Tag Archives: cammers

April 24, 2019 · 10:01 am

AEE 2019: B and J, Riding the Wave

by Rich Moreland, April 2019

Our second camming couple, a husband and wife team, go by B (or Mrs. B) and J. Our AINews team met them informally on the trade show floor and set up a quick interview.

B and J’s site, Hot4Teacher, can be found on Chaturbate. 

Photos are credited to Kevin Sayers and Hot4Teacher.

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The Age Thing

How did the two of you get started?

J watched a camming special on TV that included a couple who are friends of theirs, he says. He showed a YouTube presentation of the program to B whose immediate response was, “I’m not doing it because I’m a teacher!”

A month later, she agreed to give it a try.

“It started to kind of get him off my back . . . and then it took off,” B says with a smile.

Conversation in their chat room led to more followers and their popularity spread.

“There was a draw [to us] because there’s not a lot of couples that are our age. We’re both teachers so I think that’s maybe a fetish for some people.”

They had another surprising advantage.

In the couples category, there’s a shortage in the “thirty-five and over group,” B says.

“The age thing was huge,” J interjects.

No Script

B and J insist they put in considerable time to make their site a success. “There was a demand that we had to supply and here we are today,” J says with pride.

Does sex online and selling clips make them a porn couple?

“I don’t think it does,” B responds. “I feel like the cam is different from porn. There’s not a script, you’re chatting with people. You’re doing what they want you to do . . . and it’s with my husband. It’s not with other porn stars. It’s different.”

J concurs. “I’ve always felt that it’s different.”

B does admit that other people may not see it that way, however.

“I guess my vision of porn is I feel like it’s different than what I do. I’m just hanging out in my room and chit-chatting with people that come into it.”

Self-Pleasure

Do some of your fans masturbate when you’re online?

“Yes, I know that some of them do,” B chuckles.

Makes sense, but porn fans masturbate to what they see. Are your shows doing the same thing?

“I did say I don’t do porn. But I still enjoy what I do,” B says.

J believes that if masturbation is “what we’re going to take as the definition [of porn], then yes.”

However, B insists that she is “not interested in moving into the porn industry.”

At the suggestion that she may already be there, she concedes that for anyone who conflates porn with camming, indeed she is there.

Who Directs?

Some porn people believe that camming may take over the industry within the next few years. What is your take on that?

“That’s where porn is going,” B affirms.

J brightens and asks, “Are we the pioneers?”

B agrees that they are.

Some critics hang the amateur porn label on cammers. In your view, is that accurate?

That’s probably true, B says.

“I think one hundred percent we’re amateurs,” J responds, especially when it comes to directing.

B chimes in, “He’s directing me all the time. Move this leg so we can get a better view, you know?”

When fans buy tickets to their shows, the broadcast is different. J explains that everyone is included. “You’re our director. We’ll follow your lead because you bought a ticket. That’s what you want to see.”

He compares their shows with a porn shoot where fans “have an idea of what that scene is and what that movie is about,” when they buy a studio production.

As for what they do, J says, “we want to make you happy so that you come back again and purchase another ticket or buy another video.”

But he reminds us that “it’s absolutely one hundred percent amateur.”

J mentions that studio shoots involve a director and crew and other performers who may not be in a particular scene and, on occasion, media people.

Fair enough, but isn’t everyone getting paid in the long run?

The Performance

B acknowledges that shooting on a set is different. She and J started out “in the privacy” of their home and it was hard to imagine there was anyone there because the audience was online.

That changed when they did “couples shows.”

In fact, they had a “raffle and fans came to my room and were in there when we cammed,” she adds. “It was really uncomfortable the first time and kind of weird.”

Over time the tension eased for her.

J mentions, “Like last night there were other people in the room who were not participating.” They still did the show and “put on the performance,” he says.

B recognizes that J is more at ease than she is “when there’s other people watching.” But she is making progress. “I [am] much more comfortable with it than I was six months ago,” she says.

What We Are

Asked about where they see themselves down the road, it seems their venture into camming has a termination point. There’s family to consider. For the future, “who knows what’s going to happen,” B says. “We’re doing well now, but . . . “

As for this week in Vegas, they are here at the Adult Expo to support their fellow cammers and they have the credentials to make a difference.

“We’re one of the top couples on Chaturbate,” J says. “We’re riding the wave where everything’s hot.”

In other words, they’re using their success to give back some of the love extended to them.

In retrospect, do you think you are drifting in the porn direction?

“Well, it’s funny,” B comments, “I feel like I’m not in porn and then you (referring to J) were like ‘one hundred percent we’re in amateur porn.’ So, I think we just totally contradicted what we said.”

J clarifies his comment. “No, amateurs [are] what we are because I don’t feel that we’re at that professional level.”

B is delighted to confirm his statement.

“Oh, we’re not!” she exclaims, and recalls her thoughts the first time she was in the room having sex. “I do not belong here. I just felt like I was not at that level . . . .”

Perhaps.

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April 23, 2019 · 8:49 am

AEE 2019: Tom and Honey, The Easier Way

by Rich Moreland, April, 2019

Some interviews at adult trade shows are arranged via PR firms while others are off-the-cuff pickups gained through networking. At this year’s Adult entertainment Expo we had two valuable talks with camming couples we met on the floor.

Photos credited to Kevin Sayers.

*          *         *

Tom and Honey are cammers who operate online through Chaturbate. To say they are comfortable in their own skin (and that of their partner’s!) is an understatement. Not only do they have a loyal following, they have an exceptional understanding of the camming business model.

“Our live broadcasts drive the clip sales,” Tom responds. “When we’re online people see us, they talk to us. They have that connection.” Out of that comes a built-in marketing advantage, he adds, because fans will ask about the vids they shot on location in Las Vegas or Miami, for example.

Honey reinforces what Tom says. “People who want to directly talk to you. They want that interaction. They want to know you as a person,” whereas other fans just want “to see you performing the sexual acts.” They’ll buy the clips.

This division between the active and passive fan is common among cammers, as we’ve discovered.

Amateur Porn?

Tom mentions the importance of content with time and effort the necessary ingredients to produce a good show. What they shoot is never going to be of Evil Angel quality, he says, but that’s okay because “we are never competing with mainstream porn companies.”

