Petra's Blog
A unique insight into the day-to-day life of Petra Joy as she chronicles the fun, frolics and frustrations of an independent female porn producer.
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The battle for distribution
Posted: 29 March 2009
I am delighted to say that my latest film “Her Porn” - a compilation of some of the best porn by and for women - is almost finished. This is a bitter-sweet time. It is both a climax and an anticlimax to finish a project I have been working for almost a year now. It is exciting to finally hold a great film in my hands, backed up by the second disc featuring interviews with all the filmmakers that I shot last year all over Europe. So much travel and viewing time went into this release that I can’t wait to share it with the world and give the diamonds of films I ‘discovered’ the exposure they deserve.
It is also a sad time, as now the creative work that I enjoy is over and the battle for distribution begins. Now it is all about being a business woman and talk figures with the the buyers who do have no interest in the content at all.
Believe it or not, but 90% of the buyers for the adult industry do not view a new DVD or even bother to read the press release. They buy a new film simply based on the cover and on the profit they hope to make with this product. Me being me (a slightly obsessed perfectionist) I created a feature that is 110 minutes long (rather than splitting it into two parts), made a special feature disc with 90 more minutes of content and had a 4-page booklet designed to provide further info on the filmmakers. It is a luxury double disc edition that I am proud of.
But this does not interest or convince the buyers. They offer the same wholesale price for this double DVD that they would pay for a cheaply produced gonzo film on a single disc. And they make me pick up the difference. It does not help that DVD duplication costs have jumped up by almost 30% whilst at the same time whole-sellers offer the lowest price and make the smallest orders since I have been in this business. These are tough times and so the sleepless nights begin – tossing and turning, wondering if I will be able to make the huge amount of money back that I invested into this release and, just as importantly, be able to make a profit so that all the participating filmmakers get some healthy royalties?
It is not surprising that there are so few quality products being produced at the moment when no one believes in a high end product but wants to buy cheap tack in order to sell lots and lots of it quickly at bottom prices but with a hefty profit. The (female) viewers might crave and appreciate quality and content but if the movers and shakers of the industry are not willing to pay the price for these kind of films, then producers like myself might simply not be able to produce this quality any longer.
I have been asking myself why I had to do such a long feature and shoot all the interviews and create the booklet when it would have been so much cheaper and easier to produce just one short film on one disc. I did it because I believe that this is what the filmmakers deserve and the (female) viewers want and enjoy. Women identify with the female filmmakers and want to find out what their vision is and because this information is not available on any DVD so far, I thought it was important to do it. I did it because I enjoyed doing it. I loved working on the intro animation and the moving menu and to review every single short film myself.
I am a sucker for frills. ‘No frills’ bores me. It is the little bit extra, the icing on the cake that I am good at. I cannot imagine to ever just publish a product with the eye on profit margin and profit margin alone. That would be the end of doing what I believe in. That would be the end of joy. I might as well be selling cars. And that is not going to happen.
