Camille Crimson

I’m a really lucky woman for many reasons, and one of them is that my site has afforded be many platforms to share my thoughts and express myself.  Even non-porn-oriented sites have allowed me to come and spread the good news about beautiful porn…  That makes me sound like an evangelist!  :P  One such site is HoboTrashcan, which shares the best of pop culture from all corners of the internet and beyond.  We’re working on a monthly column of sorts called The Real Camille, which will meld my non-porn life with “lessons” about our sexual selves and our relationships…  It’s taking form still, but I think it’s going to be great.  For now, I’ve got my first piece up, which is all about our hang-ups.  Here is a little snippet:

The vast majority of the population has some really hard lines in their minds about sexuality and how it interacts in our lives. We’re told that there’s a certain way to have and enjoy sex – as privately as possible! Anyone flagrantly exposing their sexual life, especially for financial gain, must have something wrong with them, right?

Wrong! (At least as far as I’m concerned.) I can’t speak for everyone, but my journey into the world of sharing my sexual self came very naturally and has left me whole and validated in my life.

There is no real reason why sex should be private. Our culture has had a very damaging effect when it comes to segmenting our “private” parts and our “private” moments. Our sexual education comes from on high, skewing the information for entertainment or for wholesomeness.

There’s very little real, frank talk about sex, especially its potential for good in relationships and just for ourselves. Without sounding too lofty and optimistic, that’s something I’m trying to undo in the world. It’s a big goal, but I’m not alone.

 

There’s more where that came from and you can see for yourself!  What do you think?  Do you agree with my assessment and what other steps should we all be taking to make the world a more open place?

Today has been a really refreshing, recharging day to get creative and inspired for lots of great things to come.  I know I say that often, but it really is true.  We’re so lucky in this company to have the combination of creativity and drive that continually pushes us forward.  We’ve come leaps and bounds and we’re only getting started.

I recently shared some tips with Porn is my Nirvana all about how to make it in the adult industry.  I’ve included a few of the questions and answers here:

How would you advise a woman who wants to have sex in front of the camera and be successful at it?
You need to do it for the right reasons. Someone who is doing it to be famous or make a quick buck can be identified, and people would rather work with someone who is good investment, at least when it comes to more reputable companies. Know your limits, research the going rate for porn performance in your area and don’t go below that. The best thing to do is to find the porn that speaks to you and contact them about modeling. Get some simple shots taken to share. Look into possibly getting an agent. You could also go through cam work as another entrance into the market. Even make up some business cards and go to an adult industry event. There are lots of ways to get attention. When it comes to being successful after that, it’s all about being a self-possessed person.

 

Is it tougher for men to get paid work as a performer?
Absolutely. More men want to do it, there’s a lot of pressure to be of a certain size and to stay hard. If you’re not in LA, you’ll find it hard to find a job, much less any jobs. Unless you genuinely have the passion and drive to put up with a lot of low-paying jobs to make your dreams come true, being a man in porn is not for you. The focus is primarily on women, and male stars are the exception, not the rule. It’s unfortunate, but true. I mean, if you want to be a gay performer, that’s a whole other can of worms, but I don’t know as much about that.

 

I want to start my own adult website but have no idea where to begin… register a domain, and then…?
Get the content, know your brand, set up a payment processor, set up an affiliate program, get samples of your content out there, publicize your site to industry blogs, have a strong social media presence… There’s a lot to it. That’s why it helps to have a company that you’re working with. It’s a lot for just one person.

There are more tips on Porn is my Nirvana, so go check.  Has any of this inspired you?  Have any of you ever wanted to make a run at working in the adult industry in some way?

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

There’s been a lot of talk about SOPA and PIPA over the past few days and there are a lot of site blackouts today.  I wouldn’t do that, because there are people paying for my site and it’d be mean to decided to take time out of their subscription.  Never the less, I think it’s important that people are aware of what’s currently being proposed for the internet and what ramification such laws could yield.

