The Basics

So you want to make your own porno – awesome! The more individual, unique takes we get on pornography the better. If you make the kind of thing you would want to masturbate to, chances are there is someone else out there who would wank to it too!

 Lightsouthern has a standard. As adult producers we have created our best practice so we can sleep at night. We know our standards are high, but we also believe that if you are new to the industry – and even if you are not – there should be a standard. Being ethical goes even further, and again this is something everyone should be aiming for, I’ll go into this later. First up…

Have you been on a film set before?

Have you been on an adult set before?

Have you worked as a performer in the adult industry before? 

If you answered “No” to any or all of these questions, you might want to consider familiarising yourself with being onset on an adult shoot before you attempt your own film. I’m going to say that if you want to jump straight into Directing with no experience,  you are putting people’s safety in jeopardy -that is unethical. Don’t do it, earn your stripes and know what your role is before you place yourself at the helm.

Having been a performer yourself gives you the kind of insight that I believe makes a massive difference. It’s so important to be sensitive to the needs and concerns of people working in a sexual and potentially vulnerable space and those who have been in that space themselves are especially well equipped to empathise. Put yourself in the performers shoes as best you can, don’t ask them to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself.

Not an absolute essential… just something to ponder.

At Lightsouthern we believe in keeping sets small and having all crew doing multiple roles. We work this way largely because of the nature of adult films, performers are performing very intimate acts and having a small set gives them the privacy and space to do their job with more focus than they might if they have the person who gets the coffee watching from the sidelines. Of course this means crew members need to be multi-skilled and above all USEFUL.

 There is nothing like being on-set to learn. I learnt by carrying other shooters bags and getting lunches. You can start here: Familiarising yourself with gear. Learning the names the gear, lights, stands, camera lenses and cameras. What goes in what bag. How to make coffee & tea. Go into this as a learning experience and take what you can. You are not above anyone on set and your attitude is also an important asset.

As you go on, knowing some basic lighting, how to operate a camera and some basic principles of sound will put you in front. Again, I didn’t know anything – I constantly asked a lot of annoying questions to a lot of people.

 Knowing these things (or learning real fast) is what I look for in an assistant, but for you, making your own films knowing this stuff will save you time, money and can certainly be the difference between getting a usable shoot or not.

Coming up next week: Pre-Production and the importance of Full Disclosure