Are cammers making amateur porn?

“We are the amateurs!” Tom asserts. There’s a market for fans who don’t want the professional look. They like “the slightly shaky camera,” Tom says, and the feeling that they are “filming” the show.

On the other hand, cam production is improving. Tom explains that their equipment parallels the big studios. They have tripods and gimbals. Plus, they shoot in 4K and employ the “same editing software that the pro companies use.”

In other words, the quality gap is not that large, he declares.

Considering that, are cammers becoming the new professionals? Will today’s amateur be tomorrow’s pro?

Taking Over

Honey seems to think so. It’s “a very hot topic right now. People are saying that cammers are taking over,” she says.

She implies that camming is moving into the porn orbit and points out the cammer’s advantages.

“You can come here [the trade show] to see them [porn stars], but you can’t sit and talk to them face-to-face for hours like I do with my fans . . . [We give them] more because we offer the videos and the one-on-one interaction. They get to know who we are as people.”

Then cammers are the people next door having a little fun. Right?

In chorus, Tom and Honey respond with “exactly.”

Cammers are tilting the amateur in the direction of the professional?

They repeat with a resounding “yes.”

A Step Ahead

Regarding cammers and porn performers challenging each other’s space, Tom says, “it’s easier for the cammers and amateurs to go professional versus the professional coming back to camming.”

The mainstream porn girls have everything “taken care for them,” he adds. “They just show up and do their scene” with no concern for lighting, camera quality, editing, and the like.

“We have to figure that out,” he exclaims, which puts the cam world a step ahead of porn performers. “All of a sudden they [porn models] have to learn how to do everything” if they want to cam.

Of course, there are the usual reservations mainstream performers have about camming, time and schedule being the most important. Does this mean the two porn worlds—camming and mainstream—will never come together because they are different mindsets?

Certain they won’t, Honey says, “yes, I would agree with that most definitely!”

Who Decides?

Tom brings up an significant issue that separates a cam show from a professional shoot. For a sex act in real time, who determines the direction of the presentation and the timing of individual moments as the show evolves?

For instance, he mentions the pop shot. Where is it going to be? A facial or a creampie?

“We allow them (the fans) to vote on things like that.” Tom says, making everyone online a director.

Finally, what is on the horizon for the adult industry and camming?

An important change, Tom believes. Camming “is going to be the easier way to get into the [porn] business,” he states.

“It gives you the freedom to enter the industry from anywhere” as opposed to mainstream porn that requires shooting in Miami, Las Vegas, or LA.

Best of all, camming sex “allows you to be a porn star in your own home!” Tom exclaims. What could be more convenient?

Honey concludes our conversation with, “Camming is a really good way to get a feel for the industry if this is where you want to be. . . .”

Exactly. And that leads us to our next cam couple. Let’s see what they have to say.

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April 21, 2019 · 8:16 am

AEE 2019:  Is Camming the New Porn?

by Rich Moreland, April 2019

Photos in this essay are credited to Kevin Sayers and Steve Nelson.

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*          *          *

At this year’s AVN trade show, cammers and their laptops were pervasive, demonstrating the popularity of online broadcasting. In fact, MyFreeCams sponsored this year’s adult extravaganza in a move that seemed to step over the industry’s traditional studios.

The upshot, I believe, is a pretty straight-forward question: Is camming redefining the adult business? From the interviews completed by our AINews team (which included photographer Kevin Sayers and videographer Davyana San Miguel) and posted in this blog, the answer is “maybe.”

What it is not, is “no.”

Delivery Platforms

From what I can see, the adult industry is experiencing a twenty-first century revolution driven by new delivery platforms. Not surprising, by the way. Fans old enough to remember the bygone days of the video tape and its replacement, the DVD, recognize that, as always, technology is porn’s best friend, moving it culturally forward with each new innovation.

Whether the DVD will pass into porn history in the manner of the VHS tape is a matter of debate. As one director told me, commercial studios still produce them for their “hands on” collectable value. In other words, display your favorite DVDs on the library shelf for immediate reference.

What is obvious, however, is that porn’s online presence is today’s mother lode. High quality shooting with easy-to-manage advanced systems is ubiquitous for both the commercial studio and the cammer. When capturing the porn moment is technically simplified, everyone can learn the skills required to post just about anything online.

In other words, anybody can become a pornographer and suddenly every cam girl can claim a professional mantle, at least from the shooting perspective.

As for the bodies in front of the camera, the number of performers, models, or whatever you choose to call them, is expanding. There are plenty of girls available to shoot the mainstream product and thousands who cam.

What is interesting is this. Do cammers believe they are shooting porn? Do accomplished porn stars believe cammers can make it in the studio, and does that matter?

If porn stars consider themselves to be professionals because they are being paid (the most basic definition of “professional”), what do we do with cammers who are also making money in their chat rooms and with self-published vids on hosting sites like Clips4Sale and ManyVids? They may think of themselves as amateurs, but how are they not professional?

And, of course, what constitutes the status of amateur? Is it more a style of shooting than an actual performer?

Two Brands

Though porn veterans appear to have clear-cut views on these questions, cammers remain conflicted perhaps because whatever level of sexual stardom has been thrust upon them (or in them, for that matter) has come fast and furious, blurring the definition of how they see themselves.

The two brands of performers seem like parallel universes until one realizes that established industry stars can easily turn to camming and widen the conduit of porn’s delivery system in today’s culture.

Conversely, cammers can seek out studios should they choose that avenue and abandon any pretense to be amateurs. Though Clips4Sale is not Brazzers or Jules Jordan, does it mean amateur only?

Trouble is, a bit of tribalism creeps into the picture as can be seen in the numerous interviews from this year’s show that appear on this blog.

Is or Is Not

In the final posts from the Adult Entertainment Expo 2019, we have interviews with two cam couples. They have nuanced perspectives on where to place camming in adult entertainment and what it means to make the adult product.

Keeping that in mind, here are the questions we asked.

If it is sex on-screen, regardless of the source, is it porn? Or, if the intention is to amuse and entertain a paying–and therefore exclusive–group of followers who enter a “private” chat room, does that make it restrictive and informal enough to “not” be porn?

