LOS ANGELES — Day Two of the first-ever virtual XBIZ Berlin trade show carried over the previous day's camaraderie with afternoon — or early morning, depending on one's time zone — networking ahead of a full slate of seminars and workshops that discussed the effects of COVID-19 on performer testing and production, examined financial health and mental wellbeing, provided expert analysis of gay market trends and produced candid revelations from a starry panel of 2020 XBIZ Europa "Performer of the Year" nominees.
"Performer Testing in a COVID Age"
Moderated by XBIZ News Editor Gustavo Turner and including Sixto Pacheco of Talent Testing Services, Jason Domino of UKAP, and performer Ella Hughes, "Performer Testing in a COVID Age" discussed how COVID has changed testing protocols.
Prior to the COVID pandemic, Domino identified as "a major problem" the divide between performers who worked with established companies — and therefore understood and engaged with the required testing protocols — versus an influx of indie workers in the United Kingdom.
COVID has exacerbated this divide and contributes additional problems. As Hughes pointed out, the U.K.’s national healthcare system simply didn’t have enough COVID tests. This shortage meant that performers and others who were not prioritized could not get tested for COVID.
For those who want to remain safe, the lack of testing has encouraged performers to do work that maintains social distancing. This means couples working together more often and/or people doing solo work.
Outside of the U.K., Pacheco said Talent Testing Services understood that COVID would be a global pandemic and that performers travel all over the world, and decided to be proactive by folding COVID testing into their protocols.
Even after COVID is contained — either through social policies or a vaccine — issues that have been pushed to the side due to the pandemic will rush to the forefront. For instance, Domino feels that discrimination against performers with HIV could lead to lawsuits against studios in the U.K.
Despite the stress that the pandemic has caused, Sixto remains positive. He offered that COVID will be "dealt within a year," and believes newly developed safety standards will help the industry become safer and better prepared for future problems that may emerge.
"Money Matters: Finding Sanity, Stability in Savings"
Pineapple Support hosted a panel that featured Ingrid d’Aquin, a Miami-based psychotherapist. In addition to offering traditional forms of counseling, she helps people understand and deal with the stresses that come from financial difficulties. For d’Aquin, in order for someone to have a healthy relationship with money, they need to realize that money isn’t just a means of getting goods and services; it is a system to which all of us have an emotional connection.
Several strategies identified by d’Aquin to improve one's relationship with money, particularly for independent workers, is to first understand how much money is needed to live month-to-month — not how much they spend, but the bare minimum to keep a roof over their head and food in the refrigerator. Once this amount is determined, it is crucial to learn "pain-free ways to save," she said, which can include apps like Acorn which allow people to set aside some money every time they make a purchase.
Once a simple system of saving money is established, d’Aquin recommends that independent workers place their money in projects or investments that will generate passive income. These sources of passive income could be stocks that pay dividends, real estate investments or various other opportunities.
Overall, d’Aquin advised, it is important to make time to examine one's financial health, as well as risk tolerances, and to understand that achieving financial health is a lifelong process.
"Performers of the Year in Perspective"
“Performers of the Year in Perspective” offered attendees a look at what it takes to make it to the top of the industry, as a group of elite adult performers revealed how they rose from relative obscurity to become contenders for the coveted title of “Performer of the Year.”
Moderated by XBIZ Managing Editor Alejandro Freixes, the panel included Ella Hughes, Cherry Kiss, Misha Cross, Amirah Adara, Tiffany Tatum, Texas Patti and Jia Lissa — each of whom offered unique insights into their career path and self-care regimens.
The topics tackled by the panel included a look at how on-set safety protocols due to COVID have changed production, with measures such as daily testing for all performers and production crews, more frequent handwashing, mask-wearing and more becoming commonplace.
Tips for maintaining a healthy lifestyle during isolation, where less activity and restricted access to gyms and other recreational outlets, along with limitations on food sourcing, can cause problems, were offered by the performers, who also discussed the pros and cons of working with agencies to provide booking and other management services as a means of obtaining more work with less effort.
