Today, Steamworks and Maleflixxx announced the launch of steamworks.tv, a comprehensive and fully customized Video-On-Demand cinema.

Steamworks operates a chain of all male gym/sauna (bathhouse) clubs in North America, with locations in Chicago, Toronto, Berkeley, and San Juan. The agreement between Maleflixxx and Steamworks will provide their visitors and members with access to thousands of exclusive gay hardcore video productions from the world’s top production studios, including Kristen Bjorn, Hot House, Titan, Falcon, Blue Blake, Studio 2000, MSR, Matt Sterling, Hot House, High Octane, Lucas Kazan and over one hundred more.

Eric Johnson, Sureflix President said, “We see this as a great combination. Steamworks is an international brand in men’s gyms and saunas with 30 years of expertise in the industry. Maleflixxx has developed the world’s leading gay video-on-demand service, with international services in 6 languages. Maleflixxx believes that this is a natural partnership and that our two companies will work together for the long term.”

“We chose Maleflixxx to host our VOD because in our eyes, quality is what we built our business on and we wished to partner with a company that provides quality products. It’s a winning strategy,” said Cam Lewis, General Manager of Steamworks Toronto. “We are creating a compelling combination with our online and our brick-and-mortar communities.”

“Maleflixxx’s goal is to develop strategic partnerships with leading gay brands that share our vision of delivering the highest quality customer experience possible,” says Eric Johnson. “I am delighted that Steamworks has selected our company to develop this project.”

As part of the alliance, the two companies are undertaking a joint promotional campaign to promote the new VOD cinema.

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.

A common approach in production is to shoot stills and video at the same time. Obviously you can get a lot more for your buck by doing this, but it does tend to degrade the end product. In my experience the consumer likes these behind the scenes videos, as long as its not the only thing offered.

Producers achieve the video and still combo in different ways. A simple and inexpensive approach is to set the video camera up on a tripod to record the still shoot. However, this technique makes it impossible to avoid the still photographer moving in and out of frame. To limit this problem, some producers will have someone, with limited skills, man the video camera. His job is to make minor adjustments to try and avoid the photographer - zoom, pan and tilt.

Another approach is to have an experienced person behind both cameras, with one or the other directing. Done correctly, both can at least stay out of each other’s frame.

Either way, the video’s audio is going to pick up the directions being given during the shoot. And of course, the video is going to pick up flash, if it’s used on the still camera. None of this is a problem, because it is, after all, a behind the scenes video. Some producers will replace the audio with background music, but a good argument can be made that viewers prefer the original audio.

A lot of producers take a slightly different approach that delivers two videos and one set of stills. They first shoot the stills with video, and use a fake cum shot. Then a second video is shot in a different location and with a change in wardrobe. No stills are shot in the second video, and the model is asked to deliver a real cum shot. Some producers reveres the process, but this tends to make it difficult for some models to get hard in both shoots.

Now you know why a lot of behind the scenes videos have no cum shot, while the stills of the same shoot do.

This week the controversial BucksFactory.com announced their newest site WashedTwinks.com.

Depending on the BucksFactory site being promoted, affiliate webmasters may select between three different processors, CCBill, SegPay, and Verotel. Some of their sites allow a selection of all three processors, while others are limited to just one or two. As of this writing, Washed Twinks can only be promoted through SegPay.

After the launch of their “Mike18″ site, this sponsor has been the subject of vigorous debate over questionable model ages and the validity of the age verification documents. Like Washed Twinks, Mike18 is limited to the SegPay processor option.

WashedTwinks.com represents site number nine in the sponsor’s growing collection of twink properties. Promotional materials for the new site include banners, free hosted galleries, and a collection of text descriptions of varying lengths.

Boy Fun Collection announced this week the completion of a major redesign of their member’s area.

A poorly organized and confusing member’s area has long been a source of criticism for the XXXRewards’ twink mega site. I took a self-tour of the new interior over the weekend and quickly concluded it will put smiles on the faces of members and affiliates alike. While the new design is old school, by today’s standards, it definitely delivers on the user friendly, ease of navigation, quotient.

With over 350,000 photos and videos, Boy Fun Collection is arguably the largest twink venue in the marketplace. That combined with lots of exclusives, and a nicely done interior, delivers a formula for great retention.

A company spokesperson reports alternative tours are also in the works, indicating XXXRewards is serious about bringing this aging monolithic institution up to par with competing properties.

Affiliates receive 60% on sales and renewals, and 10% on webmaster referrals. There’s an ample supply of promotional materials, including new FHGs.

A hot new rage in porn is Bisexual sites. Not the traditional two guys having sex with a girl. I’m talking two guys having sex with each other and a gal. These sites are popular with straight and gay men and women, making it a lucrative market that has gone virtually untapped.