Or, are the two groups—cammers and porn stars by one definition, and amateurs and professionals by another—simply drifting into each other’s space to the extent that one day there will be no difference?

Perhaps. But that would require porn stars to drop their self-proclaimed exclusivity and cammers to abandon their “not me, I don’t do porn” mantra. If each begins to cross over into the realm of the other, does the whole industry benefit?

That, I believe, is AVN’s bet in expanding the trade show umbrella in the years to come.

 

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April 20, 2019 · 7:14 am

AEE 2019: Porn Stars on Camming. Derrick Pierce

by Rich Moreland, April 2019

This is the fourth installment in our porn stars and camming series from the 2019 AVN trade show.

Whenever I need honest, no holds barred opinions on the adult industry, Derrick Pierce is one of my go-to performers.

The porn vet is among the handful of male models who are sexually reliable performance-wise and insightful with their understanding of the business.

Above all, the Massachusetts native is an industry gem, a performer with acting skills.

While on the floor of the trade show, I stopped by the Adult Time booth to say “hello” and asked Derrick for his take on porn and camming. We later met up in the press room.

Photos are credited to Kevin Sayers.

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Money

“The AVN show, and the trade shows in general, are now becoming more cam affiliated,” Derrick begins.

The driving force behind the change is money. It’s persuading the cam networks like MyFreeCams (MFC), Chaturbate, and Live Jasmine to market their product to a wider audience.

“They’ve always done very well, but now they’re putting a lot of money out to shows. As you can see, they are sponsoring AVN. I don’t know what the number is, but I guarantee you it’s seven figures,” Derrick speculates.

“Nobody even had that [financial] ability before. I don’t even think it was on the table.” He includes the big production studios like Evil Angel and Jules Jordan in that mix.

In reality, cam networks make big bucks “damn near printing their own money in some cases,” he says, and that enables them “to do things the production companies can’t do.”

Face Time

For Derrick, however, the situation presents a problem for the cam companies.

“The dilemma is nobody gives a shit about a cam girl. Not in person,” he says.

In other words, for the cam fan “to stand in front of them, to see them at the show” is no big deal, the certified martial arts instructor implies, because he has already chatted with his favorite girls online.

In fact, Derrick asserts, the show comes up short for the fan because he “probably gets more face time with them (cam girls) when he’s online than he ever would at the show.”

And, it would be more private.

Derrick’s honesty continues,

“Nobody cares about Tiffany451blue,” because fans don’t attend the Adult Entertainment Expo to see her.

“When you come to the trade show, you want to see Asa Akira, to see Abella Danger, Casey Calvert. All of these legitimate porn stars.”

What MFC does is accommodate a couple of hundred cam girls to attend the show with the promise of floor time, rooms, cool stuff. Just “enjoy have a good time,” he says. That’s “all it is.”

Ford Focuses

Derrick Pierce compares the cammer scene at AVN to stopping by a car dealership and seeing “rows and rows of Ford Focuses.”

“Cam girls are a bunch of Ford Focuses. They’re not doing what the professional girls are doing and, in some cases, I think some of those girls think they’re better than the porn girls. ‘Well I don’t do what they do, I’m a cam girl.’”

Derrick challenges that with “You’re not better.”

“Here’s the deal,’ he explains. “When you come to these shows you have two hundred and fifty cam girls to see and you have fifty of the top female performers in the business to see. Who do you think they’re lining up for? The porn stars because there’s something nostalgic, because there’s something unattainable” about them.

It’s like a “fantasy about who they are because whatever you’ve trumped them up to be in your head is who they are when you see them.”

“But with a cam girl, you know them. You know her favorite color is blue and she hates jalapeños or whatever her deal is, right? Cause you had time to socialize with them. So that’s the deal and I don’t think they’ll ever be on the same level,” Derrick concludes.

However, he comments that AVN and other trade shows now face a dilemma.

“Do you continue to take this money from the cam companies, which of course you’re going to? You’re in business to make money. But then do you phase out the production companies because they don’t contribute the same financial endeavor as the cam companies?

“When it comes to the trade shows, fans are lining up for porn people, but the cam people are the ones that are printing the money.”

Just a Cam Girl?

Derrick raises the question of how to merge the two, if that is at all possible.

How is the cam girl of the year chosen? For porn performers, it’s easier to debate who is the best this year because each girl has a body of work. The only reasonable way to select the winning cam girl is by counting up the dollars she makes over the year.

“Whoever made the most money wins,” he says.

As for joining camming and porn under one umbrella, Derrick believes the “level of separation” between the two will always remain.

To back up his point, he makes this observation.

“I just found out today that [on] MFC all the girls are solo girls. They don’t do anything with guys or boy-girl scenes or anything like that. I don’t understand that.

“Chaturbate has a couple of guys here, I noticed. How do you put them into play? Obviously, there’s a market for them too. MFC doesn’t have that, I don’t think.”

Our team’s photographer Kevin, who follows cammers, interjects, “We learned that they only allow women.”

“So, they’re completely man-less [and] it works for them, obviously,” he says.

“However they’ve designed this, it’s flawless in my opinion because they’re killing it. They’re making so much money.”

Regardless, the question lingers for Derrick Pierce.

“Are you really a porn performer? Or are you just a cam girl?”

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April 17, 2019 · 10:21 am

AEE 2019: Porn Stars on Camming. Casey Calvert

by Rich Moreland, April 2019

This is the second post in our porn stars and camming series from the 2019 AVN trade show at Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel.

Casey Calvert is a popular BDSM performer who has expanded her acting skills and moved into the upper echelon of porn performers. Recently, she joined Gamma Entertainment’s Adult Time as a director, advancing her industry resume into Hall of Fame territory.

For the record, Casey and I have known each other for years and have had our share of frank conversations about the industry.

Photos are credited to Kevin Sayers.

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Benefits

Have you ever cammed?

Only a couple of times, Casey responds.

Because the alluring brunette shoots scenes as her primary source of income (she doesn’t dance or escort), does she believe that camming is advantageous for a porn girl?

“Yes, it definitely benefits her to cam,” Casey says, and mentions Dani Daniels. “She started as a girl-girl performer shooting scenes, transitioned to boy-girl. Now she cams and does Snapchat and other social media. She’s made that transition really seamless. Her fame that she built as a performer drove her cam traffic.”

