The impact of smartphones on the adult industry

[haiducii]

My friend gorgik9 asked a thought provoking question yesterday. "Everybody who has a modern smartphone at hand has the necessary equipment to produce porn anytime, and there are dozens of net porn sites where you can upload your "art work" - I mean this has actually already happened, but what does it mean for gay porn in the long run?"

I think we've got three-to-five years of this before the next big jump and changes in technology that allow for something new. The fact is that studio work is paying models less and less per scene and sites such as OF or JFF are finally putting models’ fates into their own hands. They don’t need studios to succeed anymore. And that power shift is certainly part of the future of porn.

I don't believe OF or JFF will take over or kill the porn industry. The reality is way more complicated than that, and involves a confluence of a whole bunch of factors. The traditional porn industry is not dying, it is only changing forms.

So, let's hear your thoughts what happens to gay porn when the line between porn consumers and porn producers get totally blurred and fuzzy.

Thanks.

 

[ILuv2rim]

amateur porn if done right..is alot better than acted porn..but still has a way to go to catch up with porn in studios..but what happens already is people get porn sex and reality sex is not same thing..alot of the guys have to move in positions for the cameras to get certain scenes..

if porn fading away bothers people that bad..then maybe watching too much of it

 

[ton]

I think nobody can predict how the industry changes. If something is new, people tend to use the new media and then they get bored and the hype is over. I think when l!vejasm!n and ch@turb@te were new it was all the hype, and more recently we saw 0nlyf@ns and ju$tf0rf@ns coming up with some really new content because it came from amateurs. Some of them started with really cool stuff. But now it seems everybody is jumping on the train, with all the negative bits that come with the hype: repeatable content, more and more of the same boring stuff, ripoffs like pay-per-view etc. I think a lot of 0nlyf@s stuff is crap, and I would not pay for it, especially because you usually get no previews. I don't want to say that studio porn is better all the time, but some studios actually care about good lightning, good camera angles etc. I would rather pay for that than for somebody who asks me to pay for his homemade stuff. This is why I think the studios will survive. It makes a difference how models are *presented* in a porn scene, some studios are good, others are bad. With so much porn available, I think that quality studios will survive. On the other hand the market is probably big enough that also many forms of porn can coexist at the same time.

 

[gorgik9]

It's certainly more difficult to forecast the future than to forecast the weather, but you can always reflect upon what is changing - or not.

First of all, changes do happen and sometimes pretty fast: when gay porn production changed from using film as production technology to video cassettes for production (and not just for the distribution of porn produced on film) the result became a profound change in the period 1982-86. In the film era the typical porn studio made about 4-6 flicks per year, but when video came along the annual production became 25-35 films.

A few years into the new millennium when "everybody" had fairly fast internet connections, the porn studios made net streaming the default mode of distribution, so you had to subscribe to the studio sites to get to watch the newest porn. But there were other important changes at the same time - the times of feature length gay porn was basically over and 20-30 minutes long episodes became the new standard format.

As I understand it, the important new thing about smartphones is that you ALWAYS have a camera at hand and can make both photos and short videos - so you can make your own porn if you like. Anytime, anywhere.

We see the results on pornsites where anyone can upload their own productions: Thousands of short vids (typically 30 sec to a few minutes) of horny boys jerking off or wanking someone else or giving a BJ or getting blown. It's obviously the case that lots of young men really like to make short videos of themselves wanking.

I'm not having any argument if this is good or bad - I just want to think about what this could mean for gay porn in the long run.

And on top of the technical possibilities for anyone to make your own porn, you can try to sell your own production using subscription sites like OF and JFF. But this option to make money on you own porn is just the second level - the first level is that anyone who consumes gay porn can also become a producer of gay porn. Using the same phone you have in your pocket anyway, always.

I think there's a lot more to be said laters in later posts.

 

[Mardo]

The distinction between self employed model vs studio model is obviously irrelevant!



Why?

Because a much better distinction is between lazy versus non-lazy porn.


IMHO alot of 'self-employed' porn stars are falling into the trap of easy or lazy porn. Whip out your smartphone and make a blurry, dull, predictable scene or clip or series of clips "whatever!"

The masters of porn will always be those who have standards, and who will scrap bad scenes if they fall short, and who care about their work with a passion.

IMHO G D-u-r-0-y of BA is the true master. BA really keeps to a high standard. CONSISTENTLY! Result? Great porn, plenty of it, and well deserved high profits.

So while OF and the like are a diversion, something new-fangled, etc. the bulk of it is rather lazy and inconsistent.

End of the day: choose great, consistently and passionately good studio porn, or choose genuine not-for-profit amateurs. Both produce their own kind of magic.

The self-employed amateurs fall short... so far! Let's see how the trend (fad?) progresses.

 

[Mardo]

It's certainly more difficult to forecast the future than to forecast the weather, but you can always reflect upon what is changing - or not.

