Seven Questions With Bobbi Starr: Nate Liquor

The problem with dreams is that as long as they stay dreams, they are perfect, flawless things. When you decide to make your dream a reality, nothing is perfect and nothing is flawless. There are compromises to be made and sometimes, what you wind up with is something that is not what you imagined.

This is why I've taken my time when it comes to the people I work with. I have a vision, and while I realize that real life requires change, it doesn't mean they still can't be done well.

Though it's taken me a long time to find him, Nate Liquor works with me to bring my vision from my imagination — from the realm of my dreams — to reality. He shoots second camera on all my movies and web productions for BobbiStarr.com. There is no one else I'd rather work with, when it comes to shooting.

Bobbi Starr: How did you get your start in the business?

Nate Liquor: Back in the mid-90's after film school, I was working with an underground theater company in Chicago and fell in with an amazing group of oddball Improv actors and performance artists. We formed a little filmmaking co-op and started producing short films and underground features for the Film Fest circuit. They were very low tech and extremely politically incorrect, but generally very funny and we got some notice and even won a few awards.

But we weren't making any money.

Eventually someone had the bright idea that we should start a porn website to fund our filmmaking habit.That site never really took off but through doing it I met a bunch of people in the adult industry and was offered a job as an editor in 2001. I've been working in porn full time since then.

Have you always worked in adult?

I've worked a few mainstream gigs over the years, mostly early on after school. But I never really cared for it and haven't ever pursued it. I've always found the mainstream world to be boring, pretentious and way sleazier than adult.

What's the craziest assignment you've had in this business?

I was once called to the Chateau Marmont in the middle of the night to shoot a Celebrity "Home" Sex tape. But I had to sign an NDA on that one...

Given the problems this industry's facing right now, would you rather work in mainstream or adult?

I have no interest in working in mainstream. If porn dries up for me I'll open a bikini- wax shack on a nice beach somewhere.

Where do you see yourself five years from now?

Depending on the next election, either right where I am or somewhere in Canada.

Where do you see the industry five years from now?

The majority of the adult industry seems to be rapidly transitioning from a content based business to an internet traffic selling business with content given away for free. More and more consumers are actually dumbfounded by the idea that porn is something you're supposed to pay for. For those of us on the creative end, I think we need to take advantage of the fact that adult entertainment has never been more socially acceptable than it is today and position ourselves as just another niche genre of filmmaking. Like horror movies or kung-fu movies. Sex movies.

Real movies that happen to have people fucking in them. That means ramping up the production value and also doing away with the glut mentality of producing 20 movies a week. It also means doing away with the 25 minute sex scene. I think we need to make movies that are seen as a whole and not just a collection of sex scenes with a loose plot stringing them together.

What continues to surprise you about this business?

The thing that has always appealed to me about the adult industry is the DIY, guerrilla mentality. We make whole movies for less money than the average mainstream production spends on coffee. That being said, I'm surprised how many people in the business are desperately trying to hold on to the old business model and the unwillingness to change and adapt with the times and technology.

Other than that, after 15 years, nothing is shocking.

This post is a part of Fleshbot's Bobbi Starr Week. Photo courtesy of BobbiStarr.com.