Casey agrees that porn girls bring their audience with them when they cam. But, she suggests, that same accomplishment might be tougher for a cam girl who gravitates to porn.

“There’s a lot of cam girls who have gotten flack for shooting scenes because of their fans. Camming is a really intimate, dynamic relationship” and there is a cost involved, the University of Florida grad says.

Fans do not always take to cam girls who “are doing solos” online then “go shoot a boy-girl scene, Casey believes. Some of them will say, “’You’re taking dick on camera now? That’s not okay!’”

Fans seem to regard cam girls as their own and get a little jealous and offended when they shoot scenes. So, the bottom line of this interpersonal dynamic is risk for the cammer.

“I think that’s a part of it,” Casey says. “I think there’s some slut shaming which is inappropriate. But I know that happens.

Cam Girl Stigma

Are cam girls creating amateur porn?

“That’s exactly what they’re doing,” Casey replies. “They’re entrepreneurs, they’re businesswomen and they’re amateur performers. And I don’t mean amateur in the derogatory sense. Just amateur in the literal sense.”

In her opinion, cam girls are not porn stars, but they’re “making porn”, nonetheless.

“Some of them also see themselves as amateur performers,” she adds, while others insist, “’I don’t do porn, I am not a sex worker, I am not a porn performer.’”

Things get complicated from there.

“There’s this cam girl stigma of ‘I’m not a porn star’ and there’s this porn star stigma of ‘I don’t cam, why would I need to cam? I’m a performer.’” Casey explains.

Is that a dividing line?

“No. To me, all of us are sex workers,” she asserts, and mentions there are plenty of cammers and porn performers who agree with her. But she understands those who don’t.

“I know that there are some people who live within the stigma. When I was just a fetish model, I told people ‘I don’t do porn, I’m not a porn star.’ I was wrong. I was doing porn.”

Without penetrative sex?

“I was creating a product for people to masturbate to. That’s porn.”

The highly respected Speigler Girl elaborates.

“I didn’t know that then. I was afraid of the stigma. I didn’t want to be a porn star. I don’t do fluid exchange, I’m not making porn. But in hindsight now I see that I was being a sex worker. I just wasn’t doing ‘this.’”

I suggest that anyone can watch porn and not masturbate. But I do concede Casey has expanded my interpretation of what porn is.

From her perspective, porn’s “intention is to create something masturbatory,” as she puts it. Of course, the viewer makes that decision and there are people who don’t.

“I watch porn all the time and don’t masturbate to it,” the long-time Kink.com model says, “But it was created as a product to be masturbated to.”

For a moment we get into the phrase “porn star” and I got from Casey what I expected.

“I don’t know if I even like the phrase ‘porn star.’ I’m a porn performer. I’m an adult performer. I don’t feel like I’m a porn star. But porn star means something so I use that word to convey meaning.”

A portal

Does Casey think that camming to a portal into porn?

“No. There are thousands of cam girls and how many of those girls go shoot porn…a hundred? So, just statistically, no. Not enough people make the transition for [me to] agree with that.”

Should a cammer want to get into porn, does it matter if she gets an agent?

“Yes, it does matter because it shows an interest in sex work and an interest in creating pornography,” Casey insists.

“You have some experience talking to the camera and being sexy on camera and all of those things that an agent finds desirable. It’s not a necessity. There are plenty of girls who get into porn who have never cammed, who have never worked in a strip club, who have never done any fetish modeling and just go right into hardcore.

“But, for the most part, I find that most girls did some form of sex presentation before they started doing hardcore porn.”

In the end, Casey summarizes her take on our discussion.

“There are fans who don’t want to watch scenes ever. They just want to watch girls on cam. [Then there are] scene fans who have no interest in watching their girl on cam.

“There’s that degree of separation that a porn performer has with their fans that cam girls do not have because they ‘cam-to-cam.’ You see the guy [and] interact with them on a really intimate level. Much more intimate than shooting a scene.

“There’s no real interactions with the fans just from shooting scenes. So, I think there are fans who want that level of intimacy, and fans who don’t.”

It’s a choice, Casey Calvert concludes, that will prevail for some time to come.

 

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April 16, 2019 · 10:50 am

AEE 2019: Porn Stars on Camming. Whitney Wright

by Rich Moreland, April 2019

This is the first in a series on porn stars and camming from the 2019 AVN trade show in Las Vegas.

Whitney Wright is an established star. At this year’s AVN extravaganza she received noms for Best Actress in a Feature and Featurette and a nom for Female Performer of the Year. It doesn’t get better than that.

Early in the week of the trade show, I was privileged to interview Whitney.

Photos are credited to Kevin Sayers.

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Whitney Wright entered porn in 2016, but not without a warmup!

“I used to go swingers’ clubs and resorts before I ever did porn or dancing,” she says, thanks to a guy she was dating at the time. He expanded her sex education.

“We ended up hiring a girl he knew who worked as an escort and she was so sweet. After that I was like, ‘I wanna do all the things now, that was so much fun,’ so we ended up going to strip clubs and to nudist resorts that had these crazy swinger parties.”

Is it any wonder the Oklahoma Christian school grad made the transition into porn?

Working for Nickels

How would you describe camming?

“It’s a hustle,” Whitney says, and she understands how that is game played. “Mine is mainstream porn and before that it was stripping and I loved it.”

However, she doesn’t believe camming is for her.

“I don’t think I could get into camming but there are some girls who do and they love it and make good money at it.”

The former nursing student comments that camming is having an influence in porn.

“Sometimes there’s this weird dynamic between mainstream porn stars and cam girls because they’re looked at as different ends of the spectrum. Sometimes I hear cam girls say ‘Oh, I don’t do mainstream porn or boy-girl scenes.’ And then there are some mainstream girls that are like ‘Well, I don’t like [to] work for nickels.’ That’s a phrase I’ve actually heard several times.”

It appears that collecting tokens as payment for online performances is off putting for some girls. But Whitney believes there’s money to be made.

“[The tokens] might start off as a little bit, but they add up. A lot of my friends cam and they have their regulars. They prefer it (camming) sometimes to shooting a scene because they can just stay home and drink wine and just talk to people.”

