Pornmaster Mike Senior Member
 32DDD 1462 Posts 8/02
| Posted - Aug 22 2003 : 2:29PMA friend of mine suggested the other day that I start my own porn company. I kinda laughed it off and thought nothing of it at the time. But lately I've been thinking that I really could do it, AND make some good money. So, my question is why don't more people make porn? Is it the stigma of being associated as a worker in the sex industry and therefore being a "social outcast"? - Pornmaster Mike, hoping for a Dani Woodward/Penny Flame sandwich! www.adultdv-depot.com [Link] |
cobalt60 Knuckle Dragger
2046 Posts 2/03
| Posted - Aug 22 2003 : 2:48PM
There are legal issues, first of all, which means finding and paying a lawyer. You'll want to protect yourself from having your material ripped off, make sure you don't sell to communities where your product is deemed illegal as interpreted by whatever vague standards some judge thinks is obscene on any given day, make sure both you and your performers have standard waivers and agreements in place as to what is expected for what amounts of money (and what and where and how you intend to distribute said material).Dude, I could go on and on. I've looked into this myself. I am not producing porn. That tell you anything? But don't let me scare you off! If it's your dream you'll find a way to make it happen. Just make sure you don't get fucked in the figurative sense as opposed to the literal. Why don't you start a thread here and document the building of your porn empire from the ground up? Like "Today I met with a lawyer and we formed an LLC to handle ownership of my material." And go from there. I for one promise to follow along avidly.  [Link] |
Kimi Lixx Senior Member
2012 Posts 6/01
| Posted - Aug 22 2003 : 3:30PM
I've thought of it myself, too. I thought, hey, I have my first model/performer and a decent photographer - what could go wrong. Then, like cobalt, I started checking into what ELSE was needed.I'm not running my own porn company, either.  [Link] |
Hardware  All-Star Member
Your other left 14595 Posts 3/02
| Posted - Aug 22 2003 : 3:41PM
I understand that the main problem is dealing with the distributors, who are very slow to pay you back for product, and that assumes they'll deal with you in the first place. [Link] |
SyberScott Senior Member
1462 Posts 1/03
| Posted - Aug 22 2003 : 6:53PM
MONEY Son! Need a strong financial base for the startup. You're going to have to pay everyone from the directors, performers, cameramen, lighting crew, makeup artists, lawyers, tax accountants, etc. unless you plan on doing it all yourself. Then later on more financial resources needed for marketing, advertising, sales, promotion, DVD/VHS duplication, nationwide/worldwide distribution of each of your products (movies). Maybe Dion, Tricia, Constance, or Tom Byron can answer this question better for us.  [Link] |
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AlexPanzer Deactivated User
1593 Posts 6/03
| Posted - Aug 23 2003 : 3:46AM
Mike, if you really want to do it and if it is your dream then go for it. But like everyone else said, there is a huge capital to be invested in your thing. [Link] |
oreb Member
92 Posts 6/03
| Posted - Aug 23 2003 : 1:11PM
This is a great question, as everyone probably has thought of starting a porn company. An added question might be what percentage of a porn studio's profit actually comes from brick and mortar stores. It seems like you could avoid a lot of problems with obscenity laws by distributing products to online shops only. Another thought is the cost of equipment, I imagine a good digital or video recorder is very expensive, and I know for a fact that shooting on film is expensive. Good luck. [Link] |
tricia_devereaux Evil Angel DVD
Patience is a virtue, but who wants to be virtuous? 4283 Posts 4/00
| Posted - Aug 23 2003 : 2:45PM
In addition to everything that SyberScott and some others have said:it's not just about money and the business end of it, although even a talented director with a crappy business model would most likely sink in the sea of porn being sold today. Having just the right equipment isn't enough either. It's having an eye for finding the right performers, how to shoot them, finding a good editor (which is REALLY difficult in the porn business)... If you truly believe that you have most of these things available to you, then I sincerely wish you the best of luck.  [Link] |
Porn Scout Deactivated User
3735 Posts 10/02
| Posted - Aug 23 2003 : 6:03PM
