A recent article in Rolling Stone describes a shift in the porn/fetish industry towards custom videos, primarily as a way for producers to stay viable in the age of incessant piracy.
It’s really well written and worth reading. You can check it out here.
Posted by
HM
I'm the creator (and *former* owner) of this web site and the director of such videos as the Omega Girl, Asami, Agent Alexis, Wonderful Lady series, and many others. I no longer shoot videos or run this website, but I can be reached at heroinemovies (at) yahoo (dot) com.
The high price of customs is pretty ridiculous. Yeah there’s that value of having your own fantasy scenario, but like any other movie production there isn’t one with a story. In that regard someone on their end is converting into a usable script, but they’re basically getting free writing, and possibly free character concepts as well. Plus, someone else is going to end up buying the video besides the one who ordered it. Sure they might be taking more of a financial chance with a custom, depending on the content, but a lot of customs I’m aware of are often… Read more »
Whether customs are too expensive or not, is in the eye of the beholder so to speak. Take Ms. Carter for example, she has a business model or modus operandi which is expensive. Obviously, this could be a turn off for some people, nevertheless there must be a significant number of customers who are enamoured enough with her productions and who are willing to pay for customs to satisfy their personal fetishes. To repeat myself from an earlier post, that while Ms. Carter produces films which do not appeal to me, the quality of her productions is terrific. One should… Read more »
Thats absolute stupid.
Custom costs from 5000 to 10000 Dollar.
I buy nearly every 2 months a custom between 150 $ and 800 $ for 1 hour.
That are porn stars too.
When Producers and starlets make their customs cheaper, i believe there will be more customers as everytime.
Well, if I was amazed with 5K, then I am even more amazed with 150 for a custom. Ms. Carter put her numbers into context and so I understand the logic of her pricing. Other producers have different methods to deliver a custom. Some producers do their own editing and some have the wherewithal to film several customs a day. I have never bought from her, nevertheless the photos and trailers do indicate a very high quality product with amazing actors.
I said this on the other forum too, but personally I’m wondering why the superheroine fetish community isn’t specifically mentioned in this article other than erroneous mention of a “Wonder Woman bikini” (it’s a full costume, buddy) if two of the three photos associated with this article are specifically from Christina’s SHIP videos. They seem to focus on the more unusual stuff – maybe the writer just thought SHIP was too tame?
It costs 5 grand to get a custom from Christina Carter??
Really, that is a very impressive sum of money. i take it that for this amount you get hardcore. I guess that the shoot will take place over several days.
It says in the article that she charges more for the videos like that particular one that she doesn’t think will sell well. If something is so hyper-specific that probably only you would be interested in it, then you have to underwrite more of the cost.
Correct, what you are paying is the overhead.. I only make money on the back end if it sells on the clip stores. I also am paying out a huge percentage to the clipstore and paying an assistant to send down takedown notices to all the tube sites when it is posted for free by some dumb schmuck that thinks he’s doing everyone favors. Bottom line… I’m not raking in the money by any means. Years ago.. 2010-2014.. we did make great $ in the fetish biz.. and then we had to put it all back in to try to… Read more »
For an hour-ish long hardcore movie with a popular model, I guess that’s possible. I’ve never gone past mid-ish 3-figure quotes, although I have been tempted
In the past I did pay about 3k for a couple of customs. During the last 12 months, I had 5 customs filmed by Damien, they were all around 2K euros. Most of them were shot over 2 days. The costs covered actress salaries, rent for the locale and some miscellaneous items including food.
BTW, his videos have some awesome AOH sequences. While most of them are in the vertical position, there are a few which take place in a horizontal position. My personal favourite is the heroine stretched out in the bath tub and water boarded.
She’s good, but she’s not even close to THAT good.
Wow…lol.. everyone has a right to there opinion. I hope that someone is filling your orders and you are getting exactly what you want. I wish you the best
Sorry, nothing personal there. I’ve seen several of your vids and they’re all very good, but I feel the article is overstating the problem. NOTHING will get rid of net porn. They’d have to get rid of the net itself first. It’s not going anywhere, and the loss to piracy is overrated, or a lot of people would have gone under by now. All that said, it’s a film genre, just like any other, and we always like to see people put quality into their work. Offering customs is great, because most of us have ideas. I personally have ideas… Read more »
On the one hand, you make fair points. However, how well do you think a porn-writing gig pays?! They are not scrimping very much at all by not paying a writer!! . Fair enough, having your own ideas produced in the form of a custom is not worth what Christina’s charging to you – I happen to agree with that point. But there’s people who NEED exactly what they are asking for – and Christina provides that. In order for her to produce these films exclusively, she would need to charge into the tens of thousands to recoup cost-price. Producing… Read more »
It’s not just me, it’s everything you are getting.. the girls, location, the videographer. I don’t use just some guy with a camera. I understand a lot of people can not afford these prices. But let me tell you, when I am making a clip for you… with no funding.. I am using my $, my own.. and I pay 120/hr for camera and editing. Why? Because I have always felt it is quality above quantity. That’s just who I am. I do it for you.
Really interesting read. I had no idea that customs were becoming more the norm for the porn industry. i was under the impression that it was only for niche communities like the SHIP one but it looks like everyone’s getting in on the action. Maybe that’s why there’s been more superhero/dress up stuff on some mainstream sites.
I honestly would like to hear from a few producers what they’re thoughts are on this. For me, one of the major takeaways that I got was that this was an issue that was affecting the ENTIRE porn/fetish world and not just super heroine peril world. I had no idea that the issue was widespread. Another thing that really jumps out at me was just how wrong I was in regards to where the genre was in the normal business cycle. I had thought we were in the phase of ‘only the most efficient/best producers will be in business’ stage… Read more »
For me, I am fortunate enough to have been be to able to afford several customs a year. This way, my customs can purely focus on the various options that are must haves for torture sequences (level of intensity, amount of time dedicated to a particular sequence, etc), bondage positions and story lines to satisfy my tastes and fetishes. There only a few producers that turn out films with elaborate story lines with only PG content that would interest me. I am not into nudity, sex or quasi (aka simulated) sex, just give me great looking exposed abs which take… Read more »
I’m all honesty it isn’t too bad of a shift I believe, we get to see some interesting and awesome ideas come to life, although i don’t believe there was a time where that option was not available, besides the producers own awesome content. I just wish the shift wasn’t brought on by so many nasty pirates 🙁
If you see pirated videos you can always report them to the producers and then they can request the video to be taken down.
Unfortunately that only works for so long. All they do is take it down then simply rename it and put it right back up. It got so prevalent and I spent so much time writing these sites about stuff from my site that it wasnt worth the hassle anymore
That’s when you hire a 12 year old to write a bot for you that will automate most of that process. 🙂
I pay someone to do this, it’s a full time job. Sad to say. 🙁 Thank goodness for my custom guys, I’m not sure how any of us would make money in this business if it wasn’t for them. My crew is mainstream and expensive. But you get what you pay for. I pay my VP $120/hr.. most the the shoots we are there up to 7 hours.. that goes for editing too.. $120/hr. Luckily my fans/customers know they are getting a beautiful video in the end. People want paid. Plus, I refuse to ask the girls to take less… Read more »
You have many points ms Carter, you do work with some of the best and most talented people. And one yes! there should be more like you who treat their coworkers how they should be treated! Once again, I’m glad there are those who are able to request a custom from such an incredible store as yours so that we may see those talented people and bring some interesting and awesome ideas to life.
Thank you ms Carter, much love to you and your fantastic team.