The latest video from Lucas Entertainment, Encounters: The Point of No Return, includes an innovative new audio feature. Consumers have the option of turning off the background music without shutting off the groans and moans. For those that want to keep nosy roommates in the dark, there’s also an option for music only.

According to Lucas Entertainment Publicity Director Heather Reznor, it was their Artistic Director Tony Dimarco’s idea. Michael Lucas told InGayPorn in an exclusive interview, “It is no surprise to me that Tony Dimarco added this great new feature to Encounters: The Point of No Return. He always thinks of new ways to make Lucas Entertainment productions more impressive each time. Personally, I don’t like music in my porn. But I understand that it can enhance mood. I like that people can get more of what they want with more choices when watching our movie.”

The studio claims that, to the best of their knowledge, no one else in the industry is offering this feature to their customers.

This is one of many articles I’ll post for those of you interested in producing your own content. My focus will be more on working with the models and equipment, than dealing with the legal (2257) stuff.

NOTE: This article assumes you are using Windows XP.

After you have finished shooting a video, it needs to be transferred to a computer for editing and production. A fast computer with a good video card and lots of RAM are a must have. Otherwise the best you can hope for is a miserable experience. You also need lots of contiguous hard disk space. Video does not like being scattered all over the place on a drive. Ideal is to have a separate drive dedicated to video production, and run the defrag utility on it regularly.

A special video capture card is needed to receive video from the camera. If you are shooting with 8mm, Hi-8, VHS, or S-VHS, you will need an analog video capture card. This card converts the analog video to digital as it is being transferred to the computer. There will be some unavoidable degradation of video quality during the transfer. If you are shooting with a digital video (DV) camera or mini-DV camera you will need an IEEE 1394 capture card. With this combination you’ll enjoy the highest-quality video that is possible with a consumer video camera. You can transfer digital video through an analog card, but there will be some loss of video quality. External capture devises are also available that connect via USB2 or FireWire. Video capturing hardware pricing starts at around $50. Packages are also available that bundle the required hardware with video editing software.

Software is needed for the transfer, editing, and final creation of your videos. Microsoft Movie Maker is a good software package, but its features are limited. On a properly configured computer it works well and is reasonably stable. Most important, it’s free. I find it very useful in a lot of situations, but too limiting for everything I might want to do. Some of the more popular, feature rich, software packages are:

• Pinnacle Systems - Studio 10
• Sony - Vegas 6
• Ulead - Video Studio

Video editing software packages love to eat up as much RAM as you can feed them, so shut down all other applications when editing videos. Video editing software tends to be a little unstable, so save your work after each change you make. I have found you can avoid stability problems if you pay attention to what the software is doing. Don’t get ahead of the software. Let it complete one task before giving it another. If you start moving too fast, the software will crash.

Video editing packages come with a fairly steep learning curve, so plan on several days of trial and error.

How many times have we seen someone publicly accuse another of some wrongdoing? The accusations are varied and rarely substantiated. The accused find them selves having to defend their honor even when it’s often impossible to prove the accuser is making things up. Others chime in supporting one side or the other. Often the accuser has already lined up supporters, waiting in the wings to give credence to the claim. Then the accused calls on friends to come in and discredit the accuser. In the end, the entire thing ends up being a futile finger pointing exercise.

What’s interesting about these incidents is they rarely do the harm that was intended. In most cases it has the opposite effect, with the accused noticing a sudden jump in affiliate signups or new members. In fact, I once watched a video producer get beaten up pretty badly in a consumer forum. By the end of the day the producer had made record sales for the year. This effect is so predictable some sponsors actually stage attacks against them for the sole purpose of picking up more affiliates.

While we’d all prefer to get nothing but good PR, there is truth in the old saying, “any PR is good PR.” I learned a long time ago the best way to do someone harm is to pretend they don’t exist. The people or companies that are on my shit list never get mentioned. I don’t type their name in blog articles or board posts. They simply do not exist.

