Sam38G Writes A Really Good Primer For Those Wanting To Do It Themselves.

8 Responses

1. Those that seem to do the best also interact with their fans quite a bit. So for sure social media helps. AmberCutie on MFC seems to do really well and works her fans for all they are worth.

2. Sam, you wrote an informative article on using Clips 4 Sale. However, people may be interested in another article describing the equipment you use and its cost. For example (from what I have gathered over the years, I do not film professionally but do take pictures regularly for myself), a 4K camera — you can dial it down now to 1080p or 720p but will probably need 4K video capability within the next few years so buying a video camera with that capability now will save you later — costs $1600 plus as of 10/27/2016. I checked the Sony site, that is the brand of cameras I buy and use as I have found them to be the most reliable and longest lasting, the “expert Handycam” was $1699 and the full-on professional video camera like most would use on a film set was $4499. The cost of lighting equipment (Kinos), tripods, computer equipment (don’t try editing 1080p or 4K video on anything slower than a recent i5 equipped desktop computer with at least 16GB of RAM), set furnishings, etc. You can probably expand on this much better than I, we all would be very interested in that article. Mike could also add to such an article.

   Mike, maybe you could give Sam an author’s log in for this purpose. She sounds intelligent and I think she is worth taking a chance on with that privilege, although I don’t know her personally she sounds intelligent and my gut feeling is she would not abuse it.

3. Most of the customers of C4s & these other sites are forgiving. All the videos have to be rendered down from 4k video otherwise would take forever to upload them. My videos are all shot in 4k, but c4s does have a limit of mb per minute. Do not know what it is now, but when I started on C4s it was 10 mb per minute.
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   This customer base is about the content hitting all their bells & whistles with in that niche. They are way more forgiving in the quality part of it.
   These days a person can use the most recent mobile phones to record decent videos. Most who start their own stores don’t have the capitol to go out and make such high end purchases but they do make it up in creativity.
   Cam performers due to the high standards of Streamate to help get top placement requires an i5 to i7 computer. Most of the girls getting into it are coming from camming.
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   I do have such blogs on my own site with advice for newbies. 🙂 Starting out & doing it cost effectively as possible until they do make money and then upgrade equipment is a natural part of the progression.

4. Thanks so much for this info! The one thing that has kept me from setting up a store is the 2257 regs. I have to go through all of the usual paperwork and expense as if I was setting up my own website correct? Also keeping this this stuff on file for inspection for years and years doesn’t make it a casual thing anymore nor cheap or am I making too much of that? Do I need to setup and pay for office space maintain all of that for a small business as this? One other thing if you are outside of LA is it too much of a hassle to get performers that will travel or work outside of California and if you are paying for travel cost how much does that take away from profit?

5. DreamNight….as to 2257 much of it has been struck down for the moment but regardless its only common sense to have IDs and model releases on hand forever.As for putting the 2257 address out there I wouldn’t worry too much about that technically you arent suppossed to use a mailstop but if yer uncomfy with putting your address out there then thats a kind of workaround, I expect as long as your peperwork is in order and you comply and make it available you wont have any problems other than maybe a warning to use a real address….however even that may not happen, as I said a lot of it has been struck down and the warrantless search aspect of 2257 inspections is one of the areas.

   As for getting LA models to you thats a whole different ballgame, paying for the transportation of a person across state lines to do porn is a direct violation of The Mann Act. This will potentially get you in WAY more trouble than 2257. I know a lot of porners ignore it, but they shouldn’t. Besides whats the advantage of shooting porn valley girls if you live in Lugnut Louisiana? Use local girls, it costs less and generates more money.

6. Also, make damn sure the girls know exactly what they are getting into. Disgruntled girls go to people like Shelley Lubben (The Pink Cross) and can cause you a lot of bad publicity and that alone might trigger a section 2257 investigation under a more conservative administration. Yes, a warrant is required but in many areas prosecutors can get a warrant to search the residence of a tuna sandwich. Make sure they understand that video is forever and doing porn might keep them from a chosen post-porn career such as teaching, anything to do with kids, politics or law enforcement. Also make sure to inform then that even with stringent VD testing they can get VD from performing sexually (and make damn sure they have a porn panel done within 14 days of a scene, preferably through Talent Testing Service, they have affiliated draw stations throughout the country). A Orasure at-home AIDS test as a backstop is also a good idea if they are available in your state but DOES NOT replace the Talent Testing Service VD panel (the VD panel has a PCR/RNA quick diagnosis test for AIDS but can theoretically be tricked into being negative if someone with AIDS takes medication regularly for it whereas the Orasure is an ELISA based test that can’t be fooled but only detects AIDS if the person has had it for more than 30-90 days). Do not allow an HIV/AIDS patient to have sex on camera with an HIV/AIDS negative patient. You would probably be OK if all performers in a scene have HIV (and certainly would be OK on this issue if all test negative).

   Also, DO NOT FILM PORN IN MICHIGAN OR UTAH!!!!!!!!!! Fornication (any sex with anyone that you aren’t legally married to) is a felony in those states and at least in Michigan prostitution/pandering is separately as well. In Michigan our CSC (criminal sexual conduct) law is written with a catch-all clause that any sexually based crime not specifically mentioned in the CSC statutes is first degree CSC (the same as forcible rape) on top of the charge for whatever you did. That means porn carries four charges: fornication (five years), CSC first (life without parole), pandering/prostitution (15 years) and a second CSC (again, life without parole). Also, Michigan prisons are the worst to live in of any in the US, repeated gang rape is almost guaranteed even in women’s prisons — by their basic design, rape is considered to be part of the punishment for Michigan felony offenders by DOC officials and employees.

   Good luck with your porn career, dreamnight. I wish you the very best and hope you do well with it. Just don’t film in Michigan or Utah — at least in Michigan it is almost literally suicidal to do so.

7. Thanks for the help and the great site Mike! You too mharris! As you can see my knowledge of 2257 is at least 10 years old. My only concern about getting talent locally is where to go. Looking into it in the past I can remember looking at model sites like onemodel place or others and at the most very few girls would list nude as an option and they were hardly ever someone you might want to hire as a model. I am in a big city but outside of LA it seems so far from peoples idea of what they could do as a model they don’t even consider it. I have heard of people approaching dancers about it but with many times running into problems from staff at the club for handing a girls a card or anything or the girls don’t think you are legit. Craigslist just seems like a wasteland of spam these days and social media feels like a real uphill climb. Any ideas here?

8. You are welcome, Dreamnight. I wish you the best of luck.