You forgot to buy the lube. Your camera batteries ran out of juice mid shoot. Or perhaps your Co-Performer backed out last minute because of an emergency… Sound familiar?
Like any profession or project, planning goes a long way. Being clear on the process, requirements, and goals for your next video production will allow you to manage stress, get organized, and ultimately produce better content.
With this in mind, we’re sharing 8 video production tips you can easily apply to your next recording.
Tip One: Create a Video Production Checklist
A reusable checklist is a great way to ensure you have everything you need for a professional and streamlined video production. This could include reminders and tasks like:
- Budget
- Script
- Storyboard / outline
- Location
- Camera(s)
- Memory card
- Spare batteries
- Lighting equipment
- Sound equipment
- Outfits / lingerie
- Sex toys
- Lubricants
- Hygiene products
- Accessories
- Clean background / space
- Editing software
Once you’ve refined your video production checklist, you can then use it on repeat! Make a copy of ours or create and personalize your own using a pen and paper or software like Canva.
Tip Two: Understand Legalities and Terms of Service
Understanding the legal aspects of adult content creation is crucial. You’ll need to ensure all Performers are of legal age, have provided consent, and that you're complying with all the relevant laws and community guidelines.
At Pornhub, we have a wide variety of Policies and Related Guidelines for Models to follow. This includes a robust verification process and knowledge of the type of content we allow on our website. For example, our human moderators will not approve a video that displays acts of animal cruelty or chunky vomit. To learn more about this, visit our Trust & Safety Center.
Staying up to date will help position you as a professional in the industry. Not only that, it’ll also save you time by ensuring all your content complies with Community Guidelines. Because there’s nothing worse than spending hours on a scene to later find out you can’t publish it!
Tip Three: Know Your Audience, Angles, and Best Skills or Features
To reach thousands of views in a few weeks like FantasyBabe and her Step Sister scene, you’ll need to combine your performance skills with industry knowledge and business strategy. That’s why it’s important to determine the style of video you want to create and who it’s intended for—before you hit record.
Will it be a solo scene for people who like big boobs, a romantic amateur scene for lesbians who love to read and watch erotica, or a hardcore dom scene for the leather-loving BDSM community?
Knowing your audience and understanding their preferences means you can truly create content your community wants to watch. This will help grow your fan base, the performance of your video uploads, and ultimately your earnings! As Violet Myers shared in her recent spotlight:
“Having a fan base is very important. Communicating with them personally and getting to know me on a more personal level and vice versa makes the experience better for both of us.”
Once you have a general idea of the who, you can then start to think about the how. This includes what types of angles and filming techniques will help create an immersive experience, as well as which skills or features you would like to highlight to make it a viral scene. Think about what’s worked well in the past, or if you’ve never created a video before, what kind of content you would like to become known for and what videos you personally like to consume.
Doing your research while applying your own ideas and inspirations is one way to make your content unique, while building a personal brand.
Tip Four: Choose Your Video Format
Before filming, you should also know what video specs are required to publish your videos. This includes everything from file formats to aspect ratio. Here are some of the basics when uploading your video to Pornhub:
- We accept MP4, AVI, WMV, MPG or MOV files, with a maximum file size of 50GB.
- A landscape (16:9) or portrait (9:16) aspect ratio is recommended for best results and has a better chance of getting featured on the homepage. This is important as homepage features will help increase your video’s performance metrics (boosting your ad revenue), and could also result in a place on our Hottest Videos page (where your video can live for several days gaining thousands of views)!
- For vertical videos featured on our Shorties feed, we require an aspect ratio of 9:16 with 1080 x 1920 pixels.
To learn more about video specs for Pornhub, view our Help Center.
Tip Five: Camera, Lighting, Audio (The Essentials!)
It wouldn’t be a blog on video making tips if we didn’t mention your camera, lighting setup, and sound.
Whether you're using a high-end DSLR or a smartphone with a quality camera app, it’s crucial to understand your equipment's capabilities. For example, you might want to add a wide-angle lens to your camera to help capture more of your scene and create a heightened sense of intimacy. Whereas if you’re using a smartphone, it might be more beneficial to purchase a tripod or handheld stabilizer like a gimbal to help you capture smooth, fluid movements.
Once you’ve got a camera setup in mind, you can then start to consider your light and sound. When it comes to professional-looking porn, natural light alongside a directional or shotgun mic is a great starting point. This will allow you to capture the many nuances of your performance, from dialogue and sensual moans to the natural curves of your body and unique features.
If you’d really like to take things up a level, some Models use a three-point lighting setup. This includes a key light to illuminate your main performers, a fill light to soften shadows, and a backlight to separate the subject from the background. Experiment with angles and hues to find which best creates an aesthetic and exciting experience for your viewers.
Tip Six: Plan Shorter Clips and Strategize Teaser Content
Perhaps one of the most important video production tips; break your video down into shorter clips. This improves your editing process as it helps with precision, organization, and flow of storyline.