Platinum Bucks has announced a new contest. Webmasters can claim a prize based on the number of sales made in the month of May.

The contest is broken out into different goals, with a list prizes to select from for each. The values of prizes, ranging from cameras to flat screen TVs, are based on the goal that is reached. Goals are set at 25, 50, 100, and 150 sales.

For more information, visit the Platinum Bucks web site.

There is a lot to be said for building relationships in this business. It’s a culture that almost demands it. Those that understand this see the variety of business-to-business gatherings as an ideal environment for rubbing elbows - and sometimes more. They’re not wrong either.

Business gatherings do offer the best opportunity to make friends and establish a trusting business rapport. After all, nothing beats good old fashioned face-to-face interaction. Unfortunately, these gatherings attract a very small number of the overall industry population. In fact, less than one percent of the adult industry affiliate webmasters ever attend the events.

The alternative is to hang out at one or more of the industry webmaster forums. By their nature, these forums create a virtual community of individuals who share a common interest. Thus, relationships are forged and business gets done. In contrast to the off-line business gatherings, a greater number of affiliate webmasters congregate at the on-line forums. The forums are free, available 24/7, and have a global reach. Consequently, webmasters attend regularly - often several times a day.

One would reason those taking full advantage of the off-line gatherings would also jump at the networking opportunities found in the webmaster forums. As it turns out, most do - on the straight side of the industry. However, only a handful of the industry reps. regularly hang out at the gay webmaster forums - despite the fact all, or some, of their properties are gay. For whatever reason, the gay webmaster communities tend to get ignored.

From a business perspective it’s difficult to understand this behavior. These companies spend tens of thousands each year to attend off-line gatherings, and never get in front of their target audience - the affiliate webmasters. At the on-line forums, sponsors have easy access to the affiliates, 7 days a week, and at no cost. With only two active gay webmaster forums, there really isn’t any justification for the lack of participation. Yet it seems as if they couldn’t be bothered.

There can be no doubt that the hand full of sponsors active in the gay forums are please by the absence of their competitors. They are reaching the webmasters, establishing trust, and building relationships. Most telling is when a webmaster posts a request for referrals and the vast majority respond with the names of those companies active in the forum.

Of course, any time a webmaster asks for referrals, all the usually absent sponsors or service providers come out of the woodwork like starving cockroaches. They make their sales pitch, and disappear as quickly as they came. Like junk mail and spam, this self-serving behavior is not lost on the webmasters.

One can only speculate as to why these sponsors and service providers ignore the webmasters. Regardless of the reasoning, it’s their loss and a competitor’s gain.

This is one of many articles I’ll post for those of you interested in producing your own content. My focus will be more on working with the models and equipment, than dealing with the legal (2257) stuff.

Shooting video is obviously different than still photography, but in a lot of ways I find it easier. It can get complex if you want to shoot with two or three cameras, like the professionals do. But as long as its short amateur videos, the equipment is cheap and the techniques are simple.

You can get good results as long as you are working with a late model home video camera. A digital camera will deliver a little bit better quality, but I would not run out and by one if you already have a good VHS or 8mm. Just make sure the heads are clean and properly aligned.

If you want to shoot with a tripod make sure it’s a good one, or you will have problems with smooth tilts (up and down) and pans (left and right). A cheap tripod will be jerky or sticky. If you work without a tripod then you need to have a steady hand. Holding the camera with both hands helps. With practice, you can move a little bit while recording by either leaning or taking one step with one foot. Anything more than that and you should stop recording, move to the new position, and start recording.

Lighting is pretty simple. Just flood the set with even light. You don’t want uneven light, because the camera will have difficulty dealing with the extreme contrasts. Backlight, such as sunlight coming from a window behind the subject, will also cause problems. Its always best to test shoot the set before starting the actual shoot. This way you can discover any lighting problems and make adjustments. While most late model cameras deliver good video in low light situations, you will loose some of that when transferring it to digital, so do your best to get proper lighting up front.

