.Shooting content for your web site PART I

If you own a pay site, there are several reasons why you should shoot your own content:

Captivating, original, exclusive pictures and videos are only available to your members.

You’ll get better membership retention.

You will be able to sell or lease the content to other web sites after it gets old on your own pay site.

Get some action and have your business pay for it (write off the good times as a business expense for tax purposes).

Now that you are convinced to shoot your own content, how do you start?

First you should decide if you are going to shoot softcore, hardcore or both types of content.

Softcore:

Softcore is usually less expensive than hardcore shoots. Girls are usually paid from $50 to $200 per shoot.

For fans of hardcore sites, softcore may not be as appealing to your members as hardcore.

Models are usually much easier to find.

Typically, you can get better looking models and wider variety to choose from.

Softcore is usually good if you have an amateur or (legal) teen-type web site.

Hardcore:

Hardcore is usually more expensive (girls are usually paid from $250 to $800 per shoot).

Unless you act in the shoots, you’ll have to hire guys, which can cost you more than $150.

In my opinion, there is a much larger market for hardcore content, which translates into more dollars.

There is potentially more legal issues involved with hardcore, i.e. there is more room for governmental scrutiny.

Models are much harder to find in the hardcore realm; not everybody is willing to fuck in front of a camera.

There is perhaps more room for experimentation with hardcore.

After you decide what type of content to shoot, you should also decide weather to shoot pictures, video, or both. I suggest you shoot both. This means more content for your site and in turn, the surfer gets more for the same amount of money. Because you pay models per shoot, they usually don’t mind recording a session with video equipment.

Speaking of equipment, if you already have a basic Photo camera and camcorder, that can be enough to start with. I, however, do not recommend it. For regular photo cameras, you have to develop the film somewhere, which adds to the cost, plus not every photo shop will develop porn. You will also have to scan the film into the computer. I suggest you buy the semi-professional Digital Camera. You just take the photos and transfer them to directly to your computer. They usually cost from $750 to $1800. Look for cameras that are 2 – 3 mega pixels.

We use Fuji film fine pix 4900Zoom. For video cameras, regular hi8 camcorder is what I recommend, plus you will need a video capture card to make video clips. If you have a “little bit” of money to spare, you should go for digital video camera (mini DV) 3CCD image sensor. Look into the Canon GL1 (which we use), Sony DCR-VX200 or Canon XL1; they all range from $2000 to $3600.

The advantages of these cameras over regular camcorders are: Better picture quality (3 CDs instead of one), there is no need for video capture card (You will need Firewire card), and videos are transferred digitally to your computer, which results in much better quality.

The most important thing in the end is the lighting equipment. With good lighting, even the worst camera pictures will turn out into decent quality images. For beginning content shooters, I suggest you order some strobe lights for photo shoots. You can find the best prices on Ebay. Also, if you have money to spend, get some nice background drops.

By now, you have made up your mind on what type content you are going to shoot and you have armed yourself with the best photo and video equipment you can get. If you don’t have any money left for a full blow studio, I suggest you just shoot in your house or some of your friends’ nice houses with big pools. Also, check your local laws for zoning or you might have cops knocking on your door.

Before we go ahead and get some models, we have to make sure that we have the proper model release forms. If you do not know what model release form is, become familiar with it. The model release form is the legal documentation (agreement), which states that you (photographer) own the rights to the pictures and video and the exact rights to what you can do with them. Without it, it’s like you never took those pictures. Make sure you get two forms of ID from the model verifying that she or he is of legal age. There are few forms that can be found on the net. You might need to modify them to your needs. Consider having your lawyer (more money to spend) make you one, or ask other webmasters about legal forms and documentation.

This is the first part of this shooting content for your pay site guide. In part two, I will tell you about getting models, shooting the content and more …