A different kind of porn.

[sweetnpetite]

I found this today, and I think the idea is really interesting. I'd love to see where they go with this.

Towards a Different Kind of Visual Erotica
I'm inspired to think that it might be possible to make truly beautiful visual erotic narratives of a sort that isn't readily available today — porn for the rest of us, porn that shows sexual love in all its complexity, all its lights and shadows, all its fears and passions. Porn, because it seeks to arouse, but art because it seeks to illuminate the human condition in ways that make us laugh and cry and look at the world differently afterwards.

Pretty ambitious stuff, considering most of the X-rated video I've been able to find. But I do feel that sex is sacred, and I guess it's time for me to stand up for that feeling in a creative way, against all the fear and hype.

Getting started...
So, I've been asking around to find people who might be interested in working on this project, in a low-budget, volunteer, experimental sort of way, and I'm lucky in having some very talented, sex-positive friends who have agreed enthusiastically to help out.

Of course, getting in front of a camera all naked and aroused can be a pretty unnerving idea, especially since what we're trying to capture is not just sport sex but emotional vulnerability, complexity, and love. It takes so much trust to really open up to another person, and when it happens, it's so beautiful to watch, and so truly innocent.

To do this work on either side of the camera, you have to assume that everyone in the world will see what you produce — your mother, your grandmother, your kids or nieces and nephews, everyone at work, your friends from high school. You have to be committed to creating something you can really be proud of. You have to believe you can produce work that has lasting value.

Well, I'm finding that people are amazingly brave, once they understand it's the central feelings we're after, not just the body parts (which is not to say the body parts aren't lovely too).

So, we're still in the experimental stages, but it's been heartening how many people want to get involved, straight and gay, young and old, kinky and not.

Media
Video is the obvious medium for erotica in one way, because it's so accessible — its impact can be so realistic, immediate and visceral. It has drawbacks too, though: video is so easy to do badly and so hard to do well. It's time-bound: you more or less have to watch it at one pace and for a fixed length of time. It's cumbersome to dawdle over some parts and skip quickly back and forth, the way you can in some other media. Also, visual resolution is still restricted, both in terms of affordable high-resolution video cameras and high-resolution screens for viewing the results (although obviously that's changing).

I'd love to make erotic videos of the kind I'm talking about, but I realize at this point that to do it seriously would take more time and money than my friends and I can afford. So, for the moment we're working with video only in an experimental way, and we're using scripts or screenplays as a way of figuring out how a large project might look.

One alternative that seems interesting to me is what I call a photo-novella. The idea is to create a narrative using still photography and text or a sound track. The result can simultaneously be printed as a graphic novel, be distributed on CD as a very high-resolution slide show with sound track, and can be provided for download as a low-resolution downloadable slide show. I think this might be easier to tackle on an amateur basis than video, and it has some appeal as a medium in and of itself.

Commercialization
The primary goal of this project is to celebrate the wild and divine beauty of sex, not to make money.

That said, it's also true that if we're going to build a movement towards a different kind of erotica, it has to be commercially viable — otherwise, most people won't be able to afford to invest the energy needed to produce it.

I think there's a huge untapped market for serious emotional erotica at the right price — after all, who in the world wouldn't like to be turned on and feel good about it? At the same time, the market is not an easy one to address, because people are both fearful and jaded. I'm hoping our approach will be successful... but it may well not be. We're going to play around with is an artist's cooperative model and see what can be done with internet-based distribution... and, well, we'll just have to see. To start with, at any rate, our experiments will be free of charge — all we ask you to contribute is your own ideas and experiences, if you believe in what we're trying to do.

Getting involved
The best way to get involved in the new porn project initially, as long as you're over 18, is to join our bulletin board [not yet implemented] and start sharing your thoughts with other like-minded people. You can also email us about your area of interest.

The next step might be to experiment with your own erotica. Take some photographs or video footage. Write a script or storyboard, or a fragment of one. Post samples on this site, and get feedback. Ask for help.