With an overall theme centered on the importance of having a well-balanced life, the panel discussed their personal relationships and how in some ways the lockdown made it easier to spend more time with friends and family and to take care of themselves.
From meditation and yoga to target shooting and exotic dancing with fire and knives, the panelists revealed their off-time pursuits of pleasure. They also discussed how a lack of studio shooting didn’t mean a lack of work — using the downtime to build up their production skills by self-shooting and adding other career enhancements helped them become better at their craft.
Being a “Performer of the Year” takes more than modeling. For example, managing a large fan base across numerous platforms without being overwhelmed by DMs and content requests can become a full-time job. While some models don’t want someone else to add their voice to their social scene, others rely on a partner or other helpers to manage replies and requests, and work to find a balance between running their own social channels on favored platforms while off-loading the more obscure ones to a trusted friend.
Misha Cross summed up the session by saying, “Take care of your fan base, your image and your brand if you want to be independent.”
It was a message that resonated with all the “Performer of the Year” panelists.
"Gay Products: A Global Landscape Roundtable"
Moderated by Toby J. Morris, VP of marketing for Falcon/NakedSword, this lively and information-packed panel was presented as a roundtable discussion with Dominic Ford, founder of JustFor.fans, and Hector Camacho, CEO of Pinstripe Media Group, whose properties include Masqulin Studio and MenAtPlay.com.
Morris led an examination of the landscape for gay products from a global perspective with a focus on maximizing the connections between North America and the European Union; the relationship between performers and producers; content licensing and distribution; and new opportunities for creative collaborations and partnerships.
Camacho noted MenAtPlay is based in Spain. "We enjoy having a team in Europe and a diverse spread of models," he said, adding that Western performers "love going from the U.S. to Europe and perform with their European counterparts for studios and also their own content."
However, he observed, their audience is largely based in the United States.
"The challenge is finding relationships that go beyond production. I’m looking for partnerships that allow us to understand the market," said Camacho. "We’re pretty keen on what’s happening in North America, but not that keen on Europe."
Although Dominic Ford's focus is on JustFor.fans, he ran his own eponymous production label for 10 years as one of the few studios to offer all-male content in 3D. His team "often traveled to Europe" for a change of pace and "a grandeur that was inspiring," he said.
Ford shared a pro tip: pay attention to customers who come from different parts of the world and offer a multilingual option for them if the traffic is significant. All three execs also stressed the importance of research when exploring international licensing. "What sells in Berlin doesn't sell [elsewhere] and you have to know these things, what's legal or not, in areas of the world," said Ford.
Another topic of conversation was a dearth of reliable casting agencies for gay content. As attendees in the chatroom offered suggestions — including reaching out to trade association UKAP — Camacho noted that the community of European actors is small, "so models help each other out and collaborate extremely well with each other."
In addition to referrals, he and Morris also rely on the casting sections of their respective websites.
The panelists discussed the continued strength of DVD sales and distribution — Morris noted that Falcon still maintains a mail-order business — and urged producers not to overlook DVDs as a source of revenue.
Camacho and Ford stressed the crucial, collaborative relationship with performers who are hired for studio shoots and also produce their own content; Camacho compared the relationship to pop stars who collaborate with other singers to each other's mutual benefit.
Morris noted their "younger buyers — the 'under-25s,' the 'under-30s'" for whom "authenticity" and "no labels" are key values. They are the reason fan sites are thriving, he said. For his part, Ford has tallied up top-trending performers on JustFor.fans and observed "more than half are models of color and they're not all 20-years-old with eight-packs."
Morris described the younger buyers as "millennials who are not body-conscious; the term 'masculinity' is very different for them. They will be significant buyers in five years."
Visit XBIZBerlin.com for the complete event schedule and stay tuned to XBIZ.com for further coverage.
