Looking for work, just don't tell mom

For makers
of pornographic films—which include many of the same companies responsible for online sex content—this summer’s threatened strikes by the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America promise a talent bonanza, as out-of-work cameramen, grips, editors and producers struggle to pay their bills.

Looking for work,
just don't tell mom

Porn biz sees résumé flood as hard times hit

By Jeff Bercovici

    Interested in this year’s hottest bit of career advice?
    We have one word for you.
    Porn.
    Long shunned by high-minded individuals looking to make their mark in film or media, the adult entertainment industry is seeing a huge influx of talent of late.
    Refugees of the great dot.com collapse are flocking to X-rated web sites that may not look great on a résumé but are good for a paycheck.
      Meanwhile, actors and technicians from the film industry, worried that looming strikes by the actors’ and writers’ unions will put them out of work for weeks or months, are quietly lining up gigs on movies with names like "Romancing the Bone" and "Jurassic Pork."
      The dot.com explosion of the last five years created an entire class of highly-skilled internet industry workers, as well as the expectation that virtually any college graduate with good grades and computer skills could move to San Francisco or Silicon Alley and score a job with a web start-up.
    But last year’s dot.com massacre, following the Nasdaq’s plunge in April and the subsequent evaporation in venture capital, put a stop to that. Since the beginning of last year, more than 75,500 employees of internet companies have been laid off, according to research by one career placement firm.
      But what has been a disaster for would-be web workers is turning out to be a boon for companies that produce sexually explicit content for the web. Executives from companies like Vivid Entertainment Group, DHD Media, Playboy.com and Hustler recently told the Los Angeles Times that they’re getting résumés from applicants who only a year ago would have turned up their noses at the thought of working for sites like Boys4Men.com and NYPDblew.com.
     Unlike most mainstream content sites, porn sites have been turning profits for years. And with their numbers increasing—from 230 pay sites in 1997 to 1,100 last year, according to American Demographics Magazine—they’re always looking for more bodies.
     For makers of pornographic films—which include many of the same companies responsible for online sex content—this summer’s threatened strikes by the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America promise a similar talent bonanza, as out-of-work cameramen, grips, editors and producers struggle to pay their bills.
   Some actors have even reportedly been inquiring about short-term work, although they are harder to place, as most of them are only interested in roles that don’t require sex or nudity.
     For those who do score summer jobs in the adult entertainment industry, it will mean taking a big pay cut: With no unions, technicians working on porn videos make only a small fraction of what they would earn working for Hollywood studios.
    The Writers Guild contract runs out on May 1, while the Screen Actors Guild’s agreement expires June 30. After that, don’t be surprised if that guy who used to guest on "Everybody Loves Raymond" turns up with a bit part in "Bedman & Throbbin II."

-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.

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