SOPA and PIPA have some ideas that could be alright, but it’s not being approached in a way that is good for civil liberties or creative expression.  There is too much up to interpretation with the proposed regulations and there is too much power put into the hands of the government and of really big businesses.  It could have real consequences for the internet as we know it.  As with the recent bill requiring condoms in porn in Los Angeles, there has not been much effort to listen to the people who are actually on the ground level of internet technology and experience.  It’s all well and good to have ideas to create more ways to protect intellectual property and copyright, but the idea that this discussion should take place without emphasis on the people who will be most directly impacted is ludicrous.

I’m not going to run around like the sky is falling, but I do encourage everyone to be informed and take the action you deem necessary to make sure that the internet continues to evolve, moving forward creatively, socially and technologically.  There absolutely needs to be something done about piracy, but it must be approached from a different angle with much more nuance and less carelessly broad statements.  I hope that this message is heard and that people decide to go back to the drawing board to find a better way to deal with things.

To close, a rallying cry about LOLcats:

Haha! Yes, that is Sophie with Ron Jeremy at the XBIZ Awards.

As you know, we had Sophie representing us at XBIZ and, I must say, she did a great job. She even had to improvise and make extra business cards because she did so much networking that she ran out, despite having an ample stack as she left for LA.  She’s written up a great summary which can be seen on WhackMagazine, but she’s also included a little personal note about her time there as it specifically relates to the work we do:

I’ve got to say, XBIZ was amazing, but it wasn’t just because of the chance to hang out with sexy people and do a lot of business… A big part of the reason why I loved being there so much is because I love the company I’m representing. I’m a huge porn consumer and I’m a fan of a variety of different approaches, but when it comes to working in porn, beautiful porn is the only kind for me. Whenever I hand people my card, they respond with delight, mostly because they are very well aware of the sites. On the rare occasion that they haven’t heard of our work, they’re immediately intrigued by the concept of beautiful porn created by people who have an incredible connection.

 

Even though we feel very small in our little company, the influence is far-reaching and it is genuinely changing the face of the industry. The keynote speech at the conference broke down the potential for success in the adult business, and the facts about content producers were as clear as day. If you’re putting up the same old stuff and not caring at all, you will not get anywhere. Give up now. But if you’re making something fresh and new, reaching out to your audience and putting love into your site, now is the best time to be making porn! People will care about what you do, they’ll be so refreshed by your approach and it will flourish. There aren’t nearly as many companies as you’d think who really take this to heart, so it’s wonderful to be a part of a company that lives and dies by these ideals.

 

We didn’t win. That kind of sucked. I was poised there with my camera, adrenaline pumping, shaking like a leaf as our category came up, preparing to take a shot of our name on the screen. It never did. Maybe it’s because we’ve received so many accolades already, but there was a part of me that genuinely believed we’d win. I was disappointed, but the fact is, we’re a small company. We’ve only been working towards really getting our content out there in the past year to two years. The fact that we were up with so many well-known multimillion dollar companies is something to be grateful for in and of itself. But I hope we’re up for the award again next year, and hopefully a few more where that came from. This kind of porn is worthy of recognition. We’re already making impressive strides, but the day will come that our name will be at mainstream awards.

It’s so heartening to know that word is getting out about what we do, and I share the optimism that we will continue to climb that hill, sharing more and more widely that porn can be beautiful.

A wonderful journalist named Robert Seitzinger decided to take to the blog This or That to dispel the myth that porn has no artistic merit.  He proved the possibility of beautiful, artistic porn using Lilyanne, Sophie and myself as examples…  Pretty flattering, no?

Sites such as YouPorn and RedTube allow anyone with a handheld cam to share their sexual endeavors with the world. Most amateur clips give traction to the argument that porn is a cinematic enterprise with zero artistic value, that porn serves only to get viewers off, and no beauty can be seen in videos of blowjobs, female ejaculation, foot fetishism, or any other sexual activity.