Whitney offers a further perspective.

“We’re all in the same pot, you know? Whether you’re a dancer or an escort or a mainstream porn actress, cam girl, whatever you do. It’s all sex work.

“It can be lucrative and a great idea, especially [for] girls that think they want to start mainstream porn and work for top studios.”

If they are uncertain about that, then camming is a good way to wade into the adult waters.

“They can see how they like that end of things. If they want more, then the doors always open.”

Capitalizing on Our Bodies

Is there is a division between traditional porn and camming?

There is, Whitney believes, and states what I’ve come to take as the gospel.

“A cam girl is a porn girl and we all have fans. [We’re] capitalizing on our bodies for money whether shooting for a studio like Gamma or on MyFreeCams or any kind of cam site. They’re getting a percentage of what you’re making but you’re also making money off your supporters and the people who are viewing your show.”

Nevertheless, Whitney recognizes that there are performers who view camming and shooting scenes “as a total division.”

“Some girls do look down on the other category and it comes from both sides. I’m friends with cam girls and I totally respect what they do. Because in my mind I could never do that. It just seems like a lot of work and time invested.”

The unpredictability of a cammer’s income from night to night is “disheartening” for Whitney.  “I can’t really imagine that,” the Speigler girl says.

But she admits that there are mainstream girls who make it work and earn “great money.”

“They can make their day rate just by being on cam for a few hours. They love it because they can stay home and be content and comfortable.”

“But for me, I like seeing my calendar fill up with bookings and scenes. I like performing on camera and gaining notoriety and recognition from my peers and my fans and directors and other studios. But that’s what I want.”

Mainstream Porn

Because of the influence of the cam girl, is porn as we know it disappearing?

“I don’t think there could ever be an end to traditional porn,” Whitney declares. “I don’t see [studio shot porn] going anywhere anytime soon.”

But she does admit that the landscape is changing.

“I see a number of people complain that some girls stop shooting for the studios completely. They can shoot on their Snapchat or their OnlyFans.”

The result, according to doe-eyed brunette, is change that can be disconcerting for some fans. They lament that their favorite girl is shooting “phone porn” or “homemade quality” stuff instead of scenes.

Porn models should keep in mind that fans do appreciate studio quality . . . “the clear images, the wides, [and] the zoom-ins.”

Of course, there are fans that “like homemade videos and POV stuff,” she concedes, but we should remind ourselves that “a lot of them like well-made scenes and films and the features” as well.

“They love it, and I love making it,” Whitney Wright laughs.

 

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March 29, 2019 · 8:13 am

AEE 2019: Sofie Marie

by Rich Moreland, March 2019

The Adult Entertainment Expo gave me the opportunity to reunite with Sofie Marie. Having previously written about her in April of last year (those posts can be found here, here, and here), I looked forward to speaking with her again.

For readers who don’t know Sofie, she is a statuesque MILF with a body to die for.

Photos are credited to Kevin Sayers.

*          *          *

Because Sofie Marie is familiar with studio shooting and camming, she is equipped to talk about the cam girl versus the porn girl issue in today’s industry. But first, she gives us an update on what’s happening with her.

“This is my second AVN. I’m nominated again this year for hottest MILF,” she begins.

That’s understandable, I’m thinking. Thirty-something women don’t come sexier than Sofie!

“About four or five months ago I switched my website YummySophie over to an Elevated X platform. So now it’s SofieMariexxx.com you can still go to YummySophie for items like a hat or t-shirt, or whatever. But I definitely like the new look better, more professional,” she says.

Overall, the trade show has been a busy few days, Sofie explains, with “content shoots and signing” for fans.

A note before we move on. I had the pleasure of meeting Spike Irons, Sofie’s producer. He accompanied her to the show walked the red carpet with her.

One Big Party

Referencing an idea I’d heard from another cammer, I ask Sofie if she divides her fans into two categories: active and passive. The first are those who interact with her directly and the second are those who are only interested in her vids.

She does have passive fans, Sofie admits.

“If someone sees a video on ManyVids or my website or Clips4Sale and say, ‘Oh, Sophie. I saw you and you look great.’ I say ‘thank you’ and that’s it. They kind of disappear or [maybe] come back later.”

Other than that, “it’s all one big party. They like my videos [and] I love chatting with fans. It’s just kind of a mixture and I love it,” the native Californian says.

As every cam girls’ business model tells us, make the fan feel special and recognized. What separates Sofie from the pack is her love for doing just that.

Hand-in-Hand

When I suggest that cammers are moving in the direction of mainstream porn, Sofie implies they may already be there. She uses herself as an example.

“I started with my website three years ago–actually started bikini modeling four years ago–and had all this content with my producer.”

Her fans were asking for scenes and everything “kind of went from there,” Sofie says. Because she loves to chat with people, camming was the next logical step “to meet people to maybe get my name out there a little more.”

As a result, camming is now part of Sofie’s business platform.

We talk about Dan O’Connell and his interest in hiring her for a GirlFriends Films episode. Can we conclude that Sofie is shooting scenes for production companies and camming at the same time?

“In the last year, Dan included, I worked for other studios,” Sofie responds. “So, I cammed and worked for other studios hand in hand, same time frame.”

Reluctance

As an established porn girl and cammer, does Sofie believe that camming is a portal into porn?

“It depends on the girl,” she says, and mentions she’s “met a few cam girls this week” who are interested in branching out into mainstream porn.

But, that’s not for everyone, Sofie implies.

“Cam girls are all about the one-on-one [experience]. Porn girls are there getting paid, having sex on film with a crew [in the room] with one guy, or multiple guys or girls. It’s just different in that way. But I have found that a lot of cam girls are interested in getting into porn, a little bit at a time.”

Given a moment to think about camming and porn, Sofie concedes it may not be that clear cut between the two. In fact, she comments there may be only a slight difference and that seems to be the on-site director and crew.

The cam girl can be “having sex, not particularly on film [as shot by companies], but people are watching. And she’s getting paid.”

I’ve noticed that some cammers are reluctant to admit to shooting porn. Perhaps, they draw a line between the two and believe that “I’m a cam girl, not a porn star,” Sofie says.

