes we can't ask for the same price as here but the enormous market allows good profit.
When the goverment eases up in this country & allows producers to sell our films like they do in Europe & the US we will be happy to invest good money making glossy films, if we make a film that costs ?300 it still earns the same as the poor sods who have spent 10 times more so why bother at present.
Also without the Gonzo producers pushing the barriers in the first place porn would still be under the counter so we have a lot to thank these guys for.
We only have about 250 shops in the UK that can sell BBFC films so by the time we have shot a film, had it edited, artwork, duplication & high BBFC fee's we are already praying we can shift a few thousand just to break even. Its unfair to judge British porn with these countries until we get the same rights.

John

[RobD]

understand what your saying john but there has been some Brit international success, ben dover sells well and many girls have travelled abroad, do u not think the best way to expand is to go for the international market instead of just the home grown?

Totally agree with you about the restrictive laws though, I think they should be loosened but I don't really agree with selling hardcore porn in the streets where children can see it like they do in some places in Europe!

[joe king]

Is that ?1000 cost for BBFC certification and ?1 profit per dvd sold in sex shops?

[videokim]

Hi Joe

One of our films was 3 hours long & cost well over ?2000 to BBFC it so that was something we would never repeat again, profit is not good enough here in the UK for us to sell DVD's anymore when we can get a decent revenue from the internet. Even though you only get about 1.5 to 2 Euros (you make about 1 Euro) abroad you still earn better from DVD's out there because they can sell more & you ain't got mess about with BBFC & fancy packaging.

John

[one eyed jack]

Ha ha yeah Ding Dong...If we had pockets that deep to begin with we could follow the Blue Bird model. Thing is if I had pockets that deep I wouldnt even bother with porn. I would go mainstream features. One quality movie and spend the rest of the year travelling around the world promoting it and make a lot more money than porn ever would.

Porn and the internet has been the last refuge of the producer but the key is to quantity as well as the quality of it to the surfer for long term longevity.

Even though there are restrictions that limit the adult producer in the UK Rob D is right...the business could do with something fresh and exciting to the formula of porn. There are many ways to make this work outside of the point and shoot mode we are so familair with

The problem is too many people think its just porn so who cares? Others have great ideas but applying them to the mechanics of filming it and post production is that much more difficult especially if you are but one person doing it as it seems to be the case these days.

Unlike the rest of the world the UK seems to find it hard meeting each other over a table without resorting to fisticuffs and bitch fighting and thats the biggest restriction of all because without unity the authorities that impose those restrictions are free to do so without opposition ie VAT, BBFC Online etc (people spent more time bitching and moaning but how many people really got involved?)

The problem with this industry is that not enough people take it seriously enough and someof those who do take it serious dont really care about the integrity of their product and there are those who seem to be doing just fine on the strength of their product. Harmony, Relish, Killergram, Ben Dover, Kendo Films etc

Fetish seems to be on every studios agenda. have you noticed all the big studios seem to be doing foot fetish now. Once a genre does well everyone jumps on the bandwagon.

Whats the next fetish? Well might as well bring back the bush. Big, hairy growlers that you need to use a machete to get through the foliage to the pink hairy pussies....Yeti Porn!....Gonzo ? POV style!!!!!

Anyway thats a quick summary why the British Porn Business is resistant to change. There are exceptions to that rule every now and again but they end up falling off for a variety of reasons...usually lack of money when they realise porn wont make them millionaires over night.

[jimslip]

Personally I think the porn industry is in a steady decline throughout the World. I was having a drink with one of Italy's top directors a couple of weeks ago, who said the DVD market had collapsed over there. Many so called "Big" operations are running on borrowed money from investors, who don't know better and want to be part of the porn industry. Many of these people will get a big shock when the pot of money runs out.

BTW not all "Gonzo" is Bendover style. You should really say John Stagliano style since he in fact started the whole genre of following girls about with a camcorder, in the Buttman series, which I thought was rather good, while he concentrated on "Butts".

There is Gonzo out there, which has developed the idea on a bit and has moved on from the, "On The Buses" Reg Varney, "Wey, hey, hello missus" style.