One of the first to enter into this market was 3Pillows.com, closely followed by Bisexual.com. Both are owned and operated by the same company.

The latest entry to this growing niche is BiBiAmericanPie. The site fits into many niches, such as bisexual, bi-curious, gay, strapon sex, anal, interracial, pornstar & more. That’s a lot of categories and cross promotional opportunities that appeal to bi-curious men & women alike.

Yesterday ICANN rejected the new domain suffix dot-xxx, proposed by ICM Registry.

This is a great victory for the adult entertainment industry, and a huge relief for business owners. The controversial TLD would have cost adult businesses thousands of dollars, and accomplished nothing in the push to better protect minors from viewing adult materials.

When all was said and done, the overwhelming lack of industry support delivered the final deathblow. Your letters of opposition did have an impact! Our voice was heard.

Read the official announcement from ICANN

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.

I can’t stress enough how important model comfort and safety is. Extending this courtesy to models is one way to establish a level of trust. It communicates to the model that you care about his wellbeing. Safety awareness also protects you from potential liability. The last thing you want is for the model to injure him self while on a shoot.

Models need to know they can tell you when they’re uncomfortable with something, and that you will make changes if concerns are expressed. During a shoot you should periodically check with the model to see if he is okay. Don’t forget that while you are fully dressed, the model is not, so maintaining proper room temperature is important.

The younger guys tend to give little thought to safety, so always discuss safety with a model before having him do something that risks injury. Some examples might be climbing up on something like a ladder or a tree, riding a skateboard, playing with a power tool, or diving into a lake. If working with a skateboard, find out if the model has any experience riding one. If not, then limit what you ask him to do.

When shooting outdoors, make sure to bring mosquito repellant. The last thing you need is a swarm of blood sucking insects attacking your naked model.

This week LiveBucks.com announced their new custom live banner/performer table tool. Cell height/width, color, niche and thumb size are all variable, allowing webmasters to generate a promotional that fits perfectly with the look and design of their web site. The cells are linkable directly to the individual model’s room or bio page.

It seems that a lot of webmasters are under this false perception that 2257 is off the table. This of course is based on the late 2005 federal court ruling that established a temporary injunction on select components of the new 2257 regulations. What many in the industry have overlooked, or elected to ignore, is the ruling did not enjoin 2257 and its regulations in their entirety.

The requirement to publish custodian of record information for all sexually explicit materials in a publication, often referred to as The Label Law, is still in full force. The requirements for how this information must be displayed are detailed, and arguably confusing. Notwithstanding lack of clarity, anyone subject to US law must comply, or fear criminal prosecution.

This lack of compliance appears to be most prominent among adult bloggers. In my recent survey of several dozen blogs, publishing sexually explicit images, none had posted the required documentation.

The risk factor in ignoring the “Label Law” requirements is anyone’s guess. It is, nonetheless, a risk that many are taking - intentionally or not.

Some may be of the belief that no action will be taken under 2257 until its challenges have been litigated. While there is an argument to be made for this, I don’t see the “Label Law” going away unless 2257 is completely removed from the books - a scenario that does not seem likely.

At the very least, US webmasters should ask them selves what would be involved in meeting the “Label Law” requirements one or two years from now. Having to quickly go back and document several years of published content is an exercise more painful than having teeth pulled. The only alternative would be to suffer the financial impact of shutting down and starting over again.

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.

All right, this article is going to cover a bunch of unrelated items relevant to filming videos. It’s a brain dump of lessons learned.

Don’t be cheap by recording several different shoots on one tape. Use a new tape for each shoot. Label it MASTER, model name, shoot description and date, and remove the tab so it cannot be recorded over.

Do NOT play any commercial music in the background of a video. No CDs or radio at all. Otherwise you will have copyright issues. There are companies out there that will license you rights to music for video production.

Each take needs 3 to 5 seconds of recording before the action starts. You need this space on the video for editing. I won’t go into specifics. Just trust me when I say it will become evident once you start editing. This means you need to train your model to wait a few seconds before starting or talking.

Don’t over use the zoom, or any special effects on your camera. This is the most common mistake made by amateurs. You will get much better results if you stop recording, reposition, and start recording.

If you are shooting outside near your air conditioning unit, turn it off. You don’t want it kicking on while you are taping. The noise it makes will ruin the video.

Teach your model he needs to speak up. Otherwise you won’t be able to hear him on the video. An alternative is to purchase a directional microphone that attaches to the camera.

Do not use the extended play option to get more time on your tapes. This degrades the video quality. You sacrifice enough quality as it is by transferring the tape to digital, so don’t do anything to make it any worse.

Don’t be afraid to shoot something several times until its right. You will be editing the video, so the bad stuff can be cut out. The only exception to this is the cum shot, of course. You only get one take, so make it a good one.