Though increasingly diffuse, the adult film industry occupies a central role in the spatial and political economy of California’s San Fernando Valley. We focus our inquiry there in the interests of space and precision, while also attending to the growing production centers of Las Vegas, San Francisco, south Florida, and globally, Brazil and Eastern Europe. A small roster of production and distribution companies, including Manwin, Bang Brothers, Brazzers, West Coast Productions, Evil Angel, Wicked Pictures, Larry Flynt Productions, Playboy Enterprises, and Vivid Entertainment, dominates the adult film industry landscape. But as production costs rise and potential profits from large-scale productions decrease,4 small, boutique production companies producing niche content increasingly populate the adult film industry. In using the term industry, we do not suggest a monolithic, static, or internally consistent body. Instead, we mean to indicate the dynamic networks of workers, management, and institutions that take part in the production process of adult film, all of which are affected by regulatory policies such as Measure B, the 2012 Los Angeles County mandatory condom law that saw more than a 90 percent drop in adult film production permits issued.
Studio executives, investors, producers, talent agents, directors, crew, performers, postproduction editors, and distribution and marketing staff are key players in adult film production. Common institutions connect these actors: trade publications distribute industry news and host annual trade and award shows; the industry’s trade organization, the Free Speech Coalition, lobbies on its behalf and, since the 2010 collapse of what had been an industry-run health clinic, sets the terms for recommended sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing panels and exposure protocols; the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee (APAC), since the fall of 2013, provides worker education such as the Porn 101 video and brings performers together to advocate on their own behalf in discussions of testing protocols and other informal policies; and private but industry-specific testing clinics clear performers for work. Other institutions and actors, while not of the porn industry, are intimately connected to it: multinational software development firms design web platforms and process credit card payments, real estate agents coordinate filming locations, beauty service providers specialize in readying performers for work, publicity firms cater to performers and adult businesses, and nonprofit organizations such as the Aids Healthcare Foundation build political identities and funding bases through their relationships with (or stark opposition to) the industry. In describing the contours of the “industry,” we think it is important to include organizations and institutions that could not exist without the adult industry, such as for-profit “porn addiction” therapies, religious antiporn initiatives like the XXX-CHURCH, which sends its preachers on the college circuit to debate with porn stars (“Jesus loves porn stars!”), and the antiporn feminists who spend extraordinary amounts of time and energy fighting not only the adult industry but those who think it merits study rather than blanket condemnation (Stop Porn Culture).
We also understand the “industry” to encompass the satellite industries—including erotic dance, webcam, escort, and novelty—that enjoy a symbiotic relationship with the adult film industry. This relationship has three dimensions: first, income streams from satellite industries economically sustain adult film performers, securing a reserve army of performer labor for whom the film industry is not financially responsible. Were such income streams not available, it would be difficult if not impossible for performers to maintain themselves amid the vicissitudes of demand, filming schedules, industry, and other factors that mean a performer might work twenty days one month and two the next.5 Second, many performers describe the increased earnings they can draw from satellite industries by marketing themselves as “porn stars” as a primary reason for taking on porn performance.6 Dominic Ace, an adult industry publicist and photographer who has worked as a roadie for performers on feature dancing tours, explained it this way: “You’ve got web sites, you’ve got Skype shows, you’ve got privates [escorting], you’ve got fan clubs, you’ve got custom videos, appearances, feature dancing, Verified Call [a service that connects fans to performers via cell phone], a ton of different revenue streams. . . . You don’t make money doing scenes, a scene is a marketing tool [emphasis added].”7 Talent agents for film frequently recruit in erotic dance clubs and on webcam sites, and adult actresses report having begun careers in these fields, later moving into the film industry. Finally, production companies and agents who sign performers to exclusive contracts may be, depending on the specific terms of the contract, entitled to a percentage of workers’ earnings in satellite industries.
Porn workers push the boundaries of the industry to meet their financial needs, as well as satisfy desires for autonomy, flexibility, and work-life balance. Porn performer and single parent Raylene explained that her average take from three to five hours of webcamming work was comparable to her film performance rate, but webcamming allowed her to have greater control over her schedule and working environment: “I was able to work alone, in my house, during school hours, and then, you know, have the rest of the evening with my child and make a better living at home than when I was in front of the camera.”8 Those performers who prefer satellite industries to adult filmmaking describe taking just enough film gigs to maintain their “brands.” In line with Dominic Ace’s description of scenes as “marketing tool[s],” performer Venus Lux noted, “When you’re in porn, especially transsexual porn, it’s not a money making thing. It’s for the fame, that’s it. The chain reaction of the fame means you can eventually get money.”9 Management too is keenly aware of the industry’s reliance on satellite industries. Christian Mann, a longtime board member of the industry’s trade organization and general manager of distribution giant Evil Angel, compared the porn industry’s increasing reliance on alternative profit streams to similar trends in the mainstream music industry. “The reality is,” he wrote, “albums don’t make money anymore. Record stores are gone, right? So the saving grace for the music industry has been concert tickets.”10