I’ll share a few more thoughts on video in future posts.

The Latin pay site specialists at LatinCash have announced a new promotion that rewards affiliates with free, round-trip airfare to anywhere in the world.

The Summer Slam contest runs from May 1st to June 30th. To receive the free tickets, affiliates need only hit 100 signups (trial signups included) during the two month contest period. Along with airfare for two, Summer Slam winners receive a four day/three night hotel stay at their chosen destination. As an extra bonus, the webmaster who sends the most signups during Summer Slam will receive a free laptop PC (up to $1000 value) of their choosing.

“This new campaign rewards webmasters’ hard work in the best way possible - with dream vacations,” said LatinCash CEO, Gary Dginger. “We would not be the company we are today without our affiliate partners. This is a small token of our appreciation,” Dginger continued.

LatinCash program affiliates have five destination sites to choose from, including two gay sites - LatinBoys.com and Latin Gay Lovers.

LatinCash webmasters benefit from a host of program options, earning 100% per-signup or a healthy 60/40 split for the life of each membership. Affiliates can also take advantage of a 10% webmaster referral bonus.

To become an affiliate of this NATS powered program visit LatinCash.com. For additional information about the Summer Slam contest, check out Summer Slam.

On the heels of their Just Us Boy’s Club facelift, Mesmerotic has announced they are shifting priorities. In an announcement that went out last Friday, Andrew Yancey stated, “we’ve decided to focus our promotion on The Boy’s Club rather than splitting our efforts among several sites.” The announcement went on to say, “Muchachos and Amateur Hunks, will stay up to use as alternate tours.”

Mesmerotic has added their 90 exclusive videos from Amateur Hunks and Muchachos to The Boy’s Club and states, “Future updates of exclusive movies will be added to the Boy’s Club as well.” “We’ve found conversions and retention on [The Boy’s Club] to be superior, and now that we’ve incorporated exclusive content into the mix, it’s looking even better,” claimed Yancey.

“We’ll be focusing all of our future development efforts on The Boy’s Club, and we have some big plans to further improve the member’s experience,” said Yancey. “In addition, more numerous and higher quality ad tools are coming soon to make your promotion even easier.”

There was no mention of any changes related to their Male Movie Club property. Only Mesmerotic’s Amateur Hunks and Muchachos, added to the mix last November, appear to be on the chopping block.

This week Raging Stallion Studios announce the merger of their DVD store and Gunz Blazing pay site affiliate programs. The new all-in-one site includes some enhancements. Webmasters are now able to link directly to the DVD store’s movie pages, sections, and models. Webmasters can build their own branded “kiosk” for seamless integration into their own web pages. Enhanced marketing materials have been added, including box covers, model glamour and action sets, all of which are downloadable in ZIP file format. Improved statistical reporting showing traffic sources, uniques, conversion ratios and total sales are part of the upgrade. The sponsor will also be making payments every 2 weeks instead of monthly.

For more information, visit GunzBlazing.com

This is one of many articles I’ll post for those of you interested in producing your own content. My focus will be more on working with the models and equipment, than dealing with the legal (2257) stuff.

Its safe to say that in any shoot you are going to end up with some photos that would be great except for one flaw. An example would be his face is fantastic, but the model’s body is in a position that does not flatter him. Assuming you are working with a high-quality camera and shoot in a large format, some of these photos can be saved. Using Photoshop, or some other image editing software, simply crop out the body and turn it into a headshot. Apply the same principal in creating other close-ups, such as cock, feet, butt, and nipples.

The tighter you crop in on a photo, the more likely it will become grainy. This is why a good camera is worth the extra money. High-quality large format images allow you to crop in a lot tighter without showing grain. You may spend more on the front end, but its worth it considering how many good photos you will get out of each shoot.