First of all, changes do happen and sometimes pretty fast: when gay porn production changed from using film as production technology to video cassettes for production (and not just for the distribution of porn produced on film) the result became a profound change in the period 1982-86. In the film era the typical porn studio made about 4-6 flicks per year, but when video came along the annual production became 25-35 films.

A few years into the new millennium when "everybody" had fairly fast internet connections, the porn studios made net streaming the default mode of distribution, so you had to subscribe to the studio sites to get to watch the newest porn. But there were other important changes at the same time - the times of feature length gay porn was basically over and 20-30 minutes long episodes became the new standard format.

As I understand it, the important new thing about smartphones is that you ALWAYS have a camera at hand and can make both photos and short videos - so you can make your own porn if you like. Anytime, anywhere.

We see the results on pornsites where anyone can upload their own productions: Thousands of short vids (typically 30 sec to a few minutes) of horny boys jerking off or wanking someone else or giving a BJ or getting blown. It's obviously the case that lots of young men really like to make short videos of themselves wanking.

I'm not having any argument if this is good or bad - I just want to think about what this could mean for gay porn in the long run.

And on top of the technical possibilities for anyone to make your own porn, you can try to sell your own production using subscription sites like OF and JFF. But this option to make money on you own porn is just the second level - the first level is that anyone who consumes gay porn can also become a producer of gay porn. Using the same phone you have in your pocket anyway, always.

I think there's a lot more to be said laters in later posts.

"what this could mean for gay porn in the long run"

Hmmm

A thought: what can be learned from straight porn producers?

I often think that guys involved in straight porn who then or also produce gay porn, produce better gay porn as a result. Example: look at the CH scenes where the producer/top is D R€€d or R0sta B€n€cky -much better that the crap produced by the gay tops.

Just a thought, for the open minded!

 

[Mardo]

Final thought.... variety is the spice of life.

I am skeptical of OF an the like, but I recently subscribed to a OF model, who while his porn was not all that great, did rescue a desperate kitten from outside his apartments in Poland, who had an infected eye, he crowd-funded via OF to pay for amputation of the eye (expensive procedure as kittens do not qualify for free health care in any country!) and soon the kitten was so happy to be cured with one perfectly healthy eye being more than enough!

So, you can always depend on the kindness of strangers.... even porn stars in the former Soviet bloc. )

 

[slimjim]

An interesting topic for sure. I think as with most innovations there have been positives and negatives. There is certainly a lot more of it about but has quantity been at the cost of quality?

The easy access to equipment and hosting sites has opened the door to many who wish to either just make a few extra £, $, € or those who are looking to get into the industry as a career but maybe don’t live in the bigger towns/cities where the studios are based, or in countries where such industries are non-existent - or even banned. Breaking into the business can be done this way, look at C@llum & C0le for example and HungY0ungBr1t. From the consumers side there are advantages, if we take an account on one of the forfans site we get to see just who we want, whereas with the studios if we want to see the 4 or 5 boys we want to watch we end up paying for the 25+ models we don’t like and will never watch and of course on the cam sites (maybe the forfan sites too?) the payee can specifically request the models to act out their hearts desire.

It is interesting that some major studio performers have gone the other way and have started their own accounts on the forfans sites etc. There could be several reasons that prompted this move, maybe they see it as a better income stream or prefer having control over workload/filming schedule/partners or maybe a fallout with the studio over contracts.

The downside for me personally with much of the “self produced” content is the fixed camera position, 20mins+ with no change of angle/close-ups doesn’t do it for me and understandably some cannot match the quality levels of the studios. One of the positives is the fresh ideas they can bring, take HungY0ungBr1t for example in terms of locations and cast members and scenario there is a heck of a lot of variation – George’s flat; a mates bedroom; back seat of cars; local woods; a caravan; in a gay club; outdoors in a park and even infamously in a London tube train. That’s not to say the studios don’t do variation but not as much. There is a top floor apartment (I guess in Prague) you know the one – cream/off white painted walls; sloping ceilings and oak beams that has been used dozens of times by B0yfun and over at St@xus model J0el Tam1r has now done 49 scenes with them! IMHO he’s a good looking boi and a good performer but 49 appearances! Happily they continue to recruit new performers too. I also note that BA have recently recruited some 18yr old twinkie boys instead of their more usual guys, maybe coincidence though.

So if the arrival of the new kids on the block means that the established studios decide to innovate and up their game to keep one step ahead then that can only be a good thing.
....................
Though nothing to do with the porn industry one of the unpleasant effects of the new tech has been on privacy and in particular how much easier it has made it for those who wish to engage in so-called revenge porn. It has been around for some time but incidences of it being posted on line increase.

 

[gorgik9]

I think that the tendency to mainly compare "smartphone-produced porn" and other kinds of self-produced porn with the conventional studio productions doesn't really point us towards what is new and different.

