Ed Powers is a legend in the porn industry. In the late 80 producers like him revolutionised the industry by introducing concepts like reality and POV to create a new genre called gonzo pornography, which would go on to dominate the market. I met Ed at the AVN Awards in Las Vegas and he made me think that the industry (and I) can still learn a lot from the ideas he is still practicing today.
I met Ed Powers at the AVN Awards in Las Vegas. I found him utterly charming. He’s warm, friendly, goofy, fun, thoughtful and smart. Pretty much all the things I like in people. And he helped me get an interview with Ron Jeremy, something he really didn’t have to do.
I have to confess that before the AVN Awards I was pretty ignorant of the industry’s history. I guess I’m too young. Sure I know all the big stars right now but talkng to Ed really made me want to use Google to travel back through time to discover more about the advances that make what I do possible.
I was gobsmacked to learn that until 1988 no one had ever thought of filming porn in the style that would become known as gonzo. For those that don’t know what gonzo pornography is, today it covers a vast array of genres and production styles but generally means porn without a plot where performers acknowledge the camera’s presence. There are features, which try to emulate Hollywood movies. And there is gonzo which does away with the drama and tends to get straight into the action.
Ed Powers’ first gonzo film was Bus Stop Girls 1. It featured Ed literally approaching girls at bus stops, explaining why he had the camera and inviting them back to his home to make some porn. It must have been a revelation at the time. Until that point porn tended to be scripted with bad acting and unrealistic expectations. We’ve all laughed a the plumbed coming round to fix a random blonde’s pipes. . . with his dick.
But suddenly, thanks to Ed, people were confronted with these situations actually happening in the real world. Sure it’s unpredictable, you don’t know who will want to be on film, what they will be comfortable with, if they’re good at sex, etc. But that’s the appeal. You never knew what could happen; just like in the real world.
In a way it emulates dating. Sometimes a fairly plain, quiet girl can look amazing nude and really come alive in the bedroom and sometimes you are disappointed when a hottie with a great personality turns out to be a bit boring.
What’s particularly interesting about Ed’s videos is that he’s not a typical porn guy and that he tends to film everything POV style. I think that this makes sense a lot of sense.
First, most porn buyers are men. So why do they want to have the camera on staring at a man? My theory is that when men watch porn they are not actually fantasising about the girl; they’re fantasising about being the man. So as POV hardly features a man at all, this style really makes you feel closer to the action.
Second, because Ed is just a nice normal guy I think it makes viewers realise that, actually, you don’t need to be a bodybuilder with a giant dong to get a hot girl. You just need to learn how to speak to girls. I think this makes the fantasy of porn more real because suddenly you realise that this could actually happen to you. The possible is infinitely sexier than the impossible in my opinion.
In my headline I said that the industry and I can still learn from people like Ed Powers. The porn I watch tends to be gonzo. Most the porn that exists seems to be gonzo porn. But I feel that gonzo porn has lost it’s way. Looking back at Ed’s early films and some others from the era I’m struck by the spontaneity and he real emotions expressed on film.
It’s normal to be nervous or excited about shooting a scene. It’s normal to have imperfections, for your hair to be messy or not to be dressed in the sexiest clothes, it’s normal to make mistakes, it’s normal to say funny things, it’s normal to look awkward sometimes.
I find that what we call gonzo porn has forgotten the foundations that pioneers like Ed laid. I watch porn with stunning models with perfect, hair, skin and make up, that don’t miss a beat when they move their bodies from one sexy pose to another, I cringe at the ridiculousness of yet another established pornstar pretending to be at a another casting for the first time. Gonzo porn actually has really high production values and teams of people to make everything look perfect.
It seems to me that gonzo porn is a victim of it’s own success. As the genre made more money, naturally, it wants to invest more in equipment like lighting, sound, cameras and personnel. It’s a competitive marketplace and you want to make your videos better than everyone elses. It’s just what I feel we’ve ended up with is a porn market where every website is the same. Same models, same shooting style, same outfits.
I could be wrong of course but I suspect that if the industry stepped back a bit and examined what made gonzo such a success in the first place that they would try a new approach. They’d be more like Ed and go back to basics. Just a guy with a camera and a pornstar or nervous/enthusiastic amateur having fun. Pornstars and all girls have amazing and diverse personalities, it’s the job of studios to help them express it. Models often talk about how the sex they have in their private life is very different to what happens on a porn set. But why should this be so? Maybe we should start capturing what goes on in a pornstars home instead?
Andy Warhol said that sex is more exciting on the screen and between the pages than between the sheets. But I couldn’t disagree more. I want to see the real thing, how about you?