As I’ve covered quite extensively, last year LA passed a law called Measure B, which mandated that all porn shoots in the county require the performers to wear condoms. That presented a bit of a problem, because, as a commenter to this site put it, “when I watch porn, I want to see the fantasy of sex, not think about the consequences of it.”
Porn tends to assume the same of many of its viewers, so to circumvent the (mostly unnecessary) law, most companies have taken to either shooting outside LA County, in places like Las Vegas, or possibly shooting without permits (as the sponsors of the law think is happening). But now one company is pioneering a more technological solution – having the condoms digitally removed in post-production.
…gay porn company Falcon Studios is now attempting to hearken back to the days before the measure was passed. In their latest release California Dreamin’ 1, the studio filmed all its scenes with condoms but managed to digitally remove the prophylactics in post-production.
Director Tony DiMarco stated on the Falcon Studio blog (which has some graphic content) that the film is meant to tap into fantasies of bareback sex in the 1970s and 80s, while also aligning with the safe sex ethos that is currently being enforced in LA. “With this movie I really wanted to capture the essence of that time, when life seemed more carefree and spontaneous,” said Dimarco. “In keeping with this concept, I felt that condoms need to be addressed.” [TheVerge]
That seems prohibitively expensive for a business that’s spending less than $1500 on talent in a lot of scenes. I wonder if the “condoms were removed in post production” claims are true in the same way that that the “barely legal” stars are all 18. So you say you removed the condoms “digitally” in “post-production.” You pinky ring swear?
It sounds too expensive to catch on, but that isn’t to say that it isn’t an option. Earlier this summer we heard that Nymphomaniac had digitally grafted its actors’ torsos to body doubles doing full penetration, which sounds a lot harder than removing a little condom ring. I’m an old school romantic, so I feel a little weird jerking off to a guy with digitally airbrushed wiener skin. But I’m sure this is all just a place holder until we advance to the stage where we can skip the middle man altogether and just have sex with our computers like Joaquin Phoenix. Which will eliminate the condom problem but will wreak havoc on the employment options for Arizona State grads.