Then, if the area really appeals to you, maybe you want to join our artist's cooperative. Or maybe you want to create a co-op of your own — we'll be glad to share any organizational information we gather, because the more people we can inspire to do this kind of work, the better!

http://www.sex-is-sacred.org/newPorn.htm

What do you think. Does sex have to be dirty in order for it to be hot?

I think many of our authors at lit have approached this idea of 'serious emotional erotica' with great success. I think it's an awsome idea. I think it's cool that they are experementing with it and forming a co-op to expand on their ideas and hopefully bring some of them to life. I'd really like to see how they approach this in film and photography especially.

What do you think?

 

[Songcatcher]

Ratt.

 

[elsol]

Sounds like girly porn to me.

I've seen those porn movies; lots of girl/girl and no money shot!!!

How can I feel properly relaxed without some girl getting splooged dead-on the tatoo at the small of her back?

Serious emotional erotica?

*shiver*

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[rikaaim]

Everything that I've written so far, mainly what's not posted here at Lit (which is only one story), as involved a deep emotional tie to sex. I try to incorporate real issues and concerns through my characters and use sex as a tool to handle the situation. Sex is a verb after all. At least last time I checked it was. I don't exactly have a bottle of sex sitting on my shelf at home. If there were such a thing I think the world would be a better place.

 

[bashfull]

I think that something like this would work. Unfortunately, our society appears to have removed sensuality and intimacy from sex. Eroticism and romance are disappearing virtures in todays porn...whether written or visual. All sex, and no intimacy, no anticipation, no seduction...just hard core, pounding sex (ahhh, I mean, so I've heard anyway...not that I would know...though there's nothing wrong with that...I mean...)

While there is still, obviously, a place for hard porn, I fully support this new/old idea.


Bash

 

[Colleen Thomas]

High Brow porn has a history of commercial failure.

Caligula for example.

Several of the Mitchell brother's adaptations of Victorian classics were actually pretty well done.

The problem with high brow porn, is that your target audience in the porn industry isn't usually highbrow. Much like the population at large. the more artsy a movie is, the smaller the box office draw usually is.

Cast arnie as a killer of some sort. Get your writers to whip up a few good one liners. Blow bunch of stuf up. Show off some cool weapontry. Meaga bucks.

When that formula works, why take a chance on anything else?

In porn the formula most often used is parody of some sort, with plenty of naked women and lots of sex, an obligatory lesbian scene and at least one big name starlet.

As long as that formula is working, few will try something else. Unlike a big stuidio most pron produces can't take the finanacial hit of promoting something heavily and having it flop.

then too, porn is becoming aninternet endeavor with small start up and operating costs. hWhen that is your competition, big budget gambles make even less sense.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Porn is also usually cheaply made and swiftly filmed. Much of its profitability lies in its very low overhead. Unfortunately, making something of quality takes more investment and hence more risk.

Which is a damned shame, because I would quite love to see what these people come up with.

Let me plug, while I am at it, Playboy's "Inside Out." The title is awful and I don't think much of the first piece, but this series of erotic vignettes is a wonderful collection that really works. The sex is not "hard core," but it is often enticing, and there are also some comedy pieces that inevitable have both the SO and I simply howling with laughter. The acting is very good, the story lines are top notch (with the possible exception of my dislike for the first), and there are some that have real depth and beauty to them. The production values are also very high - good, strong, professional work on filming, sets, and lighting, not the usual cheesy porn stuff. Highly recommended if you're looking for something more subtle and more crafted than face shots and gang bangs.

Shanglan

 

[CharleyH]

Sounds like girly porn to me.

I've seen those porn movies; lots of girl/girl and no money shot!!!
Sincerely,
ElSol

Lesbian porn is HUGE money, you are wrong Non-nude is also huge hence the 18 to 23 niche.

 

[CharleyH]

Porn is also usually cheaply made and swiftly filmed. Much of its profitability lies in its very low overhead. Unfortunately, making something of quality takes more investment and hence more risk.

Which is a damned shame, because I would quite love to see what these people come up with.