On the other hand, I suggest that the cam girl is shooting “amateur porn,” Sofie agrees and retreats again to the shooters on the set as a marker for the porn definition.

“There’s not a professional photographer around [when they are camming],” she comments. “They’re on their own in their house wherever, doing their thing, whether it’s with another couple with another guy or girl or solo.”

That’s amateur stuff, but it’s still porn, Sofie concludes.

It’s All Still Similar

According to what she has learned, production companies and agents are interested in how many fans a cam girl has before they hire her.

“I’ve heard studios [ask] how many followers do you have on Twitter?” Sofie says.

If the cam girl has a lot of fans, she brings those eyeballs to her studio work. So, followers can make a difference when it comes to breaking into mainstream porn.

Taking a look at the reverse situation, is it difficult for an established a porn star to become a cam girl and build a fan base in that world?

“I wouldn’t think so,” Sofie  replies.

“She’s established, she has worked for all these studios, has her name out there and been in the business for a while. If she went over to camming I would think she would have that following.

“She can make a decent living depending on the hours [she’s willing to put in].”

Does Sofie believe that cam girls and porn girls are separate businesses because studio shooting is not the same as camming.

Not really, she indicates.

“It’s all still similar. You can be with a guy or girl and cam and you’re having sex, but there aren’t any lights. I can see the differences but I think it’s great to intertwine the two.”

As we wrap up, I can’t help but notice once again that Sofie Marie brings maturity and glamour into adult entertainment. Each time I talk with her, I appreciate her more. She is sweet, charming, and has an elegant presence rarely found in the business today.

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March 28, 2019 · 7:16 am

AEE 2019: Cory Chase

By Rich Moreland

Cory Chase is porn veteran whose cam work began last year. In her thirties, this New Jersey girl who now lives in Fort Lauderdale, did her first “homegrown” porn shoot in 2003 and her initial adult film in 2006.

We made ourselves comfortable in the press room for our talk.

Photos are credited to Kevin Sayers.

*          *          *

Recounting her professional past, Cory mentions that her adult career began with “just pictures” for a site called MyHottestGirlfriend. She won contests on the site and popularity came her way, but the next step needed a little push.

“What really got me into porn was my husband now, boyfriend back then. He liked to videotape us having sex. So, we had this [private] library of our own content,” she says.

Cory mentions that the website she started, SouthernCharms, still contains that original work.

Now that her career is on solid ground, Cory’s goal is to expand her custom videos.

“The fans enjoy knowing that they’ve produced, in a sense, their own porn that other fans are enjoying as well,” she says.

Just Step Away

I bring up the idea that the new cam girl is really the new amateur porn model. Does Cory agree?

“Yes, especially if they’re going nude and inserting objects,” she replies.

In the midst of our discussion, Cory suggests that girls wanting to cam should take their time.

“Work slow. Don’t expose yourself completely if you don’t have to,” she begins.

“You don’t have to show off everything and do everything from day one. If you can talk and express yourself without having to undress, then go for it.”

The heart of camming is “being able to express yourself and tell a story,” she asserts. “So, don’t expose yourself completely unless you want to.” In other words, a girl needs to find her comfort level.

Cory offers the best advice I’ve heard about any girl who wants to begin camming.

“Remember that no matter how much you might feel like you’re being bombarded with commands or requests, they [the fans] are not actually in the room with you in person. You can just turn off your computer. You can just step away from it and that is it.

“So, understand that if you’re feeling overwhelmed, just step away.”

Market Trends

For cam girl success, Cory insists, fetishes are important because they keep the customers coming back. Whatever the fans want creates the marketing trends that dominate cam work.

“Going with those market trends are great for business. But you have to be creative on your own and come up with something that you are passionate about. So, yes, you have to want to expand and grow the things that you do. But yet you still want to go with the flow because if what you’re doing isn’t quite working, you have a fallback and you can do something that is in trend.”

She uses a personal example to explain what she means.

“I started out with footjobs, but the trend depleted. I stopped doing footjobs for videos.”

Cory clarifies that what goes viral establishes market trends and returns to footjobs for a moment to illustrate her point.

For “a couple of celebrities,” she remembers, “footjobs were big twelve, thirteen years ago. It was because celebrities were posting pictures of their feet on social media accounts. Footjobs just went through the roof that year and I jumped on that bandwagon.”

She reminds us, however, that what is hot today, may fade and then return.

“I find [that] trends kind of cycle through. Bondage is coming back in style. With Fifty Shades of Grey, [BDSM] kind of peaked a little bit, but it’s really coming back around [now],” she says.

Cory comments that she personally likes BDSM shoots, but the business world is not always receptive.

“Bondage sex has a tendency to be faux pas, credit card processors don’t really allow when a female is bound completely and not able to give consent [or] walk away. I wish things like that could be changed.”

A veteran of bondage play, Cory still dabbles in it with her husband though “most larger companies, other than Kink, don’t really play with it too much because of the credit card risk.”

Without an Agent

For the most part, cam girls don’t have agents in the traditional porn sense. Is that a good idea?

“It really depends on the mentality [and] the work ethic of the model. Production companies usually don’t talk to a girl if she doesn’t have an agent because there’s no fallback. If she doesn’t show up, they can go back on [the agent] and get funds or get another girl to fill in for the girl that cancelled or no-showed,” Cory says.

Having said that, if a cam girl wants to shoot scenes, an agent is probably a good idea.

However, Cory indicates that camming and porn tend to move in different environments within the porn world. There is a divide.

“A cam girl doesn’t have to be a porn girl. A porn girl doesn’t have to be a cam girl, but you can do both,” she affirms.

Considering that response, does Cory believe established porn stars ought to pick up camming?

“Yes and no,” she says.

“I’m more of an established porn girl who got into camming. I dabbled in a little bit of it when I first started [doing porn, but] it wasn’t for me. It didn’t feel right so I didn’t cam for seven years. I only started camming [again] back in July of last year. So, I really haven’t been camming that long.”

But Cory hits on a serious issue in the adult business that separates cammers from porn girls, but maybe not for long.

“Because of porn and how it’s all over the internet—a lot of times for free,” she says.

