Bren Ryder

Zen and The Art of Independent Porn Making
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Archive for March, 2009

Writing a Porn Manifesto

March 27, 2009 By: Bren Ryder Category: The Work No Comments →

More than writing this upcoming manifesto, I am living the manifesto. In fact, I haven’t written anything yet. So far, I am witnessing. I’m waiting to see what emerges as a clear philosophy for revolutionizing porn.

I have a general idea about what I want to create. I want to create good dyke porn, thus the name of the website is GoodDykePorn.com. And we’ve all been working intuitively to figure out what exactly good dyke porn consists of. The way I figured it is if we start to have genuine sexual encounters on camera between women who love women then we should be on the right path.

Whenever I talk about the website – my vision for the future, what we create and what we’re hoping to achieve – I become extremely verbose. After my second cup of coffee with someone who’s interested in learning about what I do, I start to passionately express the positive effects good dyke porn has on society, the fantasy of a changed world, and human experience of de-grossifying pornography.

But, whenever I think about writing a manifesto I get a little overwhelmed and can’t think of anything to write. I think I’m over thinking it. I was rereading my Steve Pavlina book yesterday and in the chapter on careers I was reminded that what I’m trying achieve with this website/my business is what I’m trying to achieve for my own life.

A few months back (probably when I was reading the Steve P. book for the first time) I came up my purpose in life. It was a matter of breaking down everything I feel like I want into something that can’t be broken down anymore. Plus it needs to be something that resonates with me.

Here’s what I came up with for my life purpose:

* Love Truthfully
* Empower and Inspire
* Experience Life Fully

Everything I do in life needs to align with one or more of those points. So, this seems like a good place to start for the Good Dyke Porn™ Manifesto. After all, my work should be in alignment with my personal manifesto.

And it is.

Working Sundays

March 18, 2009 By: Bren Ryder Category: Me No Comments →

PreShave

This past Sunday I had to work.

Over the years I’ve worked a variety of jobs and whenever possible I’ve always tried to keep Sundays free. No work on Sundays. I’ve even lied and told my employers that I couldn’t work Sundays because I had to go to church. To me, Sundays had to be the one day that I had off. It was sacred. No work on Sundays.

When working a “job” it’s always the days-off that become sacred because the days-on tend to be un-enjoyable. Now that I’m running my own business the days on have become sacred. I don’t overwork my business, though. I certainly make sure I take time off for myself and not spend all my time on the job. Even though it is my dream job I still take the weekends off. But, this Sunday, I worked. And, it was magical.

Trala La, a mutual friend and I rented a sauna at an old, beautiful and gritty steam bath house. We snuck our camera equipment into our private room and sauna and immediate got down to work. Using three cameras we captured the gorgeous Trala La shave from head to toe and enjoy some time with the water faucet. We even had some time left over in the end to all strip down and enjoy the sauna with the camera and equipment all put away.

For the rest of the day the three of us reported an indescribable high from the creative work we did that day.

Obviously, the events of the day weren’t exactly “work”. They were playful, creative, sexual, artistic, intimate, and fun. However, this is in fact my job. If I don’t do it then my objective with GoodDykePorn.com will suffer. If I don’t do it then the business will suffer and it will no longer serve as my job.

By recognizing the importance of my job and recognizing that doing this work is entirely necessary I am immediately filled with a feeling of bliss. This is my job. Everyday can be a joy. My life is better because of that fact. And, the world is better because my blissful job produces incredibly beautiful and important images of queer women. What could be better than that?

Now, Sundays are sacred because I work.

Hitting Pause

March 04, 2009 By: Bren Ryder Category: The Work 1 Comment →

pausepausepause

I made a decision to hit the pause button on my porn website, GoodDykePorn.com. I’m referring to content updates. After I add an additional part to my solo scene there won’t be anymore updates for a few months. This was a difficult decision, but my primary concern is to create a valuable product to my customers. Currently, I’m having some trouble keeping up to the very modest update schedule of one new scene per month.

I was worried about this decision because I don’t want people to think that I’ve given up or that Good Dyke Porn is on it’s way out. On the contrary, I feel like the next couple of months are going to contribute to its longevity. I run the site on my own and I like it that way. My intention is to continue to do so, but in a way that will keep the quality of the website consistent and allow the site to run at least for the next 10 years. That’s what I’m looking ahead to.

When I chose to start this site, I just did it. I didn’t spend much time doing market research or perfecting my business plan or honing my business and technical skills. Considering the amount of work and expertise that’s required to make this website run smoothly, I could have spent years in preparation. For me, it was important to just get started. Personally, I learn by doing. As I started to film the scenes I learned what was required to make it look good and what was unnecessary. As I started to edit the scenes I referred to online tutorials of Final Cut Pro and became more and more comfortable as every new hot scene passed before my eyes. At tax time I was forced to get my accounts organized. Everyday I learn new skills: webmastery, inventory, customer service, marketing and promotion. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Initially, I set up the foundation of the website and hoped that from there I could simply add content and promote. As always, there’s much more to it than first meets the eye. Now is the time to revisit that foundation and make it even stronger. Over the next couple of months I’m going to be completing plenty of important tasks and creating some more material to be released on a consistent basis when updates begin again. Besides that, I’ll be figuring out the best way to make this work over the years. Whether it’s task, time or personnel management it will be solved.

We aren’t going anywhere, though, so please continue to visit the site as often as you like. If you buy a membership then you will have access for the entire time that we are “paused”. If you have a membership right now then your access will also be extended. (Message me if I haven’t successfully reached you by email: bren@gooddykeporn.com)

I’m very excited about the upcoming changes and I feel in my heart that this “break” is extremely necessary to the future of Good Dyke Porn. Here are some changes that you can expect to see:

  • Updated community features in the members area.
  • Model profiles and pages.
  • Redesigned navigation for easy of use.
  • Limited # of free or discounted memberships available for application.
  • User submissions from all over the world.
  • More frequent and consistent updates.
  • Commissions paid to all participating models.

Let me know what you want to see different for your money. I’m going to be busy, but I always have time to talk to you. Together we can continue to make Good Dyke Porn a place for beautiful, quality images of real queer sexuality that we can all be proud of.