However, art porn is a growing segment of sexual cinema. Viewers and performers are evolving their stance on what adult film can accomplish. More than money shots or spank material, art porn emotes and depicts honest intimacy between partners as it incorporates production value beyond the sound of grunts and moans, shaky camera work, and poor lighting.

 ”On an aesthetic level, people really appreciate the artistry,” Crimson says. “On a personal level, people really love knowing that we’re a real couple sharing our passion.”

“The potential for creativity is boundless in porn,” Delancey says. “The fact is that so few people actually try to explore those avenues, so the people who do are real pioneers. Even though it’s a huge industry, there is so much room for innovation and pioneers really are recognized.”

“Sexuality is made to be connected with love, and what we are trying to do with our work is reconnecting this broken link in pornography” – Lilyanne Bloom

EDIT: I found out I was mistaken about the DRM. It turns out the video has no DRM. Sorry for the confusion!

You all know I love Louis CK, right? Well, in case you didn’t know, now you do. He’s a brilliant and hilarious individual. I’m a big fan of his show, I’ve been lucky enough to see him in person and I bought his latest DVD called Live at the Beacon Theatre. The promotion he did for this latest DVD is very unorthodox, and I wanted to talk about it a bit today, specifically as it relates to my own experiences with the porn industry.

What Louis CK has done with his DVD is to have it available as an online item, which means that there’s no physical product, so he decided to charge just $5 for the video. Personally, I think he was selling himself a bit short, since it’s no more than a quarter of what an average comedy DVD would run for, but who am I to judge?

The result was incredibly positive, and he ended up breaking even within half a day and make a considerable amount of money within a week. That’s pretty impressive, but the fact is that he would have probably made more money and had to spend much less time and energy on it if he had just gone the traditional route. So, why did he do it?

Piracy. And I hate piracy. I applaud him for doing something like this to send out a message about how unfair piracy is. People don’t want to pay enough money for artists to actually turn a profit, so they find a way to get it for free. He’s created the alternative, to get more people to pay less instead of less people to pay more. He took a project he cared about, created it from the ground up, compensated the people around him fairly and gave a over a quarter of a million dollars to charity. That is a really cool thing of him to do, because he is a really cool guy. I wouldn’t expect any less from him and it’s really inspiring for someone like me, who deals with piracy and does things herself.

As I’m sure you can imagine, I deal with thoughts like this all the time. My sites aren’t ridiculously expensive, but people don’t need them to live, so they won’t pay for them unless they have ample money to do so. I completely understand it. To those of you who enjoy the blog and check out the free samples, great. I have no problem with that at all. What I have a problem with is that there is this deep sense of entitlement that results in people pirating what I do, posting it on evil forums, sharing around passwords and uploading my content to tubes. It’s one thing for me to share some samples, but it’s quite another for someone to decide they’ll just throw up a whole bunch of my new videos.

Piracy in general is a really big deal in porn. Everyone suffers, but at least larger companies can take the hit. Smaller companies rely on memberships to survive. The worst thing is that, whenever I find someone posting my content illegally, they are always so positive about it. They obviously like what I do and they act like they were just trying to help when I politely ask them to take it down. We’re in a culture where we’re already pretty deep in the mentality that “I can get it for free, so why should I pay?” and it’s not a good thing for a lot of industries.

This isn’t to say that we’re having issues staying afloat or anything. We’re lucky enough to be doing quite well. But the fact remains that each time someone pirates our content, that’s money that could be put towards creating new sites, hiring more people so we can focus more on shooting, getting better equipment… The things that will ensure that you can have lots more of the stuff you enjoy.

Ultimately, Louis CK’s experiment has opened some eyes about what has become necessary for artists to make a living making what people love. He’s brought an alternative to piracy into the spotlight, now it’s just important to look at his example and see what we can do to be as innovative.