I would start by taking some classes on the basics - camerawork, editing, DVD authoring, etc., - in order to build up a foundation of technical knowledge and expertise and to ensure that I could at least speak the language. Then, once I had that, I would try and get a job in the industry in some fashion that would allow me to learn how the business operates and to start building a network of acquaintances in the industry. I wouldn't want to go into it not knowing anybody. I would also try to talk to people who worked for companies that failed to figure out what those companies did wrong. Then, once I had a chance to get my feet wet and felt like I knew what I was doing, at that point I would start writing my business plan. Another way to go about it, if you have the capital to start with, is to find a partner that already knows all that stuff and that has experience in the industry. The problem with that, of course, is 1) finding someone you can trust and 2) finding someone that has both business expertise and porn expertise. I think there are many good pornographers out there and many good businessmen, but not many people that are both.  [Link] |
PornBoy Deactivated User
642 Posts 2/00
| Posted - Aug 23 2003 : 8:14PM
So how the fuck does Ed Powers stay afloat? [Link] |
Hamilton Steele Member
62 Posts 12/02
| Posted - Aug 23 2003 : 8:54PM
Hey Pornmaster Mike,This may come as a surprise but making porn is both difficult and easy at the same time. Allow me to explain. Porn is easy to make, in fact it's so easy to make that it might disgust you how easy it is. In order to become a successful pornographer you only need the following. 1) Some sort of skill as either a webmaster, editor or salesperson. 2) You require the following: some Home Depot Lights (apx cost $100 for a full set) A 3 chip digital camera ($1,000 used - $2,500 new) A 3.5 mega pixel or greater camera for stills ($350 +) Video Editing software ($500 or a good cracked version) Thats the basics, you might want A DVD burner Adobe Photoshop to design graphics 3) APX. $5,000 to $10,000 for Talent. Now all you have to do is film the sex, grab some stills, slap together the video sequences and either 1) Create an amature and reality based website 2) Sell the footage to a video production company 3) Shop the various distributors and see who will give you the best deal. (Like Dave Pounder) Now I might be wrong but it appears to me that independants and people in BumFuck no-where do this regularly. I think it's a safe opinion to assume that all you need to get started is about $15,000 usd. On the other hand making porn is hard. 1) If you want to mass-distrubute or self-distribute all over the United States. (In the former distributors want proven products that sell and in the later you have to worry about re-producing product, carrying stock and community standards) 2) You are located outside of Porn Valley California. IE: Canada.. (Much harder to find Talent or people that don't believe you are a real pornographer because your video camera isn't an old 200lbs beta cam) 3) Competition from the indpendents and other companies drive you prices down to the point where you barely make $0.25 per copy 4) Piracy 5) Being part of the porn community. (EG. Like a fart in a room, when one company or high profile person acts like an asshole, we all get hit with the stink.) 6) Talent, Directors, etc are always finding ways to rip you off. Naturally I could add more to the above lists but I think I gave the general drift about creating porn. Hamilton PS> Perverts, Swingers, Escorts and Pornstars. There's real life sex going on in my yahoo group. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SteeleEntertainment  [Link] |
Pornmaster Mike Senior Member
32DDD 1462 Posts 8/02
| Posted - Aug 25 2003 : 4:02PM
hey guys! thanks for all the posts - much appreciated! ;)it's great to hear from the industry alum too - tricia, kimi, hamilton - thanks! for the record, I'm not very serious about it - it was just an idea that i thought i'd look into. but if i DID do it i would make sure I didn't do it half-assed - thats why i am looking into it - does that make sense? pornboy raises a good point - how the fuck DOES ed powers stay afloat? or dave pounder for that matter! so the number one problem i would think is money. so how would one obtain all this money? investors i assume? i sure as hell don't have the cash hehehehe - Pornmaster Mike, hoping for a Dani Woodward/Penny Flame sandwich! www.adultdv-depot.com  [Link] |