Editor’s note: As a condition to reporting this story, Riverfront Times agreed to change the names of the actors interviewed and depicted….
“Porn made in California has those big houses with pools and Italian leather couches. Here in the Midwest — we have Motel 6.”
Jenny can’t believe what she’s about to do. It feels too surreal to be actually happening. But that other-worldliness is what spurs the nineteen-year-old to get out of her car and walk into Utopia Studios in south St. Louis.
Inside the noise is deafening. Several rock bands are practicing behind closed doors in rented rehearsal rooms. Jenny looks around the lobby for direction, but there’s no sign, no assistant holding a clipboard — just a mishmash of arcade games and vintage advertisements that look as if they were dug up from a hip thrift shop. It doesn’t seem like a place where pornos are filmed, whatever that might look like, so Jenny takes out her cell phone and calls Sam Arcobasso, the budding porn producer she met online.
According to Sam Arcobasso, porn “just seemed like it’s in high demand, and the competition around here is slim to none. So it seemed like an easy business to get into.”
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“The two women have just successfully completed their first porno scene. For their work this afternoon they stand to earn between $50 and $100, that is, if Corey and Sam can sell the film to their distributor. But since today’s film was shot solely on spec, Jenny and Kelly leave with little more than a promissory note for future payment.”
Must be a typo. Going rate is 10-20 times that amount for amateur porn (and it isn’t paid on spec). If the models are indeed doing it on spec, the pay should be much more than that.