(Portraits of men in lust — ads for gay porn that focuses on raw man-on-man sex — discussed in plain language, so entirely unsuitable for kids or the sexually modest.)
Suppose you’ve been asked to work with a crew of gay porn staff — including a director, photographer, and a pair of actors who will couple in the company’s latest porn video — on designing a p.r. still that advertises that video (these ads are almost all carefully posed, rather than captured from live action on-screen). What are your design specs for the spot (understanding that not all of the specs can be satisfied at once)? What do you want it to be like?
I get a ton of these ads, mostly from high-end companies that take some care in their ad design and fairly often put out what I (as a long-time consumer of gay porn) think are especially satisfying shots, so I’ve begun to look at the ads from this point of view. You can see this approach in my 1/30 posting “All about the faces”, where I consider a depiction (in an ad for a Lucas Entertainment gay porn scene) of raw anal intercourse (which I find quite moving in those terms, and which also allows me to fantasize being the guy taking it up his ass with such enthusiasm, as was my custom in a previous life):
(#1) Dean Menace fucks Louis Ricaute while smiling with pleasure into the kid’s ecstatic eyesit’s also a careful composition of bodies in relation to one another
… The faces tell an emotional story that’s more deeply satisfying than the jack-off tale.
The composition also illustrates a particular position for fucking …. a position that … allows the two men to find an angle of penetration that will provide both of them maximum satisfaction.
… Then there are the character’s identities [racioethnic identity; sexual role identity]
Another couple falling in lust with one another. From the male photography department of the annals of design, another Lucas Entertainment e-mail ad, with two photos for the gay porn scene “Falling in Lust”, pairing two flip-fucking Latino porn actors, Nico Zetta and Roque Rems:
(#2) Rems up inside Zetta at an open window in their bedroom — a nice composition of bodies (with the men’s upper bodies, beautifully lit, forming a triangle), no gaze exchange, no dick display, but easily adjustable angle of penetration (a particularly satisfying position for the guy getting fucked); and (for an extra emotional charge) flagrantly fucking in public, more or less
Nico Zetta (with beard and hairy body) is a native of Argentina, Roque Rems (with heavily tattoed left arm) of Venezuela, but now lives in Austria and Germany. Both versatile tops, both with slender swimmer’s bodies, but projecting different porn personas — Zetta aggressive, Rems amiable.
(#3) Zetta in Rems, in a tricky position that allows them to exchange gazes while fucking standing up — but is contrived more for the sake of the viewer (who, in the unedited photo, gets a full shot of Rems’s sizable cock and big balls) than for the couple (neither of whom gets a a satisfying angle of penetration)
Thumbnails of the two actors:
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(4) Zetta, looking challenging, and (5) Rems, looking welcoming; but neither looking particularly comfortable
Design specs, a longer and more detailed list. But with the proviso that some of these specs are in competition (maximum dick display often works against the participants’ comfort and satisfaction, for example), and several come in opposed pairs. So there’s no way of having it all. But then life is like that (see my postings on brevity vs. clarity).
— the design allows the viewer to fantasize about engaging in the sex: one approach shows the sex with as little setting or context as possible (so it’s all about the sex); another approach situates the men in a full rich environment (such as a viewer might encounter in life)
— it addresses any viewer feelings of shame or guilt at watching sex scenes and jacking off to them (either by making those scenes entirely private, closed to other eyes; or by flagrantly celebrating them as a public display)
— it shows the act(s), especially showing both participant’s dicks and as much of these as possible; or, contrariwise, it withholds full views of dicks, in a visual tease
— it’s a careful compositon of attractive bodies (which will catch, and hold, the viewer’s attention)
— the faces tell an emotional story (to draw the viewer into the action)
— it ilustrates a particular position for sex (especially sucking and fucking), one that is satisfying for both participants
— it presents the two characters’ identities (allowing the viewer to identify imaginatively as one of the men and as the sexual partner of the other — as being one and doing the other)