Let me plug, while I am at it, Playboy's "Inside Out." The title is awful and I don't think much of the first piece, but this series of erotic vignettes is a wonderful collection that really works. The sex is not "hard core," but it is often enticing, and there are also some comedy pieces that inevitable have both the SO and I simply howling with laughter. The acting is very good, the story lines are top notch (with the possible exception of my dislike for the first), and there are some that have real depth and beauty to them. The production values are also very high - good, strong, professional work on filming, sets, and lighting, not the usual cheesy porn stuff. Highly recommended if you're looking for something more subtle and more crafted than face shots and gang bangs.

Shanglan

I am pretty certain you should invest, there will be a revolution soon. Gonzo and tacky reality porn is going to go by the way of Happy Days. Mark my words, everyone is tired of it.

 

[The_Fool]

Lesbian porn is HUGE money, you are wrong Non-nude is also huge hence the 18 to 23 niche.

I just had the visual flash of you acting the domineering director of a Lesbian scene in a movie.....Tight fighing jodhpurs, white silk blouse, knee high riding boots, riding crop and a sinister smile......


Rather a cliche don't you think?

 

[CharleyH]

I just had the visual flash of you acting the domineering director of a Lesbian scene in a movie.....Tight fighing jodhpurs, white silk blouse, knee high riding boots, riding crop and a sinister smile......


Rather a cliche don't you think?

I just had a vision of you in a tutu and me fucking you with a big black dildo. Very cliche - no? lol

 

[The_Fool]

I just had a vision of you in a tutu and me fucking you with a big black dildo. Very cliche - no? lol

Sounds more like a beer commercial to me.....


We SHOULD do something nasty, disgusting and sexual though.......

 

[CharleyH]

Sounds more like a beer commercial to me.....


We SHOULD do something nasty, disgusting and sexual though.......

TELL ME!

 

[Songcatcher]

Soon.

 

[sweetnpetite]

I think it would be cool if they could get Angelina Jolie involved. It seems like just her thing. She's very openly and outspokenly sexual and even freaky, and so strong of body mind and spirit. Plus, she's definatly a box office draw.

I think the problem is that whenever someone makes some beautiful erotica, the mainstream lables it as porn and so they don't see it and the porn audience lables it as too arty and they don't either.

I'm not thinking arty, or even girly (whatever that means). I'm thinking explicit while still providing an emotional connection (not mearly a silly pointless plot to laugh at) think R rated movies (good ones) where they don't pan away. Or even soap operas (sometimes) where they don't pan away. I'd love an x-rated soap. that would be so cool. (nip/tuck is getting pretty close)

Mainstream is getting more and more daring especially cable tv (nip/tuck for example) so maybe if we can get over our 'sex is dirty but emotions are scary' hangups it could happen. Truely I think that's the biggest obstacle. And many want to keep it that way, they don't think sex will be fun anymore if we clean it up and make it all beautiful and spiritual and stuff. They say, "Keep sex dirty." I think there's room for both.

 

[Liar]

I'm not thinking arty, or even girly (whatever that means). I'm thinking explicit while still providing an emotional connection (not mearly a silly pointless plot to laugh at) think R rated movies (good ones) where they don't pan away. Or even soap operas (sometimes) where they don't pan away. I'd love an x-rated soap. that would be so cool. (nip/tuck is getting pretty close)

Did anybody else see the tv series Rude Awakening? It was something as odd as an adult sitcom, centrered around a recovering alcoholic and merrily indulding sexaholic played by Sheilyn Fenn. It touched subjects (sex and otherwise) you'd never hear about on "Friends", used language that would get it constantly bleeped out on any prime time slot and occationally exposed skin, boobs and butts like a playboy vid. But always motivated for the story.

As a concept, I'd like to see it revived and explored a bit more. Hard to say who'd air it if it got more explicit though.

 

[herecomestherain]

Sexy explicit films that celebrate the joy and pleasure of the connection between real life lovers is being made - my friend Tony Comstock and his wife at Comstock Films make it. As he says though, making sex films outside of the ususal porn valley offerings can be a lonely business. Tony recently did a great podcast interview with Sam Sugar from Sugarbank.com, if you're interested in knowing why porn is the way it is, I'd recommend listening in, it's pretty entertaining. http://www.sugarbank.com/2005/10/podnography_12_.html