In other words, porn girls have a problem: piracy. Cory mentions that some cam fans will be talking with their favorite porn star/cammer “in the public chat while watching them somewhere else.”

The warning? “Established porn girls, you have to go back to making it personalized for that fan that is talking to you,” Cory insists.

That’s the cam girl’s chief advantage, I comment.

“Yeah, and they don’t have the content out there for free,” she quips. Or at least, that is what they think.

Cory offers up a reality check.

“It’s out there. Somebody is recording it, either with a camera, on their computer screen, or they’re capturing it directly from their computer screen. It’s being recorded and posted somewhere.”

That Fourth Leg

Cory has an interesting response to the three-legged stool question of making money. She sees camming as a “virtual strip club that allows a lot more visual display than the typical strip club.’

So yes, camming is the fourth leg, but like a girl’s other options, it’s a personal decision, Cory indicates.

“What makes you happy as a model? Producing content or providing a service. Is it escorting? Is it dancing? Is it camming? Because pretty much everyone can produce porn now.”

In the end, where is the adult business today when it comes to mainstream porn and camming? Cory makes an important observation that deals with the past.

“In the old days when porn started all the way up to the nineties when the internet first came out, fans were dedicated to the girl.

“Nowadays I’m finding fans are more dedicated to a website or a network, or a genre like camming or porn. They’re more dedicated to a style as opposed to the girls themselves.”

Her solution?

“I provide content and I have to post it throughout different websites. I’m getting more eyeballs, different fans, but they’re watching the same thing,” Cory Chase says.

Though technology and innovative platforms are pressuring industry girls to work harder, that’s a positive because eyeballs turn into dollars.

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March 26, 2019 · 1:14 pm

AEE 2019: Taylor Stevens

By Rich Moreland, March 2019

At this year’s Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, I had the pleasure of interviewing performers who prefer camming to shooting scenes.

Taylor Stevens is one and makes some important points porn fans ought to keep in mind.

Photos are credited to Kevin Sayers.

*          *          *

Comfortable Right Where She Is

Before interviewing Taylor Stevens, I did a little research. I found out she’s a cammer who has lost weight for health reasons.

Naturally, I want to know if the change in her body has affected her fan base.

“I started my career in about 2004, 2005,” Taylor explains. “I was about three hundred pounds back then and I got into camming by chance. I was told in the beginning, you’re a big girl, you’re never going to make it on cam.”

Taylor never let that deter her.

“If you tell me I can’t do something, I will absolutely do it.”

She stayed persistent and found her audience receptive.

“Score magazine and XL Girls asked me to pose for their magazine at the time and do a scene for them.” It was a solo presentation, she says.

But we all know that excessive weight can have health consequences and Taylor learned of her own.

“I was pre-diabetic and I was told I have to lose the weight,” she says. How was this going to affect her on-screen appeal?

“I was very worried about that. However, I have the best fans in the world. When I transitioned, a few left but most of them stayed. I gained a whole new fan base.”

As of now, she’s sticking with camming. No boy/girl shoots on her agenda. In short, she is comfortable right where she is.

Show Me This

Characterizing herself as a “tomboy in a girl’s body,” Taylor talks football and other sports with her fans. And those fans are loyal.

“My fans love to talk, they love to interact,” the blonde cammer says, “They want pictures of me, videos of me. They want to spend their money on supporting me whether it’s photos, videos or on-cam interaction.”

I bring up my question about the cam girl becoming the new porn girl. Taylor’s answer was different from what I anticipated.

“I think what’s happened is the opposite. You see a lot of the porn industry transitioning to camming. As opposed to the cam girl being defined as a porn girl.”

She explains the problem hardcore porn models face.

“It’s difficult for porn girls to be successful on cam nowadays because men have already seen them do every single possible thing through their videos. To transition and have a conversation on camera, [is] generally not that simple when it comes to ‘show me this or show me that.’”

In other words, the cammers have constructed parameters that are exploratory from a sexual standpoint. They can seduce a fan with a little bit here and there. Porn girls don’t have that option, they’ve already shown it all.

Incidentally, Taylor is not bothered by the lack of professional studio quality in her shoots.

“As a cam girl, you have actually more advantage because a lot of guys don’t like to know that everything is in a studio. Guys want to connect with a girl with a webcam. It’s just a girl being a girl. Not, you’re on set with fifty people and this is what’s happening.

“Guys want to connect to you without all the noise. They just want to feel that you are just a girl in the world doing her thing.”

The Marketing Burden

I ask Taylor if the cam girl is a new version of amateur porn.

“Absolutely, one billion percent,” she proclaims.

The cam girl is creating a new kind of porn, then, at least in the amateur sense.

“Yeah. Cam is the new porn.”

Could it be that today’s porn fan desires a personal one-on-one touch that he doesn’t get with an online shoot or a DVD?

Taylor has an interesting observation on that.

“When watching porn, guys have about a five-minute attention span. But when you’re talking to a girl on camera, you have more time, you get to know somebody. There’s more interaction than a five-minute clip out of a movie.”

Next, I bring up marketing. Is that a hassle for cammers?

“It is a burden. You can’t just do one thing, I can’t just post one picture without posting it to Twitter, to OnlyFans, to Snapchat. That is integral to making money and keeping your name out there and hashtagging and so forth. I’ve got it down pat, but it’s very much a nuisance.”

I ask Taylor about her toys, bearing in mind that working out of the house can be problematic when children might find things. She laughs. No children running around, but she does have an issue in her household.

“I hide them from my dogs. One time I found my dog chewing something he wasn’t supposed to be chewing!”

We discuss the three-legged stool and Taylor agrees that camming is the fourth leg. She also has another observation worth mentioning.

When the possibility arises of a cammer turning to shooting scenes for studios, not all cam fans are on board with that.

“My fans don’t want to see me do hardcore porn. They don’t want to lose the thought that they might be able to have me one day.”

Interesting.

Preparation

Finally, I ask Taylor what advice she’d give to a girl who wants to go into camming.

Preparation is the best policy, she indicates, but remember, a girl is not going to be “instantly busy.”

For the most part, that’s a small issue compared with attacks on a girl’s self-esteem.

“Be prepared to be judged, to hear a lot of negative things about you,” Taylor says. It’s a “cattiness” that comes from other cam girls.

