Most of the world's adult film and video is produced in this suburban region just north of Hollywood. And economic and entertainment observers say that porn is thriving while Hollywood is wringing its hands for now.
In fact, according to some reports, the adult film and entertainment business in the San Fernando Valley is having its most prosperous year yet. And some observers say it's probably going to get better no matter where Hollywood turns or who says "halt right there" in Los Angeles proper.
News reports this morning indicate that while mainstream filmmaking is down about 13 percent, adult film and video making is up 25 percent. One reason, observers say, is that the porn industry does not have a problem bothering Hollywood these days: job flight to less expensive markets such as Canada and Australia, and never mind that both those countries have severe restrictions if not outright bans on porn or near-porn filmmaking.
The Los Angeles Times says civic leaders around the San Fernando Valley don't exactly embrace the adult entertainment world, but the Valley's adult business in general plays "an increasingly large" role in the region's economy. The Valley porn business is a $4 billion a year industry, powered in large part by the growth of the Internet as well as fluctuating social mores, the paper says.
In fact, by way of the Internet, X-and-above rated material is one of the fastest growing categories with $1 billion in sales and counting. So says Forrester Research, a Massachusetts-based Web tracking firm.
AVN says that not only was one in five July film shoots an adult film, but the porn industry is on the track to release 10,000 adult titles for this year, compared to 8,950 in 1998. And among the leaders in the next waves of adult video are Vivid Video, a Van Nuys company which now leads production in the DVD format - 600,000 discs in 1998 and twice that this year, the Times says.
And mainstream economic observers aren't exactly going negative about the boom. The chief economist of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, Jack Kyser, tells the Times that with the distresses in the general mainstream entertainment business, "the success of the adult segment is a welcome anchor in the wind."
Meanwhile, Hollywood spent much of the summer picketing, protesting, and otherwise wringing its hands over production work going out of the area and over the border or overseas thanks to less expensive labor and lower tax rates.
Don't tell that to Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. He isn't exactly planning a porn purge along the lines of New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, but he isn't exactly one of the world's great porn supporters, either. And, although he was recently petitioned by Vivid to declare 7 September Ginger Lynn Day (Lynn was the first porn contract girl), he calls porn a black eye on Los Angeles.
Still, load after load of young would-be stars and starlets hit the Valley routinely, and those who produce adult film and video entertainment tell the Times they know that, in the Valley, they can get their work printed with no questions asked.
Kyser tells the Times that, while no one knows the precise count for certain, an estimated 10,000-20,000 Valley jobs are created by porn. Income for the top porn players climbs steadily even as Hollywood experiences roller coaster production times - big productions one year, big cutbacks the following.
