We are not saying that these girls are not real people. Just that that part of them has no function whatsoever in our arousal. We want to see them be sexy and get us hard. To help us form an image of a sexual encounter we dream of.

I want Ryan Conner the porn star. Not Ryan Conner the "real person". And the best porn stars realize this and make us beleive in them -- whether it is fake or not.

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besides, gonzo ain't artificial? do you have a wife or g/f? if so, is your sex life "real?" i.e., "real" (as in not "artificial") like in gonzo flicks? do you poke her in the keester and then stick your manmeat in her mouth for a little yummy treat of shit-on-a-stick? do you inviite friends over and have everyone skewer her in every orifice at once? do you choke her and spit in her mouth during sex? it's all artificial, dude! that's the point. you suspend sexual disbelief. yu let yourself believe it's all real and the way things are and you let your dick get hard and you rub one out. it's called fantasy. and just cuz you call something a "feature" cuz you added some absurd story line with people sitting on a couch talking about being spies or running around being sexy vampires or whatever, just before they fuck each other's brains out, it's no more artificial then the gonzo stuff that includes more intense, extreme sex (cuz they ain't shooting a soft-version for that cable payday) than what's in those those silly, artificial features that try dress themselves with wannabee-a-real-movie trappings.

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But what do I know? I've been a fan of porn for a long time, but the more I find out about the inner workings of the sex industry, the less inclined I am to support it at all. I was actually happy to see Texas Presley leave after only a few videos. Better that than picking up a drug habit, and going into escorting after her short career is over.

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Living in a free society not only means we have the right to make bad choices for ourselves, we also have the right to make bad choices for other people . Even good-hearted people may sometimes be confronted with difficult decisons, not because of legal considerations, but because ethical ones; and many industries, professions, and trades find it useful to develop codes of conduct or ethical guidelines to help define behavior, that if not illegal, is a discredit to other people practicing the same craft. It's interesting to consider just what such a code might look like in an industry predicated on transgression.

RE: Reality v Myth

Even a Ken Burns documentary is more fake than it is real. Despite the fact that I use the word three times in our tagline, my core belief is it's a rather feeble word to describe dancing phosphors. (Perhaps in leaning on the word so heavily my ethics are compromised.)

A better word might be "authenticity", which I believe is determined through a dialog between the producer and the viewer, largely centered around the type and quanity of cognitive dissonance the viewer is willing to endure in order to be able to enjoy the producer's offering.

Sometimes this cognitive dissonance is merely a mild suspencion of disbelief on the part of the viewer, but the bargaining between pornographer and masturbator is usually more complex.

Edited by - TonyC on 1/3/2006 8:28:12 AM

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"there are many in this business, like myself, who believe quality, i.e., production value, non-shoddy work, and attention to the content, drives increased sales. there are also many, again like myself, who conduct themselves in an appropriate, professional, and business-like manner when dealing with talent. while this may have no direct bearing on sales, i, for one, enjoy being able to sleep at night with a clear conscience."

That is so "old school" of you Jimmy. Dontcha know that you have to take things to a "New level" nowadays? You have to create "cutting edge" product featuring performers that you've signed to "non-exclusive" contracts. You make porn for the History channel Jimmy D.

P.S. I agree that some BTS should be left on the cutting room floor. Jokingly I once asked a girl if she actually enjoyed sex or if she was in porn because she couldn't answer the bonus question on the GED test. Answer-"I hate sex with "these people". I'm saving to buy a condo". In the words of Davis St Hubbins -"Too much fucking perspective"

Quaze

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Pioneered by John Stagliano, and then fueled by the sudden availablity of cheap digital cameras and even cheaper talent, gonzo quickly rose to prominence in the porn world, virtually displacing features from the minds of dedicated hardcore porn consumers.

"It was fantastic," said Stephen Dollhair recalling the sudden flood of gonzo titles "There were dozens, even hundreds of titles featuring the beautiful young girls doing the nastiest things!"

And what was good for Dollhair and other masturbators was even better for pornographers. Gone were the days of scripts, locations, and other trapping of filmmaking.

"When you get down to it, making money in porn is about showing girls that you can't have doing things your wife thinks are disgusting." said Spike Gonzar, a director who made the transition from feature-style porn to gonzo in the mid-nineties "It turns out that all feature stuff did was slow us down and cost us money. Our core consumer didn't give a shit about it all, and it turns out most of them don't care much about framing, focus, or color-balance either."

Read the rest here.

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Edited by - jimmyd on 1/3/2006 12:57:43 PM

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It is cool when you can see something real though. I saw one where I think it was Arianna Jollee and Joel Lawrence get into it during a scene. They eventually got back to the action, but it was interesting to be a fly on the wall for that.

Another one sticks out in my mind is more humorous. It was some scene with Serena South, another girl, and some random wood life-support system. Anyway, the guy could not deliver a money shot. The girls had their faces together waiting while he struggled in vain. It was ruthless the way they kept showing him go off into a corner stroking furiously. There were kyrons about the fact that he couldn't do it. Some guy who was on the crew, and apparently has also done work stepped in and said he could produce the money shot no problem. Yep, he too couldn't do it. It was pitiful. They finally faked the shot because Serena had to leave.

Several years ago, there was a series called Venom that preceded BTS. It showed all the preparation, director talking to talent, etc. In one scene, Crystal Gold got very angry with TT Boy because he was being too rough with her. She told him that she wasn't a "boy". TT didn't like that at all. I think the director was Henri Pachard, who smoothed it over and they finished the scene.

I also like the interviews when they are more than the requisite "How old were you when....?" "Why did you get in the biz?", blah blah blah.

So, to the directors here keep doing them for those of us who appreciate them.

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