The Porn Business: What's a good step by step guide that realistically teaches you?

As in, how to make and sell (completely legal) porn? I love porn and my job isn't paying me enough to pay all my bills so I thought, why not research this industry a bit more just for the hell of it?

I love women so why not figure out a way to shoot my own lesbian/bi women videos and sell them?

There are a ton of "how to" books on the Internet but some of them are probably not very helpful or even legit.

So, as usual, I figured it couldn't hurt to ask here. Has anyone else out there found a good printed guide, or other resources that were very helpful if you've started your own adult type business? Web site design, getting your movies into video stores, how to find and hire people for your own movies, the "business" side of the industry, dirty little secrets, how not to get suckered by scam artists in the industry, how to find someone to help you with everything, etc, etc, etc.

I know I probably sound terribly nieve but I figure it couldn't hurt to ask.

Soulfiregirl said:

As in, how to make and sell (completely legal) porn? I love porn and my job isn't paying me enough to pay all my bills so I thought, why not research this industry a bit more just for the hell of it?

I love women so why not figure out a way to shoot my own lesbian/bi women videos and sell them?

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Other than having iron-clad proof that your actors are of legal age and choose to perform in your films -- which a standard model/actor's release form/contract will mostly cover -- the porn movie business is little different from any other business.

Essentially, you need to research the independent film industry for how to make and market your videos.

A porn website as a business is the same as any other website as far as design and maintenance -- research web design with an emphasis on how to keep public and private (members) access separate. Many porn sites protect the front page and main areas of their site but forget to protect the sub-folders where the content is stored.

One of the big things that you have to watch out for, almost as much as proof of age, is the laws of your area. I live in Nevada, USA where a tremendous number of adult films are produced. I had looked into doing this a few years ago and found quickly that exporting the films from the state can get very sticky if you don't do everything the law requires right to the letter. I thought about hiring one of the attorneys that does this work for the big production companies in Vegas, but I'm sure you can imagine how much money that was going to cost me.

Otherwise you're just talking about basic filmography; lighting, sets, locations, props, actors and actresses, grips, camera men, sound techs, marketing and distribution logistics, scripting, choreography of each scene, etc., etc., etc.

Porn is not an educational tool. Its all staged. If you want to learn, try communicating with the people in your life.

you might want to ask the pros: www.gofuckyourself.com

Brinnie said:

you might want to ask the pros: www.gofuckyourself.com

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Note: despite the name, this IS a legitimate link and looks like a good place to research and discuss the Porn business.

I don't know how typical her experiences were, but you could check out Jenna Jameson's book, "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star".

Also, I thik it would be a huge and complicated undertaking to produce a movie... have you thought about starting out as an actor to learn some of the biz?

I don't know the first thing about web design or making money from the net but supposedly porn sites are the most successful ones out there. I remember seeing a story on the news about how several legit businesses were looking to porn sites as a model for turning around their own websites that were losing money. Danni Ashe was mentioned specifically in the story I saw. Apparently that website of hers has made her filthy rich.

I'm not "hot" enough to be a porn "actress". I'm more interested in the behind the scenes stuff. (no pun intended)

Thankyou for the replies so far.