Lilith
10-27-2002, 10:18 AM
By PAUL WILBORN
Associated Press Writer
In the vast, suburban expanse of the San Fernando Valley, one of the largest industries thrives quietly inside unmarked warehouses, walled estates and hidden studios.
The valley is home to some of the biggest names in the movie business: Disney, DreamWorks, Warner Brothers and Universal Studios. But the 354 square miles of tract homes, strip malls and freeways on the north side of the Hollywood Hills also host Vivid Entertainment, VCA, Wicked Pictures and dozens of other studios churning out X-rated DVDs and videos.
The region is home to most of America's pornography industry - videos, Web sites, phone sex businesses, adult toys and even the old-fashioned dirty magazine. It's an industry estimated to be worth between $4 billion and $10 billion annually.
A longshot proposal on Los Angeles' November ballot would make the San Fernando Valley its own city. While most polls give it little chance of passing, the initiative has given rise to debate over what a new city would be called.
"San Pornando Valley" is one popular, tongue-in cheek suggestion.
On a set in Chatsworth recently, porn actresses named Dee and Jordan Haze, a married mother from Long Beach, killed time tossing around possible names of a separate valley city.
"What about Pornopolis?" Haze said. "Or Babylon?"
Dee (there are no real names in the porn industry) shook her long, black hair.
"It has to be Pornoville," she said. "That's what everybody calls it already."
While many parts of the nation's economy are suffering, the past five years have been good for the adult industry as new video and computer technologies open the doors to hundreds of millions of potential customers around the world.
"The adult industry doesn't follow the same ups and downs that other businesses do," said Paul Fishbein, publisher of Adult Video News, the industry's trade paper. "It still grows every year in terms of sales and rental volume."
"Twenty years ago, you had people sneaking into those little theaters. That's all changed with technology," said Bill Asher, president of Vivid Entertainment. "We've gone from a market of hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions."
The film, television and Web-based products produced by Vivid alone grossed $1 billion in retail sales last year, he said. A 1998 study by Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., estimated that the industry generates $10 billion a year.
But in a business where few companies are public and new providers blossom like wildflowers, real numbers are hard to come by.
"We don't see many hard revenue numbers," said Michael Goodman, an entertainment industry analyst at the Yankee Group in Boston. "But it is a very profitable business and pretty recession-proof."
The sale and rental of adult videos produced by American companies was a $4 billion business last year, Fishbein said, based on a survey of thousands of video stores and overall sales figures from the Video Software Dealers Association.
Dozens of studios produce hundreds of new titles each year and have created star-making machinery much like that of the old Hollywood studios.
Actresses like Jenna Jameson, the reigning star of adult films, have big-dollar contracts with filmmakers who promote them on Web sites, movie display boxes and in public appearances.
A top "contract girl" can command thousands of dollars for dancing at an adult club, licensing products and starring on her own Web sites, such as Jameson's "Club Jenna," said Jay Grdina, who runs her businesses.
Adult filmmakers and actresses aren't the only ones making money. Cable companies, satellite providers and hotel chains that offer in-room adult movies are cashing in, too, but like to keep their involvement low-profile.
"We really can't characterize how popular adult programming is," said Robert Mercer, a spokesman for Direct TV, which offers adult channels and pay-per-view films. "We don't break out viewership for any of our channels."
Production of the valley's X-rated movies also is low-profile. Most are filmed in unmarked industrial buildings that border churches, schools and neighborhoods.
In large gated warehouses, hundreds of workers at Topco Sales stand at tables assembling Centerfold Fantasy Love Dolls and other novelties that will be shipped around the world.
The business was spread between Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York but migrated to the valley over the past 20 years because of low rents and access to the mainstream movie business, Fishbein said.
A chance to see adult films at home helped sell millions of VCRs in the 1980s. Now the industry is experimenting with interactive DVDs in which the viewer can see the same sex scene from various angles, said John Virata, senior editor of Digital Media Net, a trade magazine for the digital industry.
"They are always the first movers in everything," he said.
In the valley, the business means thousands of jobs for actors, editors, directors, camera operators and set dressers, such as the people working on "The Alley," a new video being shot at a Vivid warehouse in Chatsworth.
The one-story, sand-colored building has been cut into small sets - a dungeon, a gynecologist's office, a lobby, a suburban bedroom and a graffiti-covered wall that passes for an alley.
As the crew prepared to shoot, actors TJ Hart, Violet Blue and Brad Taylor passed around Altoids and discussed the do's and don'ts for their upcoming sex scene.
"Don't pull my earlobes," Hart, a veteran porn star, told Taylor. "Not much bothers me, but pull my earlobes and I'll slug you."
In a small makeup trailer out back, Dee waited for her scene.
"For anyone looking for work, you have to be (in the valley)," she said, as she strolled the trailer wearing only a pair of black sweat pants.
