Holly Randall makes porn worth paying for
Holly Randall Holly
Randall  tosses out a few suggestions for the next few minutes of foreplay. Then she calls action  and the kissing and moaning resumes.
 Randall  and  her  crew defy this stereotype  and they're making a steady living doing it.
Their glamorous approach may in fact be the key to how  Randall 's productions make money  even as the porn industry struggles more than ever to compete with free content on the internet.
"You have to carve out a niche that people are interested in  that people are willing to pay for  " Randall  says.
Over the summer  I was invited to spend a day on  Randall 's set and unravel my perceptions of adult film production. If there's one thing I learned  it's this: Making good porn isn't easy.
A few hours earlier  the entire crew gathered in a white ranch house atop the hill to eat lunch.  Randall 's assistant  a bubbly twenty-something who says  she  found the position on Craigslist  arrived with a buffet of falafel  chicken shawarma  pita bread  and salad.
In one corner  the tan blonde actress  Nicole Aniston  sat picking a morsel of Mediterranean food out of  her  cleavage.  Her  hair fell in barrel rolls down the front of  her  white robe  and  she  laughed swapping stories with the crew. They had spent most of the morning constructing a Gothic-style lair for a Halloween shoot later in the day.
The mood was hearty. Twistys  a pay-for-play site known for its softer  more glamorous approach to adult content  commissioned  Randall  to shoot its big Treat of the Year package. The feature celebrates the company's most popular star of 2015. The recipient's photos and movies receive special promotion on the site.
Across the room   Randall  hardly paused during the break.  She  conferenced with the makeup artist on how to style Aniston's hair  suggesting they use a bandana for the "Thelma & Louise" inspired scene. Then  she  chatted with the wardrobe stylist  running  her  hands and eyes over denim booty-shorts and a fringe jacket.
Of course  those clothes would come off and the hair would likely come undone in minutes. But  Randall 's attention to detail and high production quality are what set  her  videos apart â and keep  her  in business.
"Gone are the days when you could just build a website  put up whatever  and make money "  Randall  later tells me over the phone  explaining that  her  original material will inevitably by torrented and made available online for free.
"You have to be really competitive  and you have to be good at what you do "  she  says.
Fortunately   Randall  is both.  She  comes from a family of pornographers:  Her  mother   Suze   came to the US in the '70s to become the first female staff photographer at Playboy  and later  Hustler.  Randall  joined the business as a college student  helping to run  her  parents' website  and now leads one of the most illustrious careers in the industry.  Her  clients include Playboy Plus  Adult DVD Empire  and Twistys.
 She  explains that when internet porn first exploded in the early 2000s  its availability was coupled with the arrival of a consumer  professional-grade hand camera. Anyone could buy an affordable video recorder  shoot decent quality content  and share it to a platform that transcended distribution laws.  She  calls it "a perfect storm."
"You saw the beginning of this really hard-core  'Gonzo' type material  where it was almost like the porn Olympics  " Randall  laughs.  She  rattles off examples of sodomy feats that are far too lewd to name here.
Fortunately for  Randall  and the crew  she  hires  some consumers are getting bored of that old smut.
Randall  tosses out a few suggestions for the next few minutes of foreplay. Then she calls action  and the kissing and moaning resumes.
 Randall  and  her  crew defy this stereotype  and they're making a steady living doing it.
Their glamorous approach may in fact be the key to how  Randall 's productions make money  even as the porn industry struggles more than ever to compete with free content on the internet.
"You have to carve out a niche that people are interested in  that people are willing to pay for  " Randall  says.
Over the summer  I was invited to spend a day on  Randall 's set and unravel my perceptions of adult film production. If there's one thing I learned  it's this: Making good porn isn't easy.
A few hours earlier  the entire crew gathered in a white ranch house atop the hill to eat lunch.  Randall 's assistant  a bubbly twenty-something who says  she  found the position on Craigslist  arrived with a buffet of falafel  chicken shawarma  pita bread  and salad.
In one corner  the tan blonde actress  Nicole Aniston  sat picking a morsel of Mediterranean food out of  her  cleavage.  Her  hair fell in barrel rolls down the front of  her  white robe  and  she  laughed swapping stories with the crew. They had spent most of the morning constructing a Gothic-style lair for a Halloween shoot later in the day.
The mood was hearty. Twistys  a pay-for-play site known for its softer  more glamorous approach to adult content  commissioned  Randall  to shoot its big Treat of the Year package. The feature celebrates the company's most popular star of 2015. The recipient's photos and movies receive special promotion on the site.
Across the room   Randall  hardly paused during the break.  She  conferenced with the makeup artist on how to style Aniston's hair  suggesting they use a bandana for the "Thelma & Louise" inspired scene. Then  she  chatted with the wardrobe stylist  running  her  hands and eyes over denim booty-shorts and a fringe jacket.
Of course  those clothes would come off and the hair would likely come undone in minutes. But  Randall 's attention to detail and high production quality are what set  her  videos apart â and keep  her  in business.
"Gone are the days when you could just build a website  put up whatever  and make money "  Randall  later tells me over the phone  explaining that  her  original material will inevitably by torrented and made available online for free.
"You have to be really competitive  and you have to be good at what you do "  she  says.
Fortunately   Randall  is both.  She  comes from a family of pornographers:  Her  mother   Suze   came to the US in the '70s to become the first female staff photographer at Playboy  and later  Hustler.  Randall  joined the business as a college student  helping to run  her  parents' website  and now leads one of the most illustrious careers in the industry.  Her  clients include Playboy Plus  Adult DVD Empire  and Twistys.
 She  explains that when internet porn first exploded in the early 2000s  its availability was coupled with the arrival of a consumer  professional-grade hand camera. Anyone could buy an affordable video recorder  shoot decent quality content  and share it to a platform that transcended distribution laws.  She  calls it "a perfect storm."
"You saw the beginning of this really hard-core  'Gonzo' type material  where it was almost like the porn Olympics  " Randall  laughs.  She  rattles off examples of sodomy feats that are far too lewd to name here.
Fortunately for  Randall  and the crew  she  hires  some consumers are getting bored of that old smut.