It was just another day in the wonderful world of Google when they announced Glass—a pair of sleek eyewear that could change the world. Texting, video chat, instant access to Google and all of its services, their preview video shows its users partaking in everything from virtually sharing a birthday experience to flinging themselves around on a trapeze. Their preview did not, however, explore the possibilities that open up for the adult entertainment industry.
Picture this: you’re at home watching the latest Joanna Angel release on DVD. You hit the orgy scene and a particular tattooed beauty catches your eye. Within seconds, you’ve shifted from the standard view to a point-of-view shot recorded by the Glass eyewear her partner had on. While recording, he looks up at a pink-haired porn star, and you shift again, bouncing around the orgy’s performers.
But it’s not about just changing angles on professional shoots. Glass has infinitely expanded the capabilities and range of point-of-view amateur porn. No more phones or handheld video cameras handicapping the participants –both hands are now in use—which will create a range of more in depth and creative motion that the amateur industry has been unable to achieve until this point.
Upskirting, recording sex in public, erotic video chat… we want to know what will you do with Glass?
Last Saturday, the Sundance Film Festival took a delightful bruising when it debuted Christina Voros’ (127 Hours, The Broken Tower) documentary, Kink. This film explores the daily ins and outs of premiere BDSM porn studio Kink.com, a subject that Kink’s producer, James Franco (Spider-man, Pineapple Express), found fascinating while touring the 200,000 square foot San Francisco studio during a shoot for another project, About Cherry.
Founded in 1997 by Columbia University alumni Peter Acworth, Kink.com is the alternative pornography site, its wide umbrella encompassing sites such as FuckingMachines.com, Hogtied.com, and PublicDisgrace.com as well as hitting the alternative gay male demographic with MenOnEdge.com and BoundGods.com.
Acworth has devoted his adult life to bringing alternative pornography to the mainstream, not just to fill an already established need, but to help educate those still exploring their sexuality. Constantly expanding and exploring new directions, the Kink.com brand he created is an excellent representative of the alternative adult industry not only due to its longevity and integrity, but also due to its vision and sense of community.
Bringing the talents of Franco and Voros together to create a film about such an industry giant might finally allow the rest of the world to banish their illusions of not just the alternative porn community, but the adult industry in general. We have high hopes that this film, as well as the two other adult industry-related films showing at Sundance, Leatherbar and Lovelace, will topple some of the longstanding walls between mainstream viewers and filmmakers and the adult industry.
Read the Sundance Review of Kink here
Learn more about Kink.com and Peter Acworth in The Unsexpected Story
When Steve Orenstein set out to create an adult film company in the early ‘90s, he wanted to do something a little different: produce movies that were intended for couples and female viewers, movies with storylines that people could enjoy with or without the pornographic content. With the help of his family, friends, and some very talented creative designers, Orenstein was able to take his young film studio, Wicked Pictures, and turn it into one of the most successful, well-regarded adult production companies in the world.
One of Orenstein’s keydecisions was the creation and branding of the “Wicked Girl.” Following in the footsteps of Vivid Entertainment, Orenstein began planning to hire exclusive contract girls, working with Chasey Lain extensively before selecting Jenna Jameson as the first Wicked Girl, a deal that secured both Wicked Pictures’ and Jameson’s futures in the adult industry. For her work with Wicked in 1995, Jameson received AVN’s Best New Starlet, AVN’s Best Actress (Video), AVN’s Best Couples Sex Scene (Film), and XRCO’s Starlet of the Year awards, an unprecedented and never duplicated achievement.
With Jameson’s success, Wicked Pictures continued to expand, adding stars like jessica drake, Stormy Daniels, and Julia Ann to the Wicked Girls line-up and bringing “porn king” Brad Armstrong on board as a producer. This stellar team has seen Wicked Pictures’ fortunes soar ever higher, their movies garnering more attention—and awards. In 2012, Wicked received a total of 101 AVN Awards nominations and continues, almost 20 years after its founding, to produce high-quality, award-winning movies.
You can read more about Steve Orenstein, Wicked Pictures, and jessica drake in the book The Unsexpected Story.