Rather than piecing together scenes that were filmed 30 minutes apart, short clips allow you to easily rearrange and combine the most captivating moments while maintaining a natural flow of transitions and shots. They usually range from 15 seconds to 2 minutes and allow performers to shoot in segments. This way, you can focus on perfecting specific actions or scenes without the pressure of getting everything right in one continuous take.
Short clips can also be used to promote links to full-length videos, as seen in Jak Knife’s video Office Babe Hotel Hookup. They can be turned into teaser compilations, such as snippets of your best blowjob or anal scenes. An example of this is TheLittleRed’s cumshot compilation video. Or they can be used as SFW teaser content on social media, with catchy music or sound effects to grab attention and build excitement. This is a great a way to drive traffic to your videos by offering a taste of what viewers can expect in full-length videos. Just remember – you’ll want to include enough to tempt and intrigue, but always leave them satisfied and wanting more.
Tip Seven: Choose Editing Software
Wondering how to make a video better quality? Cue your editing.
Many creators say this is where the real magic happens! Choosing the right editing software can make a huge difference to the quality of your final production. There are many free, high-quality options like CapCut and iMovie, as well as paid software like Adobe Premier Pro. Regardless of the one you choose, make sure you have the tools to trim and crop shots, add effects, and blend scenes in smooth transitions to enhance your video.
Read more on this in our video editing tips for content creators. In this blog, we discuss video editing software, branding, and elements you’ll need to consider for a professional video.
Tip Eight: Know How to Promote Your Videos
Creating a must-see porn scene without promoting it is like throwing a party without sending any invites. If no one knows about it, they can’t participate in it. Which is exactly why you need to know how to market your content so you can grow your audience and increase brand recognition.
To start, here are 3 simple steps to help you get more views on your next video:
- Utilize social media like Reddit and X to build your following and promote your videos with pictures and teaser content. Top-ranking amateur Model, Brooke Tilli, makes this an important part of her marketing strategy for all her home videos:
“I will get cute photos from our video scene or maybe we will film exclusive content for our promo...I engage with my audience on social media...and actively listen to audience feedback, allowing me to pivot my content strategy to cater to their evolving interests.”
You’ll also need to make sure you follow the community guidelines of any social media platform you’re using. Models tend to be flagged for things like nudity or explicit language.
- Use simple SEO techniques to reach your intended audience, such as targeting popular search terms like ‘big boobs’ in your video tags and titles.
It’s important to know that if you’re a beginner, you’ll want to find less popular keywords to target. For example, it will be difficult for you to rank for a term like amateur at first, because it’s a keyword that already has over 450,000 videos. This makes it highly competitive. Instead, try long-tail keywords (two or three words) like #green eyed man, #fucking the nanny, or #outside sex.
When uploading your videos, your titles and tags will need to be spelt correctly, relevant to your content, and each word separated, such as ‘big ass’ not ‘bigass’ (unlike Instagram where words are combined). This will help ensure the best possible results. Make sure you also add translations that consider, and increase traffic from, other countries viewing your content. For example, if you know people from Germany are regularly viewing your content, make sure you add titles and tags in German!
You can find viewer information on the Model dashboard, as shown below:
Want to learn more about how to maximize your video views and earnings? Visit our recent blog on How to Make Money on Pornhub and Get Discovered by Millions. Beyond SEO techniques, we also dive into Tiers, monthly contests, and insights to get more strategic when it comes to your content creation.
- Lastly, remember to engage with your viewers in comments and messages, and listen to their feedback to continually improve your scenes and offerings. Sometimes the best inspiration comes from your fans! And as user preferences change with the evolving industry, so should your approach to content creation.
Like the Video Production Tips but Not Good at Planning? Try This:
Set priorities – Write down what’s essential in your video production and what order tasks need to follow to make it successful. Trying to do everything at once will only slow your process and might leave you flustered and overwhelmed.
Break things down – Dedicate a set amount of time to complete each task. For example, 45 minutes for your storyboard, 1 hour to plan outfits, and an afternoon for filming. This will make your to-do list feel more manageable, and time-blocking is a proven method to boost productivity.
Think about the long-term benefits – Planning and strategizing your videos comes with a ton of benefits like establishing a clear process. Once you’ve mastered your plan, you can then apply the same process to every video moving forward and make refinements as you go. This will save you time and effort!
Reward yourself – Don’t forget once you’ve completed your video production to take a moment to be proud of what you’ve achieved. From lunch with your Co-Performers to binge watching your favorite series, you deserve some downtime for a job well-done!
TL;DR Using Video Production Tips to Improve Your Content
Preparation and attention to detail are your best tools for creating professional content. From knowing what video formats you need to planning bite-sized clips for editing, when you know the steps that need to take place for your next scene, in the exact order they need to occur, it helps keep you on track and ensure the end result is everything you hoped for.
If you haven’t already, sign up to our Model Program to start sharing your videos! With over 130 million daily users, our community is always excited to see the spicy new storylines and artistic performances you’ve worked hard to produce.
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