Daily Californian Columnist Recommends: Spice things up, make a porno

Try making a sex tape, writes Daily Californian Columnist Brett Tanonaka in this week’s Sex on Tuesday column —

There comes a point in everyone’s sex life when even the most erotic aphrodisiacs become dull. So what do you do? You can go on some crazy wild adventure and have sex all over campus. Or you can call some friends over and have a massive orgy. The beautiful thing about sex is that there is a plethora of options to spice things up. My favorite? Making a porno.

Producing an actual pornography piece is not like making a Kardashian sex tape. If you’ve seen it, all Ray J did was film him and Kim having sex … barely. With sex tapes, there is no setup and the camera just gets in the way. The footage is usually shaky, and the moans just blow up the audio feed.

Porn, on the other hand, is a little different. It’s a different sexual experience. On professional pornography sets, the talents aren’t paid to simply have sex: They are actors. They have scripts. The positions and toys are chosen to arouse a specific viewer.

While perusing through Pornhub one rainy morning, I imagined what it would be like to have sex with a porn star. Being an avid filmmaker, I had access to gear that allowed me to produce my own sexualized fantasy, so I called up a partner to see if she wanted to be the female talent. Before she arrived, I propped up a few LED lights and slapped some DSLRs onto tripods. I used red holiday lights and candles to cast a romantic visual mood. And — throwing in some film terms here — I also hung an omnidirectional over the bed to capture the sounds throughout the room. It may not seem obvious, but audio is an essential part of filmmaking. Have you ever tried watching a horror film on mute? Without the deep buildups and pop-up noises, those movies aren’t so scary. With porn, the moans are essential. When all was set and ready, we turned off the house lights and pressed record — lights, camera, action!

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