I mean studio productions will necessarily have higher production values than the self-productions made by a single 19 year-old bigdicked horndog and the benefit of professionals handling the technical equipment which single horndog productions hasn't.

But this doesn't strike me as fair comparisons...

Just let me look at two examples of types of self-productions that truly could compete and do something different from the usual studio fare:

1) Erotic intensity - I've seen quite a lot of videos from and by young guys wanking their own puddin' in front of the camera, moaning and groaning until they're showered by a fountain of produced by themselves. This is porn videos as simple as they come - but when it comes to serious erotic intensity, my opinion is that three times out of four the simple self-production will win over the expensive studio production.

2) Unusual special talents: some porn self-producers have "special talents" which usually won't get the focus it deserves in most studio production. Let me point to two young porn talents named F3lix J0nes and Ab1ga3l Sanch3z; both have spectacularly big dicks (young F3lix in particular) and both are fantastic selfsuckers.

Of course you sometimes have studio productions with actors sucking their own meat - but VERY few are as good at it as my two examples, and studio productions usually don't focus on selfsucking the way that OF videos by F3elix and Ab1ga3l does.

 

[Mardo]

The cameras on many high-end smartphones today are far superior to the cameras being used by studio porn producers even 10 years ago.

Amateurs literally have all the equipment they need to hand.... as in a camera in one and a nice young cock in the other. )

 

[slimjim]

If you are fortunate then you can make a good living from self produced product.

In a recent interview with R3no G0ld he said that one of his biggest fears was getting older in the sex industry and with that in mind, he was making plans for the future “I’m investing in real estate and renting them out,” he explains. “So far, I’ve purchased five properties, all in cash.” He plans to exit the business in six years, when he’s 30. “I want to have enough properties under my belt and just manage them and live off of that.”

But while he is working for his future he is also generous. He recently pledged (via video) to donate 100% of his 0nlyF@ns earnings from December 1-7th to the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and he fulfilled that commitment. He raised over $27,000 from new subscriptions ($20,750+) messages ($4700+) tips ($1600+) and referrals and donated the funds as promised.

$27,000 in a week.

 

[gorgik9]

If you are fortunate then you can make a good living from self produced product.

In a recent interview with R3no G0ld he said that one of his biggest fears was getting older in the sex industry and with that in mind, he was making plans for the future “I’m investing in real estate and renting them out,” he explains. “So far, I’ve purchased five properties, all in cash.” He plans to exit the business in six years, when he’s 30. “I want to have enough properties under my belt and just manage them and live off of that.”

But while he is working for his future he is also generous. He recently pledged (via video) to donate 100% of his 0nlyF@ns earnings from December 1-7th to the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and he fulfilled that commitment. He raised over $27,000 from new subscriptions ($20,750+) messages ($4700+) tips ($1600+) and referrals and donated the funds as promised.

$27,000 in a week.

It's my definite impression that R3no G0ld is a lot more than a cute face and a very sexy body; he cares about others than himself and he seems to be very open and easy to get in touch with.

But of course he's also a serious exhibitionist with a pretty big dick, a foot fetishist (hello, haiducii ) and a guy who's able to suck himself off. (I've got a video showing his self sucking abilities...)

 

[dragonscub]

The "new guys" and amateurs producing smart-phone porn for JFF and OF can be interesting and hot, but a lot of it really is terrible (the biggest irony of "4K HDTV Phone Cameras" is they mostly spit out porn that looks like it was shot thru vaseline with a 1994 VHS-C camcorder). And as others have previously said, while the solos are often quite excellent anything involving two guys having sex tends to be a crushing disappointment: one or two angles only, both poorly chosen (writhing on a bed from fifteen feet away so you can't even tell who they are, or so suffocatingly close it looks like a medical doentary).

The most disturbing aspect for me this past year has been the trend of professional, known porn stars to migrate away from studios into mostly (or worse, exclusively) OF and JFF production. Most of it has been a complete waste of time, with inexcusably poor results (a pro porn god should at least know how to lock focus on their phone and light themselves properly). Big black circles under the eyes and steroid acne head to toe is not erotic. Blurry sex obscured in shadows from a far distance is not gonna get anyone off.

I know there's a widespread fetish for "realism" and amateur-style porn that exploded with the popularity of Chaturbate, but if this OF/JFF format becomes the new majority standard and studio porn vanishes I'd rather dig out my old VHS tapes and Falcon/Titan/Raging Stallion dvds. The big negative for me with the porn pros who have jumped to OF/JFF is that they're putting out videos that are worse quality than Chaturbate live streams: I want to actually see your handsome face, nice cock and pecs (instead of a murky tan blur where I can't distinguish your nipples from your eyes).

If we're lucky, a lot of this OF/JFF takeover was just performers adapting to the pandemic restrictions shutting down studio work. Maybe by summer or fall things will ease up and studios will get back in action. Its more fun to have a variety of studio and OF/JFF porn to choose from.