She brings up one more concern. “Be prepared for your life to change [especially] if you have a husband or if you have other people in your life. Once you’re out on the internet, you cannot take it back.”

Simply put, “if you don’t love it, don’t do it. I won’t do anything that I don’t love.”

Finally, Taylor emphasizes the importance of a consistent schedule for being online “so your fans know where to find you.” And, one more thing, always give your best.

Taylor Stevens concludes with a warning, “It’s a competition to get the members. It’s a very harsh cam world out there. More so than people would think.”

That’s especially true, I think, when it comes to every girl’s motivation–the money fans will pay to see the show.

*          *          *

On behalf of our team, my thanks to Taylor Stevens for a terrific interview.

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March 25, 2019 · 9:30 am

AEE 2019: Sofia Rose

by Rich Moreland, March 2019

This interview with cam star Sofia Rose offers fascinating insights into camming and porn.

Photos are credited to Kevin Sayers.

 *          *          *

Too Ethnic

Born of mixed ancestries, Sofia Rose is a Southern California native who gave modeling a go in her teens.

She did have some problems, though. She couldn’t make it in the mainstream business.

“They told me I was too short and too ethnic. I probably weighed ninety-five pounds on a good day! I was very, very small. But yeah, I was too ethnic at the time.”

To build a career, Sofia moved to the Northeast and worked in corporate America.

In November 2006 the thirty-something decided to resurrect her modeling career, setting her sights on the BBW market.

Sofia sums up where her career is today.

“I am a hardcore performer. I have my own website, I shoot for everybody. I’m independent and I cam.” To secure what she calls “residual money,” Sofia says, “I sell my clips, my Snapchat. So, I have my hands in all the pots.”

Changes

Describing where she is right now, Sofia says, “My main focus is performing and I do hardcore boy/girl [and] fetish.”

But changes are on the horizon.

The BBW star is moving back to her fetish work at the expense of boy/girl shoots.

It’s a return to “glamour modeling that I used to do,” she explains, and she loves the idea, particularly its practicality. “I’m getting older [and] I want to spend more time at home.”

Best of all, glamour has an appeal for her. It’s “erotic,” she insists, and is built on “artistic” photos. “Still, my clothes will be off,” she laughs. “I’m just comfortable that way. It’s actually harder to wear clothes because I’m actually trying to contain things and my boobs want to be free. So…”

Get Comfortable

Turning to my questions on camming, I want to know if a cam girl starts out as an amateur performer?

Sofia believes all cam girls begin as amateurs because they have “to get comfortable with the camera. Learn your angles and what’s the most flattering depending on what you’re trying to sell.”

But in the end, she believes, the word “amateur” is elusive in its meaning and application.

“I think the amateur term can be very subjective. I do my own content and it’s definitely not studio produced. I’m a professional performer, however it would be considered amateur shot because it looks like a home movie. Does that make it less professional [because] we made it home-style?”

I remark that for cammers, amateur means a style of shooting.

“I feel like it’s a style, yeah,” Sofia agrees. “It’s not cut perfectly and it’s very bumpy,” but that seems to be its appeal.

Trends

I ask Sofia if cam girls establish their own trends or merely follow existing ones when it comes to their content.

“Both, really,” she replies. Cammers can be trend-setters by “taking something that’s already been established and modifying it to what is unique to you.”

In Sofia’s case, it’s the plus-size community. Certain trends are important to them. She mentions Mukbangs as an example and explains what it is about.

“It’s a feeding video about eating foods that makes certain sounds. I don’t get it, but it hits my fetish audience who likes to see me overstuff myself to make me larger.

“We’re going to play into the fetish [and] make those videos that are customizable. I’ve been doing these feeding videos forever [and] it’s now like this popular trend. People pay me to eat this food!”

Porn Portal

Is camming a portal into shooting scenes?

“Absolutely,” Sofia says, but mentions that camming and shooting scenes are different.

“I think that there’s definitely some conflict between the communities, which I hate,” she responds.

“It’s a whole hierarchy of who’s better than who[m]. I feel like camming is similar to the studio-produced performing, but they aren’t the same. A cam girl walks in and is used to controlling her camera and her angle and getting her best shots. But you go into a studio and you’re relinquishing that control. And now you’re doing what you’re told within your limits and you don’t have control over all those things,” she explains.

When asked to describe a cam girl, Sofia has an insightful assessment.

“People think that camming is more innocent because there’s not contact with another person, male or female. But it isn’t necessarily.”

There’s more, she says. “Because they feel like it’s a more controlled environment, maybe it’s more innocent. It’s really not to me, it’s not any different whether I’m bringing talent to get on cam with or I’m in a studio shooting with that same talent. We’re still doing the same things, the same content, the same fluid exchanges. Everything’s happening the same way, it’s just that the camera is controlled differently.”

The Optional Fourth Leg

As for the three-legged school question, Sofia says the fourth leg is optional. In other words, combinations can change from girl to girl. They choose what works for them.

For her, choices are obvious. “I shoot, I cam, and I escort, but you’ll never find me dancing. We’re just changing which three we’re using.”

In her opinion, “it’s almost normal to escort on top of everything else. Why wouldn’t you?”

Considering that, is camming a boon for her escorting?

“Absolutely” she beams. Clients want to meet and get to know her. Once that happens, their comfort level improves and this is a benefit for her.

“It helps me,” Sofia says. “We feel good with each other. It’s way less intimidating and the nerves are way down.”

Sofia points out for a cam girl to meet one of her fans in person is an option. But keep in mind that “everybody has their limits and what makes them comfortable. Even as escorts we all do things very differently. People think I just meet random strangers and it’s not quite like that.” Background checks are part of doing business, she says with a chuckle.

Just for the curious, Sofia Rose is married and monogamous. Nevertheless, her camming and escorting is a job “and I do treat it so.”

She quickly modifies her statement to minimize the impression it’s all about business.

“The experience itself won’t feel like it’s a job. Whether I’m shooting, performing, or meeting someone privately, they never feel like it’s a job. I don’t make it feel transactional.”

In summing up her point, Sofia Rose mentions that she’s “a pretty warm person” and admits, “I think I just got fortunate with that personality [trait].”

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