So, I’m Making Porn Now.
By: Jay Pendragon
Tags: Filmmaking, Pornography, Feminism, Writing, Sexuality

So, I’m Making Porn Now.

Image by Shutterbug75 from Pixabay

Yes, you read correctly. I’m making porn now.

Visual pornography has always held a certain fascination for me. As a filmmaker, the logistics and processes of shooting such explicit material seemed mysterious, the motivation behind the participants merely money-driven.

For me, writing scripts hasn’t been about money in ages, so my curiosity about the porn industry vanished along with my ambitions to win an Oscar.

Yet somehow, the universe nudged me back onto this path… albeit in a very different manner.

Enter Feuer.zeug Films

After a make-up artist friend of mine, whom I met during a trailer shoot for a zombie apocalypse TV show that never got made, moved to another town, he came across a feminist, student-led porn production startup that inspired him with their values.

They’re simple, yet revolutionary in a usually so exploitative genre:

Performers choose what to show in explicit scenes and their boundaries are respected without question.

There is a designated concern appointee on set who serves as a neutral point of contact for everyone involved in case they feel uncomfortable or unsafe.

Everyone on set has contracts and is compensated for their work and time.

All content is free of discrimination, racism and other micro-agression.

Women are involved behind the scenes as well — no room for the ‘male gaze’. (In our case, we have two nonbinary team members as well.)

My friend served as a make-up artist on both previous productions of feuer.zeug films and remains enthusiastic about their work process. He has also always wanted to try his hand at directing, so when the production company asked who would like to direct in 2020, he immediately volunteered.

Enter the screenwriter

Since writing isn’t his strong suit, he reached out to me and asked me to join him in coming up with concepts to pitch. We quickly had three ready to share, one of which was chosen by the production company to execute as soon as the pandemic allows.

To me, it felt like fate — my curiosity had finally been answered, and my Muse loved the challenge of creating an artistically valuable explicit short film with zero dialogue. Then the company suggested our concept become the first gay film they produce, and we adjusted the concept again.

Writing the script was amongst the easiest jobs I ever had the pleasure of executing. It’s short, yes, but we had developed such a clear concept that very little blanks were left to fill, plot-wise.

And yes, this porn has a plot.

It’s limited and leads to eventual intimacy, but it still needs to work on a story level. Otherwise, the target audience won’t enjoy the film.

Pre-production limbo

Right now, as of December 2020, we have a cast, 99% of a crew, a very tight budget and a possible location.

Turns out that explaining to property owners that allowing us to film in their building will help teach their children valuable lessons about consent and what humane pornography can be like actually might pan out?

Knock on wood. They haven’t agreed yet…

My job as a writer isn’t done, though: Our two leads have met (virtually) and given us the green light, meaning “Yes, I’m comfortable enough with this person to get naked on camera.”

Due to how inclusive the production standards are, though, performers have a huge role in the shaping of the film. The director and I handle it by letting the cast fine-tune their roles and adjusting the script accordingly.

I’m genuinely excited to hear what our cast comes up with and to tackle the first of probably many, many rewrites…

After all, film is a collaborative medium. Porn doesn’t have to be any different, in the end.