Graduation Day at the Jamie Gillis Film Institute

When I saw a Learning Annex catalog offering a 3 hour class on producing pornography taught by adult film legend Jamie Gillis for $39.00. I leaped to the phone to sign up.

I've always been a connoisseur of adult film,having shot my own on several occasions and armed with the opportunity to justify my existence as a pornographer with a diploma there was no question as to my attendance.

Once I arrived at the Institute, (Holiday Inn) it was clear I was in for an interesting evening, the class in the next room was on word processing (I thought to myself "who in their right mind would be in there when Jamie Gillis was only ten feet away"... obsessed your thinking?...maybe)

It was, as expected an eclectic collection of 40 students (2 women) who were sitting patiently waiting for class to begin, the guy next to me was removing his pants as Mr Gillis began by giving a short dissertation on his backround. Starting in 1971 mostly doing loop work, he then graduated to star in three hundred plus films including the landmark 1975 film Misty Beethoven. He, however, is best known these days for his successful collaboration with Ed Powers titled Dirty Debutantes featuring women in their first filmed sexual act.

The focus of the class was on the business of pornography and Mr Gillis certainly knows his stuff. He spent the better part of our three hours together describing in detail the various aspects of production value. He believes "if you have a script you have a bad dirty movie" chosing to shoot spontaneous encounters between strangers instead.

Jamie seems to live by the rule that you should enjoy what you do, you should choose an area or sexual fetish that entertains you and your products will take on a more personal look and feel. Setting yourself apart from the pack is, according to Mr Gillis, what this game all about.

This said, the audience of mostly introverts started asking questions:

Q.How do you get girls? A. Ask, it's as simple as that.

Of course to a room full of men that spend all of their waking hours with the shades drawn watching vintage Marilyn Chambers films this was not the answer the guys wanted to hear from their Messiah.

Q. What does somebody pay a person to perform in a film? A. women $200 max, men $50 per sex scene. No sex alot less.

This seemed to cause a giant sigh of relief from the budding pornographers, as it was apparent that these guys weren't going out in public to communicate their needs to other human beings. They needed to be able to purchase the individuals services over the phone. Jamie seemed to understand the groups "problem" and announced a series of telephone numbers of local agents where they could rent "stars" to appear in their films.

Q. What about fisting? (from a woman seated in the back of the room) A. Ok for your personal collection but unsellable to a distributor.

It seems that there is an unwritten rule that four fingers is ok but five is obscene. The LAPD made up this "law" as the story goes and the industry has gone along without bucking the trend or testing the LAPD interpretation of obscenity.

The latter third of the class time was spent showing examples of Mr Gillis' work. His voyeuristic "On the Prowl" series features a low tech approach. A female engages in various sex acts with guys picked up on the fly. This takes place in a car, while Jamie films from the front seat. It was examples like this that had the audience eager to leave right then to start charging up their camera batteries.

As graduation time drew near it became clear to me, the group had bonded much like any high school or college class. In the coming months this group of P.h.D perverts would be placing their mark on the adult film world as well as the floors of many adult book stores nationwide. Not to be out done, I too would be developing cinematography that would cause right wing America to beg for changes in the nation's obscenity laws.I was one of them, pervert cum laude, a proud member of the Jamie Gillis Film Institute Class of March 2nd 1994.