The Reality of Making Porn
There are a few paths you one can take to get into the porn industry. You can decide to make porn independently, releasing videos you make yourself at home on clip sites like manyvids or clips4sale. If you are conventionally attractive and especially if you have the popular body type of the last few years (see 2020’s preference for stars with bubble butts and flat chests) you can get professional representation through a management company. Then there’s the third option for people like me who don’t have the ideal body type. Perhaps you are a pear shaped cutie with big honkin’ mommy milkers and an ass you need a microscope to find. In this case, if you want to work with a professional porn studio you will need to be prepared to represent yourself.
Clip creators are very much valid porn creators, but every one of them has their own system, equipment, and preferences so I will not be speaking much on that. Similarly, I don’t have a manager so I can’t speak on what it’s like. What I CAN do is tell you all about what it’s like to be different and still motivated to make high quality professional porn from my experience, and that of people I know.
When you don’t have management, you are on your own in terms of pretty much everything. There is no easy to find and current list of porn studios, their locations, and what genre they specialize in. All of that is figured out by google searches, social media investigation, word of mouth, and a little bit of luck.
Once you’ve figured out a handful of studios that may work with what you have to offer, you then have to go through the fun of getting in contact with them. If you’re lucky there will be a page on their website for you to submit an application to model with them. Depending on the studio, there is about a 50% chance you will hear back from them. Generally you will then receive an email from them asking for you to send some general information along with full bod naked photos of yourself. Typically, you will send 3: front, side, and back.
After that you again will hear back 50% of the time. Then starts the process of negotiating pay, travel, dates, etc. Sometimes they will be extremely forthcoming with information and sometimes it will be… less than professional. I don’t think this is because of any ill intent on the part of the person communicating with you, but mostly it’s because porn studios (especially niche ones) are made up of very few people wearing very many hats. There isn’t enough manpower to have someone there to hold your hand, which can definitely be intimidating for your first time.
On the topic of pay, it’s going to vary radically based on the person and their popularity. I have been offered 1200 to do one solo and one boy-girl scene, $300/solo scene, and $500/girl girl scene by various companies. Usually you will do two to three scenes in a day and your average pay will be $1100-1200. I am sure there are stars who make much more than this, but the days of making $5,000 per scene are over. Perhaps unless you are Angela White. There are also costs that you have to consider. Testing can be anywhere from $200-300; hotels, travel, manicure/pedicure, clothing, and even toys can be expected to be covered by talent. Sometimes a studio will offer to pay for testing and travel. They might book you a room in a hotel or offer to let you sleep at the house they film in. Other times they may not.
When you’re actually on set, you will get the paperwork out of the way first. You give your ID and another form of identification, sign away any rights to the footage (you do not receive royalties), and do a short recording saying that youre there of your own free will and are not being coerced.
Generally next you will officially decide on wardrobe with the director and get your makeup done by a makeup artist. Next, you’ll stand in the shooting location while the cameraman (who is probably also the director) looks at you through his camera, fiddling with the settings and adjusting the light fixtures. In my memory this always took longer than the actual shooting, but speaking as someone who makes my own clips, lighting is a bitch and if you get it wrong the whole thing feels ruined.
You’ll take some still pictures before moving on to the video, which is pretty self-explanatory. Sometimes you’ll be stopped and coached, but for the most part you just power through the scene, paying attention to hand cues from the director for when it’s time to move on to something else, or even orgasm. Once all the shoots for the day are done everyone will start to wrap up. You can shower if you need to, or you can just change back into civilian clothes. Generally everyone on set is super professional (until they aren’t). Sometimes they won’t touch you- or even come CLOSE to touching you. Sometimes they will solicit you when no one else is around. Sometimes it will just be a pretty normal day at a job. You’ll go back to your hotel, or go out to eat, or go to the airport and catch your plane home.
So there you have it. The reality of being a niche porn actress is somewhere between the glitz and glamor of social media and the evil exploitation portrayed by anti-trafficking sites. Honestly, it’s just like any other industry where there are people who are good and those who are less than good. There is absolutely less money than people think, mostly thanks to free porn sites, pirating, and the rise of independent models on fan sites. Porn is just like anything else: a reflection of the individuals that make it.
Read about my first sex scene!
