When it comes to innovation in the gay porn marketplace, the big question for studios and directors these days has been, “What’s left to do?” As they’ve come up against this seeming dead-end, however, the industry has almost unanimously responded with ingeniously fresh new takes on the genres that we thought we already knew.
    As I began connecting with a number of porn industry veterans, company owners, and respected innovators (as well as smaller, newer porn companies) over the past few weeks, I came across some fascinating new experiments in gay erotica.
    Porn is now zeroing in on more extreme forms of sex (even fisting is almost considered mainstream these days) so a lot of major companies have been emphasizing their fetish lines. Online sneak previews are being used more to entice viewers, too –  and also fun, interactive gimmicks like Falcon’s unique underwear swapping site where you can switch the undies around on hot models. We can expect to see more of these clever marketing innovations throughout the coming year as overall DVD production and sales take a dip.
    Although still a popular genre, the glory days of gay-for-pay guys in porn may be waning as the market becomes more glutted. Also, the idea that barebacking titles could potentially pose a threat to condom-only videos may turn out to be just a passing fear.
    Many in the industry predict a resurgence in story-based porn — big budget porn films with good acting, well-crafted stories, elaborate sets, costumes, and high production value — for the studios that can afford it.
    The biggest news of late was the announcement by Raging Stallion of their $177,000 film-noir epic Focus/Refocus, which promises to bring us a Raymond-Chandler-styled world starring a whole new kind of private dick. Already on board are the three multi-award-winning directors who made last year’s cowboy epic To The Last Man. The new movie has a 60-page script which could very well be porn’s new Gone With the Wind. Chris Ward said, “It’s a director’s dream. The stars are lined up for us to produce another classic, best-selling film.”
    More and more, porn is turning to the headlines and to hot social trends for fresh ideas.
    “There’s an interest in ‘vampire porn’ because of True Blood and the Twilight series,” said award-winning director Jett Blakk, known for his notable storyline titles such as Unspeakable, Dirty Little Sins, and Endgame. “But distributors get antsy when you add blood to sex, so that trend has never really caught on in gay porn. It seems that viewers are pushing more into the fetish lines. There was a time when piss and fisting videos were for extremists only, but now it’s becoming more the norm. Perhaps the viewing audience is becoming bored with vanilla and are searching for something more ‘taboo.’ Recently we’ve had videos about piss, farts, feet, electric shocks, fire, and more. Who knows where it will go next?”
    One recent creator of a fetish line is Michael Lucas, known more for porn epics like La Dolce Vita and Dangerous Liaisons. But he more recently launched a Raunch line with titles such as Feet Extreme!, Piss Sluts, and Farts.
    “Hardcore is the new trend—pissing, a lot of feet, armpits,” said the Manhattan-based Lucas. “People are tired of vanilla sex. I concentrate now on pissing, feet, assholes, and close-ups of things coming out of assholes. People like to see these things. They may not do it in their personal life, but they like to see this kind of action.”
    Some of these acts are forbidden to mail to certain states, but Lucas doesn’t care because, “I sell it on the Internet, so everyone can get it.”
    Does that mean the end of DVDs? Will they go the way of VHS tapes? “I’ll still make DVDs, but when it is no longer profitable, I will stop,” Lucas said.
    At the moment, Lucas is more interested in porn travelogues, shooting movies in Paris and in Israel for his break-through title Men of Israel. “I hope to make Tel Aviv a porn tourist destination like what Bel Ami did for the Czech Republic. But I think there is more in Tel Aviv. There are bars, a gay nude beach, fashion, glamour, amazing restaurants, raw talent, and I like filming there.”
    He plans to shoot Israeli Vacations in September and will feature stars from across Europe making out with hot Israeli men. “I will have some dialogue, they will have to speak some English,” Lucas said. “I just hope they can deliver the lines well.”
    Popular porn reviewer for Randy Blue, Jeremy Lucido predicted, “I don’t think big storyline productions are dead. I think they are being taken more seriously. No longer can we say ‘It’s only porn.’ Fans want things done right and with good quality.”
    Chi Chi LaRue took a sabbatical from storyline movies only to do even bigger all-sex extravaganzas, like Channel 1 Releasing’s Taken: To The Lowest Level. This $150,000 masterpiece is breathtaking with non-stop sex, watersports, bondage, suffocation, wax encasing, and more.
    LaRue knows the trend for hot guys and found a stable of sexy masculine men who aren’t afraid to be unabashedly, unashamedly gay. Taken features the towering stud Mitchell Rock and other superstars of the day – including all-American guys like Jake Gianelli, Benjamin Bradley, and Cameron Adams. LaRue plans a gang-bang with Vance Winter and raved about “Jeremy Bilding, who has movie star looks but is such a normal guy…” and about “Adam Killian – who is so nice and does yoga to make himself more limber.” (Killian is no doubt a contender for multiple trophies during the upcoming awards season.)
    “It’s just so hot to see a muscle guy doing things like sticking a glass dildo up his butt,” LaRue said. “Customers want things more extreme, and it’s that way on the straight side, too. The girls practically have to do a circus act.”
    Like almost everyone, LaRue cut back on production this year, but said the company’s new store in West Hollywood was doing well despite the economic downturn.
    “Customers want more, but I’m not sure where it’s going to go,” LaRue mused. “We have water hoses in the butt, pissing, all sorts of dirtysex… But I don’t want to do gross and weird stuff. I don’t want people to point and laugh. They have to do something that is manly and really good. I just hope bloodletting and scat doesn’t catch on.”
    Noted fisting director Wolfgang Bang of Red Eagle Films said the new trend for fisting means taking it out of the dungeon and harnesses and getting more romantic.
    “There’s such a glut of fisting movies, which is why we’re selling half of what we once did,” said Bang. “Fisting has become more mainstream, so it has to go more extreme. Arms are going to go deeper, then two arms… But it’s much less of a macho vibe than it was 10 years ago. It’s going to have a softer, more romantic approach because the nature of fisting can’t be rough all the time. It’s about relaxation.”
    Succeeding in porn today means catering to niche markets and using Internet sites well, said Bang. He delayed the release of his new movie In the Zone (originally scheduled for a July release) by four months because he thinks the economy will be better this fall.
    Bang sees barebacking titles continuing. “They are becoming more responsible because they have mandatory testing, and I think that’s good. I don’t do barebacking. I want to create model hot sex that is safe – but I’m against censorship.”
    LaRue, on the other hand, stated flatly, “Barebacking is going away. People are learning that barebacking is not cool and is done so poorly that they’re coming back to big studios with more glitzy, high-end, nicely-shot movies with attractive performers.”
    Blakk credits LaRue, Ward and others for keeping big productions alive, but lamented, “Most Internet sites – which is where porn is headed now – have no story and aren’t interested, so that’s tipping the scales in the ‘all-sex’ direction. Also, story porn is more time-consuming to make, which means more money spent – and with the drop in DVD sales (which is where story porn is most at home) it’s cost-effective to do all-sex there, too.”
    Blakk sees a rise in what was once referred to as “fringe” guys such as daddies, bears, and ethnic men. “Muscle studs like Leo Giamani, for example, are always hot – and so are the ever-popular twinks.”
    Speaking of twinks, they are even invading Hot House Entertainment. Company art director Michael Roma said the muscular,more masculine guys are fooling around with young, hung twinks in secret scenes that are available only at their online site, the Hot House Backroom.
    “DVD sales are down for everyone so much because of the success of sites like Corbin Fisher and Randy Blue and everything that they offer online,” Roma said. “We have sets, we have super high quality production values, we have superb models, and give it our best.”