Making quality porn today

[RonTheLogician]

Originally Posted by danielle_ftv

...To be honest I would rather produce quality porn content. That's something that I've been talking to people about and plan on implementing at some point soon.

Hello Danny,

Below, I'd like to offer you a short example of what I think of as quality porn. And of course I wish you every possible success with your stated aspirations!

It is a rare (non-existent?) feature film which doesn't use instrumental music. Indeed, this is a useful tradition which predates the emergence of synchronized sound in films: silent films would always be accompanied by live instrumental music - to communicate emotion.

In the "Golden Age of Porn" - the film-based work of the 1970s and early 1980s - music was often used, but typically was limited to stereotypical porn groove which mimicked the rhythm of coitus. (Listen to examples here; porn groove even has its own official "ID3" genre tag for mp3s!) More rarely, music was used in the manner common for feature films. Of course, when porn moved to videotape in the 1980s, shooting and editing costs were greatly cut and many types of quality went way down, as producers tried to grind out as much quantity as possible. And with the advent of the Internet and plunging digital storage prices, the piracy so enabled has put vastly more pressure on cutting quality to keep prices at rock-bottom.

Alas, one is left to ask: Is producing high-quality artwork of ANY kind - including porn - financially worth the effort if one can grind out an emotionally intense product at much lower creation cost without it? I won't try to answer here. On to my example!

I know part of your early years were spent at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Surely you know that its name is now forever linked with the 1988 air show horror which tragically destroyed so very many lives. Today, it is also the inspiration for a German musical band's name: Rammstein. (The extra m suggests rammen, in English, to ram.) Such use is appropriate enough, because the band's artwork is generally preoccupied with outting the nastiness and horrors of life. Indeed, the premier 1995 album includes a song named Rammstein which clearly references the air show disaster. Their songs usually offer the bleak outlook: Life's a be-atch - and then you die!

But an EXCEPTION to their usual output is a joyous celebration of sex and American porn, a music video, much of it in English, succinctly titled P U S S Y. A few years ago, it became their first number one single in Germany. Do watch the uncut version here.

The band members "Photoshopped" onto nude female bodies

This is a very complicated music video in which many, many elements are coordinated to produce the final product. It took a LOT of work and the cooperation of MANY pros. As they say, "Don't try this at home!"

On the other hand, nearly all of the video editing it uses is rather easily accomplished with common, now rather inexpensive, software tools for PCs. The big exception is the (alleged) compositing of some of the explicit sex footage where genitals are artificially attached to people who are not their real owners. Yes, LITERAL "stunt c o c k s "!

Some of the editing tricks used which the hobbyist can now do at home include these:
1. Titles overlaying camera footage
2. Use of the continuous sound track from one scene for a sequence of scenes
3. Many rapid visual cuts to build excitement and obviate habituation
4. Varied transitions between scenes: jump cuts and occasional cross-fades
5. Overlaying two pieces of footages using semi-transparency (like a "frozen" cross-fade)
6. Use of multiple cameras to capture the scene where the band plays music
7. Slowing down the footage of the flag waving

Should you want access to such tricks for your own work, you SURELY need not go as far as earning that EnterTech certificate at ASU. (Although it's great to know that the guy running that show is quite comfy with porn!) Many laypeople now do the stuff I listed above at home on PCs - you'd just have to meet one of them and work out a deal. (See the breakout-box on video editing below.)

Dramatically, P U S S Y teases. Perhaps sex is the most exciting when it occurs in an unexpected ("inappropriate" or "forbidden") context, and this video strives to achieve this effect. While we've seen innumerable music videos over the years, only rarely have they crossed over into uncompromising porn. While this one does end up using very hard-core footage, it starts out using coy verbal and visual euphemisms for sexual parts and activities. A naive viewer may ask himself: Gosh, how far will they go? Thus he then lands up going OMG in the end.

I hope you enjoy P U S S Y! I know I do.

P.S. Speaking of Snow White again, Rammstein offers a version in which the dwarfs have a sadomasochistic thing going with their cottage guest in the PG-13 music video Sonne here. (Wow: 20 million plays!) And given your sexual tastes, you might also like Rammstein's B?ck dich (in English, Bend over).

"The Filmmaker's Handbook:
A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age",
3rd ed (Plume, 2007)

from Chapter 14, "Editing Video":

"Today, even many kids have had a chance to shoot some video, capture it
into a basic editing program, and make a little movie...

"Filmmakers vary in their interest or ability to deal with technical stuff.
Some editors with great filmmaking skills know very little about the systems
they work on. Others are techno-geeks and proud of it... Whatever your level
of interest or ability, try to find people who can advise you... Remember
that the same basic editing functions exist somewhere in each popular NLE.
It?s like driving a car?there are many designs, but the steering wheel,
ignition, and pedals are the same all over the world."

[danielle_ftv]

I love Rammstein! They were the first band I saw in concert. I went to see them with my brother a couple years ago. It was an incredible experience.

[RonTheLogician]

Originally Posted by danielle_ftv

I love Rammstein! They were the first band I saw in concert. I went to see them with my brother a couple years ago. It was an incredible experience.

Now I have a new fantasy - taking you to a Rammstein concert one day. (I even know German.)

Since you are a fan, perhaps you'd like to watch a clip on the making of Rammstein's music video P u s s y, here. The quality is not great, but there are English (plus huge Russian) captions when people speak German rather than English. (Aside: YouTube currently hosts a mobile phone clip from their 2012 Tempe concert.)

I hope your family has a great time on your upcoming trip to Mexico!!! No doubt you'll shoot some (private!) snapshots and video footage as keepsakes. That being so, I'd like to seduce you into the notion of using same as fodder for your first adventure into video editing.

I know you don't like math - and maybe it was not your best school subject either. But today, video editing is nothing like doing math homework, but instead, rather like beading a necklace or seaming a quilt - except that the personal computer does all the tedious work. See what I mean by spending under ten minutes watching usage demos of Microsoft Movie Maker on YouTube here. If this Windows app is not already installed on your PC, you can download a free copy of version 2.6 for installation from Microsoft's Web page here.

[danielle_ftv]

Originally Posted by RonTheLogician

But today, video editing is nothing like doing math homework, but instead, rather like beading a necklace or seaming a quilt - except that the personal computer does all the tedious work. See what I mean by spending under ten minutes watching usage demos of Microsoft Movie Maker on YouTube here. If this Windows app is not already installed on your PC, you can download a free copy of version 2.6 for installation from Microsoft's Web page here.

You do know that I edit all my own videos right? I edit, update, etc. everything on here (well except for dealing with the forum which Anoree and the other moderators do).

[RonTheLogician]

Originally Posted by danielle_ftv

You do know that I edit all my own videos right? I edit, update, etc. everything on here (well except for dealing with the forum which Anoree and the other moderators do).

I knew you handled updating the Website, but I was under the (evidently false!) impression that someone else handled the actual cinematography and its editing (except for the vlogs). I apologize for misleading anyone.

I guess the reason for my confusion was your response to my earlier query. Laying a (new) soundtrack over existing footage is one of the simplest things to do in any video editor today, and you already have all the gear you need to do so. Really!

I was just trying to be helpful... I want you to have as much power as possible to do interesting things which give you pleasure and profit!

[danielle_ftv]

It may be easy...I've never tried so I wouldn't know how easy it is. It doesn't help that I use a very old school program for editing my videos too