Associated Press Writer
In the vast, suburban expanse of the San Fernando Valley, one of the largest industries thrives quietly inside unmarked warehouses, walled estates and hidden studios.
The valley is home to some of the biggest names in the movie business: Disney, DreamWorks, Warner Brothers and Universal Studios. But the 354 square miles of tract homes, strip malls and freeways on the north side of the Hollywood Hills also host Vivid Entertainment, VCA, Wicked Pictures and dozens of other studios churning out X-rated DVDs and videos.
The region is home to most of America's pornography industry - videos, Web sites, phone sex businesses, adult toys and even the old-fashioned dirty magazine. It's an industry estimated to be worth between $4 billion and $10 billion annually.
A longshot proposal on Los Angeles' November ballot would make the San Fernando Valley its own city. While most polls give it little chance of passing, the initiative has given rise to debate over what a new city would be called.
"San Pornando Valley" is one popular, tongue-in cheek suggestion.
On a set in Chatsworth recently, porn actresses named Dee and Jordan Haze, a married mother from Long Beach, killed time tossing around possible names of a separate valley city.
"What about Pornopolis?" Haze said. "Or Babylon?"
Dee (there are no real names in the porn industry) shook her long, black hair.
"It has to be Pornoville," she said. "That's what everybody calls it already."
While many parts of the nation's economy are suffering, the past five years have been good for the adult industry as new video and computer technologies open the doors to hundreds of millions of potential customers around the world.
"The adult industry doesn't follow the same ups and downs that other businesses do," said Paul Fishbein, publisher of Adult Video News, the industry's trade paper. "It still grows every year in terms of sales and rental volume."
"Twenty years ago, you had people sneaking into those little theaters. That's all changed with technology," said Bill Asher, president of Vivid Entertainment. "We've gone from a market of hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions."
The film, television and Web-based products produced by Vivid alone grossed $1 billion in retail sales last year, he said. A 1998 study by Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., estimated that the industry generates $10 billion a year.
But in a business where few companies are public and new providers blossom like wildflowers, real numbers are hard to come by.
"We don't see many hard revenue numbers," said Michael Goodman, an entertainment industry analyst at the Yankee Group in Boston. "But it is a very profitable business and pretty recession-proof."
The sale and rental of adult videos produced by American companies was a $4 billion business last year, Fishbein said, based on a survey of thousands of video stores and overall sales figures from the Video Software Dealers Association.
Dozens of studios produce hundreds of new titles each year and have created star-making machinery much like that of the old Hollywood studios.
Actresses like Jenna Jameson, the reigning star of adult films, have big-dollar contracts with filmmakers who promote them on Web sites, movie display boxes and in public appearances.
A top "contract girl" can command thousands of dollars for dancing at an adult club, licensing products and starring on her own Web sites, such as Jameson's "Club Jenna," said Jay Grdina, who runs her businesses.
Adult filmmakers and actresses aren't the only ones making money. Cable companies, satellite providers and hotel chains that offer in-room adult movies are cashing in, too, but like to keep their involvement low-profile.
"We really can't characterize how popular adult programming is," said Robert Mercer, a spokesman for Direct TV, which offers adult channels and pay-per-view films. "We don't break out viewership for any of our channels."
Production of the valley's X-rated movies also is low-profile. Most are filmed in unmarked industrial buildings that border churches, schools and neighborhoods.
In large gated warehouses, hundreds of workers at Topco Sales stand at tables assembling Centerfold Fantasy Love Dolls and other novelties that will be shipped around the world.
The business was spread between Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York but migrated to the valley over the past 20 years because of low rents and access to the mainstream movie business, Fishbein said.
A chance to see adult films at home helped sell millions of VCRs in the 1980s. Now the industry is experimenting with interactive DVDs in which the viewer can see the same sex scene from various angles, said John Virata, senior editor of Digital Media Net, a trade magazine for the digital industry.
"They are always the first movers in everything," he said.
In the valley, the business means thousands of jobs for actors, editors, directors, camera operators and set dressers, such as the people working on "The Alley," a new video being shot at a Vivid warehouse in Chatsworth.
The one-story, sand-colored building has been cut into small sets - a dungeon, a gynecologist's office, a lobby, a suburban bedroom and a graffiti-covered wall that passes for an alley.
As the crew prepared to shoot, actors TJ Hart, Violet Blue and Brad Taylor passed around Altoids and discussed the do's and don'ts for their upcoming sex scene.
"Don't pull my earlobes," Hart, a veteran porn star, told Taylor. "Not much bothers me, but pull my earlobes and I'll slug you."
In a small makeup trailer out back, Dee waited for her scene.
"For anyone looking for work, you have to be (in the valley)," she said, as she strolled the trailer wearing only a pair of black sweat pants.