Is porn the only British industry left?

[BigMattyP]

Thats what I was hoping to go for, a more real style of film. Barbie dolls are all very well but I personally prefer normal women. What you say about women watching makes sense, of course they might feel uncomfortable if the models are perfect... why didn't I think of that!!

As for how well its going, I have made a load of contacts, I have a decent camera lined up and could hit the ground running. Now I am just working on Mrs P to give the green light. She said 'I don't care if you want to make films, I just want nothing to do with it'.
This is not exactly the correct response because I feel she may not be too keen really. She knows I won't act in the films but I am finding it hard to get her into dialogue about it. I guess if she really doesn't want me to then I won't but I can't see me being able to afford a really nice house any other way. My job only pays so much and she can't find work in a rural area.

I agree totally that 'sex sells' and even when people can't afford things, they will always pay for sex somehow or another so I am hoping to get the green light and make some decent entertainement to take peoples minds off of the worlds problems Or something like that!!

Take care one and all.
Matt.

[belfast_birty]

Having banged my head(some years ago) against some kind of porn wall,I decided that it was better to get the internet plumbing organised,as most porn ended up somewhere on the internet.That has proved to be a good decision.

Hosting of course,opens avenues other than just porn hosting,once your hardware and service is proven.We only invest in hosting when we can sit on the internet backbone somewhere,and where security is an important element of our offering.Most of our clients have large sites,but there has been a slight reduction in their number,in the past 12 months.

Payment systems have been tightened up,as you would expect,with some of the more dubious operators now rejected by banks and credit card operators.Since we provide some high security hosting to banks,we are in a better position than most.However the has required,in the last 5 years,a large investment.

I am beginning to shoot some content again myself,and benefit from the knowledge of what are the more popular genres,taken from our own stats.Those sites doing best are going for volume and a competitive price.I note that many UK porn sites do not seem to have noticed that the days of $29.99 monthly subscriptions,have gone away FOREVER.

[Daz Savage]

I agree in one sense Jim (and I will admit that you do know what you're talking about) however I think it's fair to say that you make two almost contradictory points.
You say that people are not interested in Sexual imagery and then say that Sexual imagery is everywhere.
I agree that Sexual imagery is pervading every area of our lives but that is because it is appealing... and free stuff is only really free because it's actually a sample of the pay-version more often than not.
The point is that when everyone has gone out of business - where will all the so-called free stuff come from? Yes, there will be some small amounts of badly shot, shaky, unfocused crap about but people will want more and then the business will pick up again.
Those that bite off more than they can chew or who are expecting the moon on a stick from running porn sites will soon over-extend themselves but sensible business people will ride this out (I think) and be potential market leaders when things pick up again.

Sites being shut down and/or consolidated are not necessarily a sign that the industry is no longer wanted in the same way that car companies shutting down do not mean that we all prefer walking to work. The fact is that some people forgot that this was WORK. They were too busy jacking-off to their success that they didn't see shit about to happen. This is a real 'Tortoise & hare' story. Big sites are shutting because they were sometimes bloated, flabby affairs that were run by people who spent long-term but planned short-term. The sites that are doing okay are the small 'cottage-industry' sites that just plodded along and made steady money. They are the ones that concentrated on their customers and ignored the temptation to promote themselves as the next-big-thing.
The mighty have fallen - well some have - and it's simply a case of survival of the fittest... not the biggest, flashest and loudest.
Give you a perfect example of why some places have been struggling... Hosting charges. How many sites have gone really overboard on their hosting because they preferred huge amounts of traffic (needing overly expensive hosting) rather than concentrating on accurate marketing and therefore more reasonable server costs!? Some people now have sites that make much less than they used to but are still increasing in traffic to the extent that they are suffocating themselves. Some sites can't find any way to downsize their server charges without risking negative effects to their speed that could affect paying members so they're having to sell up or consolidate (perhaps to maximize the potential of that traffic as you have observed).

I've brought this issue up on several forums before - the dangerous habit of bloating your site with useless traffic and I think that time will prove me out... and this is just one reason why a recession has hit people who didn't think ahead - there are plenty of others.

[jimslip]

Of course you're right, people are still interested but not as interested as they were once. I remember years ago(Many years ago) a kid brought in a porno mag and in the centre spread was a giant hairy minge, we all went histerical, almost foaming at the mouthes trying to get a closer look! I remember in the early nineties when everyone was buying dodgy VHS tapes at ?25 a pop! I think another producer friend of mine summed it up perfectly, when he described recently phoning a mate and telling him that he had 20 porn DVD's and would he like to have them for free, his mate said he was too busy and would get them in a few weeks time.

Years ago, his mate would have torn his arm off for them!

I think what's destructive is the combination of indifference, piracy, costs, torrent sites and I hate to say it...............unchanging material.

The problem we face is that there are a finite number of ways of dressing up shagging. It doesn't matter whether its Tanya Hyde with his nuns in rubber and anema machines, or someone else with a girl on a sofa......it's all shagging in the end.

As it happens I'm doing quite well considering, but I think in the end the whole industry will fragment into different niches and most mainstream will be at the mercy of pirates and become a thing of the past, as a paying media.

[videokim]

Pirates do badly affect the industry but it also helped us in a way, years ago we made up sample tapes with our phone numbers going through them & gave them to people in Kent, Essex & London to copy & sell on their stalls / private etc. We had new customers coming back to us for 4 years asking for more titles which of course we were happy to supply, being skint don't stop you adverting some how.
Years later we laugh at this but it worked good for us at the time, porn is on the decline yes but for established producers we will ride it out by any means like we always have.
Softcore is now the new hardcore as there are many more outlets & higher returns so a lot of us are already doing this or going that way, we were at an amateurs meeting the other day deciding the best way forward. Among other things some decided they were going back to the Colour Climax, Electric Blue & old style Fiona Cooper films as hundreds of people we have all asked as a collective love & remember these over all the modern day films.
Porn as got so extreme now its crap so the only way to get new viewers is to change quickly, the credit crunch as not affected us yet as amateur is always in demand but it will do & we'll cross that bridge when it happens.

Kim

[rebekahdee]

Hmmm its interesting. I have also wondered if th the whole credit crunch could be a good thing for online porn businesses. People cant afford to go out and so instead of spending ?30+ down the pub they are home alone and wont mind forking out a third of that for a self satisfying wank material for the month?!

I cant speak from personal experience as i guess my sites aren't all that mainstream but its an interesting topic and i hadn't even factored in the marital splits......time will tell i guess.

Rebekah x

[jimslip]

I think in the old days, the so called "Lonely single guy", would watch us all in action and say, "Wey,hey, mate, good on yer shagging all of'em birds you're a diamond geezer!" and be happy with that. Nowdays I think more and more of them are saving up their pennies and having fun at parties and with Adultwork!

They don't want to watch anymore, they want to do.

[videokim]

'They don't want to watch anymore, they want to do' Thats very true, they have gone from being a viewer to wanting to be included somehow.
We organise photo & video shoots where guys come along & take pics / video but no touching, we also hold our dirty housewives parties (3 various amateur stars) each month so watching for some is longer good enough.
Web Cam is one of the biggest money spinners on the net at the moment with some girls earning large amounts each month, this again is just another extension of people wanting to be involved somehow with the models & it won't be long before film companies will be doing this themselves whilst shooting films to fetch in extra revenue.
DVD's will die a death in the end & the way people watch bits on the net will alter but we will still be getting sex across to the masses somehow.
For us its been a great adventure over the years with good ups & bad downs & weve seen changes all that time with films under the counter to legal sales in shops to internet downloads & each time we thought it would end but it didn't.

Kim