Small Time Porn Part One: The Secret Life of a Big Business

Having a preconception can be a dangerous thing. What we know can serve to simply expose that which we don't know, and then often in ludicrous terms.

What I knew about the gay porn, modeling and escort business before researching and writing this article was very little. My preconception was that of a seedy business, one often maligned in the press and movies.

In this multi part series I go behind the scenes of one small time porn company in Orlando where I visited a model house, interviewed several of the company's actors as well as the owner. It's important to note that this company does not represent the porn industry as a whole - it's just one tiny piece of a multi-billion industry.

For all its preconceived faults the industry has survived in its various forms throughout history and, with the advent of technology and particularly the Internet, has flourished.

According to a 2008 study by the Rochester Institute of Technology, Internet pornography generated over $3,000, 28,000 viewers, and 400 searches, every second, every day. Every forty minutes a new porn video is created in the U.S.

The U.S. is only the fourth largest consumer of porn, out sexed by China, South Korea and Japan. In that same year Internet porn generated more revenue worldwide than the top eight technology companies including Google, Apple, Yahoo, AOL and others, combined. In the U.S. porn generated more revenue than the three largest TV broadcasters, combined.

Approximately eighty percent of all porn web pages are hosted in the U.S. A quarter of all Internet searches are for porn.

Internet porn is big business.

Conservatives are the biggest consumers of porn. Eight of the ten states that consume the most porn voted for McCain. Utah consumes more porn than any other state in the union. It is an open secret that many regular consumers of gay porn are women and straight men. Of gay men, most porn is consumed by the 35-44 age group. Within that group there is a direct correlation between income and consumption with those who earn more watching more porn.

Gay porn actors, actors you will meet later in this piece, perform very much in a sexual manner, even achieving a certain level of intimacy with their partners off the set; they are all gay. Some gay porn actors are straight or bi and gay for pay. They easily perform the scenes as completely not sexual but as purely mechanical.

Many of the gay porn actors I spoke to enjoy their work. They feel much more an actor than a prop and their work has a positive impact on their lives. Acting in porn can be a big self-confidence boost, and when you come from low self-esteem that's a real improvement.

In addition, porn requires a certain physique, and getting and keeping that physique can lead to a long term commitment to health and exercise they did not have coming into the job.

A real downside to the job is age. Porn acting is mostly for the young, and though many are not afraid of aging, they know there is an end and are happy to have had the experience while young. As one said offhandedly, "it's fun, we don't take things seriously at all."

How does a kid from the Midwest, or anywhere of that matter, get into porn? It's easy if you happen to live in California, where the preponderance of production companies are located. There are upwards of five hundred production companies in the San Francisco Bay Area alone.

Porn actors who come from obscure out of the way places all across the country find the road to porn, modeling and escorting is much different. These kids need a manager, a guy like Tom with Orlando Models.

Tom Moran - The Porn King

For many years I have carried a clear and distinct impression of the gay porn business. I had the image of young, perhaps too-young, emaciated-to-starving, hairless pink boys lying about after dosing up until pressed in front of a camera for another shoot. The porn king was obese, grotesquely sweating and leering at the action as the boys preformed.

Tom Moran with Orlando Models is the glue that keeps his whole enterprise working. On first blush he fits the preconceived porn king stereotype. Obese, in his own word, he has a baldish pate with unruly and untrimmed hair encircling his head above the ears. After fifteen years of providing magazines with photographs and more recently websites with video he looks his part.

Starting with Polaroid instant photos the media has moved through various iterations, currently an HD digital file. Tom is a kind and gentle man who in all his disorganization truly seems to care for his flock and want the best for them. In a different lifetime Tom was in law enforcement.

Along with Tanner, his director and producer, Tom manages a porn production company with a focus on young men in bondage scenes. A big management part of the business is acquiring the porn actors and Tom has tuned a system over the years. The real challenge with porn actors is getting them to Florida and providing them a place to live. Most arrive with little or no money chasing a dream of throwing off their old lives in pursuit of a new one chosen though not yet experienced.

Facilitating the flow Tom maintains a model house, and it isn't the best house in a new development. At any given time there are two to three porn actors in residence though often the number can grow to six. On average a porn actor will stay in the model house for about three months. After that time most have found a solid footing on which to move out or have decided the trade is not for them and returned to a more familiar place.

New porn actors are instilled with Tom's code, certain rules that establish a workable civility. Bringing in a certain type person helps establish personal caring and support by each porn actor for others. They all share cooking and cleaning while Tom provides the food.

Acquiring new porn actors is an ongoing effort for the porn king. He actively pursues social media sites, such as Facebook, and escort sites for prospects. Beginning with an instant message or email conversation he might spend a year or more communicating with a prospective porn actor before both he and the prospect are ready to meet. Prospective porn actors are those with a settled demeanor, a high level of interest in setting a new life direction, and a willingness to abide by Tom's rules.

His offer of employment includes transportation from the prospects hometown to Orlando which depending on distance is typically via air. Approximately sixty percent of those who commit to the trip actually arrive. Tom has no interest in those who are saddled with drama and he has zero tolerance for drug use or alcohol in the house. If the wrong porn actor is chosen, Tom immediately returns him to the airport and sends him back from whence he came.

Ninety percent of the boy next-door type porn actors come to the model house with no experience. They are required to use condoms in all their sexual activity both on camera and off. Each arrives in Florida for a different reason, though earning money is always a common theme of their lifestyle transition. Shoots pay between one and three hundred dollars. Once settled in, most porn actors get additional employment dancing in clubs, webcam modeling, escorting or a typical part time job.

A model house will eventually come under the scrutiny of neighbors. And neighbors are usually none too happy with what they find - as was the case with Tom's house. In his case, that anger resulted in calls to the police.

Even though they found nothing, they still charged Tom with running an unlicensed halfway house. There have been no new problems in the past four years.

No filming is done in the model house. Filming is done at a local dungeon and at private campgrounds for outdoor shoots. Shooting is done in twelve minute episodes edited to ten-minute pieces shot in one to five hour sessions. Updates are done weekly to the Orlando Models web pages BadBoyBondage.com and BadBoysBootCamp.com.