April marks our third ASGmax Q&A! I have to admit this is a lot of fun. I love talking about smut as much as I like making it, and I am constantly amused by how many curiosities and misconceptions there are around all aspects of the industry.
Once again, some really interesting and thoughtful questions this month! I’m long-winded already, but please feel free to submit follow-up questions for me to respond to for future months. This series will keep going as long as there are questions being submitted!
Enjoy!
April ASGmax Q&A
How do I get a job behind the camera ? – Jay
This is an oddly common question, but it’s pretty much the same way you’d get a job behind the camera for any type of video media. Most videographers have studied film and video or have worked in a video profession before getting into porn. Video and photography are technical art, so it’s not about loving porn, it’s about having skill capturing images of any kind. If you do already happen to have experience and skill in this area, there are often needs for cameramen to join production teams in the cities where porn is shot. Some also work with models directly to shoot fan site content as a way to gain experience.
Nico Coopa is listed as an ASG Exclusive but I saw clips of Nico on another site. It appears your exclusive models also can perform on fan sites and with smaller studios. What are the parameters of being an exclusive model with ASG? – Anthony
Without diving too deep, while a model is under an exclusive contract, they agree not to take work for any other gay porn studio. That does not count fan sites unless they are a 3rd party who just shoots various models to release upon a fan site (which is essentially a studio that’s paying a large fan site tax).
The length of exclusivity is complicated. They sign, but the content they shoot at that moment might take 3-4 months to release. If they’re a new model, there’s a long lag in the initial unveiling. This same tail happens at the end of the contract, as well. Scenes shot while UNDER contact will be labeled with that model as an exclusive, even though that contract may technically have ended when the scene releases.
Do models know in advance when booked for a scene who their scene partner(s) are? Or do they find out on the day? – Lucas
Things change FAST in our industry. Our shoot plans probably fall apart about 25% of the time. Lots of reasons for that. We are totally cool letting people who know their partners will be, but we are also clear with them that it can and does often change. Most professional models don’t worry much about it, actually.
Do models ever veto who they’re paired with, or is that deemed unprofessional? – Lucas
There are occasionally models with “no” lists. They’ll usually let us know up front, just in case. This usually stems from a bad personal experience, incident at another studio, or a collaboration issue. This is totally fine with us, and we’d rather know in advance. A shoot day with two models who hate each other is NOT fun.
From the other perspective do models ever request to be paired with someone in particular (I’d always be asking for Ryder Owens) & is that something you take into consideration when casting? – Lucas
We do have a spot on our post-shoot feedback form that allows for requests. I do my best to pair people who want to work together. BUT… if it’s because they worked together already and enjoyed each other, that’s not really optimal. I don’t want to make content another studio made – or repeat content that our studio made, unless time has passed or the concept is much different. (and yes, Ryder is highly requested!)
Do OF collaborations or former studio collaborations impact how you pair models for scenes? For example, would an OF scene between Andrew Delta and Johnny Donovan… discourage you from doing a studio pairing? Also, another example, both you and Cockyboys both released a scene with Eddie Patrick and Jacob King. Is there a courtesy between studios to hold scenes using the same models, since that sometimes creeps up? – JustMy2Cents
Great questions, and a lot to unpack. First, for fan sites, I don’t actually care at all. From data we’ve gathered, our members are predominantly studio porn fans, they cross over an oddly small amount. Also, the content is SO much different, I actually don’t think they compete. One is polished and pretty and includes more “production,” while the other is going to be shorter, less camerawork, and often higher chemistry or more authentic.
As for studio repeats… In a lot of ways, this is why model exclusivity started out. It’s much easier to avoid repeats when you control who certain models are paired with. When planning our productions, I’ll often search IAFD to see if models have been paired together. I kind of hate repeating a pairing, even if it was at another studio. I think most other studios would like to avoid that happening, also, but it’s going to happen occasionally. It’d be almost impossible to share shoot schedules with another studio – that’s pretty closely guarded info.
Would you be willing to do more scenes that are cuckold or “public” in nature? It is such a turn on to see two guys having sex in front of other people who are clothed and not participating. The Voyeuristic/Exhibitionist aspect of it always so hot when I can find videos, but they are very difficult to find in gay porn. Classroom and locker room settings are especially hot in this regard. – Jon
This comes down to budget, really. You’re paying for every person who appears in front of a camera, and most models don’t want to make the low amount they’d get paid to just sit there. They’d rather join and get their full rate. Same reason you rarely see orgies – it’s crazy expensive unless you’re really milking a model’s day rate and doing several shoots.
I’m curious – how are the “thumbs up” percentages calculated? They appear to have no relationship with the number of views a video has. Some videos with extensive views score low, while scenes watched by few nearly top the charts. Is there other criteria like downloads taken into the mix? – frey
Approval percentages are measuring the thumbs up vs thumbs down. If you hover over the icon you’ll see the actual numbers it’s using to measure. There’s no relation to views. There’s no ONE great way for us to measure a scene’s success, which is annoying. A scene can be loved by a niche audience, but barely viewed, while another can be hate-watched out of curiosity but disliked massively. There’s a lot of discourse around why we have comments on our site (most don’t, and they can be toxic troll farms), but I tend to care most about comments on a scene that has bad mismatches for approval and views. If a scene is getting downvoted, the comments will tell if it’s the pairing dynamics, production value, racism, poor-chemistry, off-type casting, etc.
How do I get a job as a fluffer or bottom? – Pat
If fluffers ever really were a thing… they’re not now. Generally that’s what the scene partner is there for. If not, a cell phone and a hand works great. Wanna be in porn? Apply.
Is it difficult to bring stars to the studio? I know many are doing their own things now via OF or other platforms but do you ever reach out for specific scenes like Men over 30 for older performers? – JEGGH6
I feel like the volume of models and creators now makes “star” a really hard thing to define. The fan site world and the studio world are oddly dissimilar in the audiences. A model might have a huge fan site audience, but not resonate with the studio crowd – and vice versa. The biggest mind-fuck for me has always been how a HUGE social media following does zero to bring members to a studio. Like nothing. Not sure if it’s just falsely inflated numbers (bots) or the people who can jerk off to a :20 clip simply don’t pay for porn – or I often wonder if it’s geographically limited for economic or social reasons.
All that to say I don’t consider many guys to be “stars” these days, but our members tend to like the more low-key “guy next door” types than the on-every-site-all-the-time performers anyway. In terms of older performers, if they’re still performing and want the work, we’re usually connected. Having been around that long, they usually know how to hit us up if they’re looking for work.
Wrap Up
Thanks again for all of your fun questions over the last month or so. It’s really fun lifting the curtain a bit to reveal some of the thinking and things that happen behind the scenes.
If there’s anything you’d like to know next time around, submit using the form below!