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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 thought I’d toss out a few tidbits about shooting outdoors. While the sun is your ideal light source, it can cause problems, because it is so harsh. Digital cameras often have difficulty dealing with the extreme contrasts sun light produces. And models typically squint their eyes in the bright conditions of a sunny day.

Shooting on a bright but overcast day is ideal, because you don’t have to deal with harsh shadows, and the model won’t squint from the bright light.

If you are working in full sun conditions, the ideal times of day to shoot are when the sun is midway in the sky. Too low and you get an orange cast. Too high and you can get shadows on the model’s face that make him look like a raccoon.

Don’t let your models come to an outdoor shoot wearing sunglasses. You want their eyes to adjust to the bright light as much as possible before starting the shoot.

To the extent possible, have your model position his head so he is not looking into harsh sun light. Try shooting up on the model as he is looking down at the camera, and take more profiles to reduce the number of times you have to deal with his squinting in the bright light.

For those unavoidable squinty-eyed shots, have the model close his eyes until you are ready to take the shot. Signal him to open his eyes and quickly take the shot before he squints.

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’ve mentioned model drama a few times in previous posts, but never really explained what it is. I suppose I should remind everyone that my experience is with eighteen to twenty something guys, so maybe its different with the mature models. Or maybe it’s a little less of an issue with the older guys. I don’t know. I can tell you every producer I’ve talked to knows exactly what it is. Someone just entering this end of the business may know what it is, but probably has no idea how much impact its going to have on his or her sanity and productivity.

What is model drama? It’s all the baggage and personal problems a model brings with him, and he typically has a lot of it. More over, he wants to dump as much of it as he can square on your shoulders. The longer you work with a model, the worse it gets.

Legal, physical health, mental health, drug and alcohol abuse, love life, family problems, relationship issues, financial crises, and transportation problems drive most of the model drama you will encounter. A typical model will have problems in most of these areas. Perhaps not all at the same time, but don’t bet on it.

You may be thinking this is ridiculous. There is no reason to put up with a model that has so many problems. Just dump him and move on, right? Well, I’m here to tell you its not that simple. Good-looking guys that are willing to shoot porn don’t fall out of trees. Of those you can find, few will be without some sort of drama. And the more you work with a guy, the more that drama comes out.

Obviously you can avoid a lot of the drama by just working with a model one time. This is how a lot of the larger, more established, producers deal with it. For them, model supply isn’t an issue. They are well known and have a steady flow of new guys wanting work. As a small producer, you will not have this luxury. You will find yourself working with the same model for as long as you can hold onto him.

There will be times when you have several models working with you, and times when you have none. Most models don’t stick around for very long, so it’s best to grab as much as you can, when you can. Expect the drama, and deal with it to the best of your ability. If it gets to be too much, then don’t work with him any more. Deciding how long to work with a guy will most likely be driven by how hot he is. Still, you need to know when to let go, or risk sacrificing your own mental health.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Don’t get caught up in the model’s personal life. It will only cause you grief, and probably cost you money.

A friend of mine recently started producing his own content. Before starting, he didn’t take my warnings about model drama seriously. A few weeks into it, he called complaining about all the problems the models were causing. He was frustrated with how much of his time gets eaten up dealing with all the issues. He could not understand how anyone can go through life with so many problems, as these models have. I just laughed.

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.

It is very important to remember feet in all your shoots. You definitely want to cater to those with a foot fetish. Their numbers are large and their appetites are ravenous. Unlike other fetishes, it is easy to shoot and transparent to those with no interest in feet.

Satisfying the foot lover is more about remembering the feet than it is about focusing on them. Sure, you want to grab a few close-ups, but more important is to just make sure feet are in as many pictures as possible.

This starts with the model undressing. Make sure to capture every step of the shoes and sox coming off. And if there’s a little sock fuzz on the feet, grab a close-up of it. Having the model massage his feet a little is a big crowd pleaser. And some toe sucking always plays well.

When shooting close-ups, don’t forget to capture both top and bottom. A lot of photographers only think to shoot the topside of feet, and this is a big mistake.

While it’s not realistic to do it in every shoot, a cum shot on the feet is the crowning touch when catering to the foot lovers out there.

If you really want to get into it, anything the model does with his feet can be a turn on. Things like getting them dirty or muddy, washing them. Playing with objects, like a ball, between the feet are always welcomed. In an action shoot, have one guy undress the other’s feet and play with them, or tickle the feet with a feather. One person told me that watching a guy get his feet tickled with a feather while tied down is a big turn on.

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.

Variety is an important consideration when shooting the same model over and over again. Not only will the consumer get bored, but you and your model will too. Sure, you can move your guy from one setting to the next, but it’s still the same old thing. He strips, poses, jacks, and shoots.

One good solution is to create themes using wardrobe and props. While I’m very big on themed shoots, they are a lot of work. Much more effort goes into setting them up, compared to your basic strip and jack shoot.

Another alternative is to let your model have fun with baby oil, whipped cream, shaving cream or body paints. Just make sure you have the proper environment for it, because things can get a bit messy. A big sheet of plastic comes to mind.

Of course, moving the shoot outdoors is a great way to break the monotony. Assuming you can get good locations with privacy, there’s a lot of room for creativity. A swimming pool offers endless possibilities, and a personal favorite of mine is the naked car wash shoot. Make good use of the soapsuds by having the model squeeze a soapy sponge on his chest or back shoulders. You can get some sexy shots as the soap runs down his dripping wet body.

There is another advantage in saving the more elaborate shoots for your experienced models. These shoots tend to draw more of your concentration that would ordinarily be given to the model. By working with an experienced model, you can afford to concentrate less on him and more on the creativity.

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 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 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.

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.

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.