xbiz world
xbiz premiere

Articles by Shawn Alff

XBIZ Awards: Behind the Scenes With Stormy Daniels

Shawn Alff offers a behind-the-scenes peek at Stormy Daniels' promo shoot with Holly Randall for the 2019 XBIZ Awards.

On the Set: Stormy Daniels Makes Digital Playground Directorial Debut

Stormy Daniels directs her first film for Digital Playground, “Highway Home,” after ending her more than 15-year collaboration with Wicked Pictures.

2018 XBIZ Awards Shatters Status Quo Amidst Glitz, Glam

In the heart of downtown L.A., the JW Marriott pulsed with camera flashes tracking the stream of industry leaders flowing down the red carpet and into the 2018 XBIZ Awards. The ceremony was distinctive in that it attracted the top representatives from across the globe and from every branch of the adult industry. The show not only unified performers and producers from every adult film genre — fetish, straight, trans, gay — it also celebrated the best of the best in technology, pleasure products and retail.

trends

Online Porn Consumption Grows With Expanding Digital Media Platforms

In many ways, the sex acts that occur in front of the camera in porn have remained relatively static over the years. What has changed is how viewers are accessing these images on computers, TVs, cellphones and now VR headsets that support ever-greater resolution and processing power.

Shawn Alff ·
trends

Adult Filmmakers Talk Latest Trends, Innovations in Video Production

The only thing that changes faster than the faces in front of cameras in porn is the technology behind those cameras. The craft of video production is an invisible one. Content creators often strive to produce a seamless product that further blurs the division between fantasy and reality.

Shawn Alff ·
profile

On the Set: Kay Brandt Blazes Trails in 'Naked'

Lead-bellied clouds loom over the golden slopes of a mountain estate just outside of L.A. Dressed in all black, with red highlights shining through her long raven hair, multi XBIZ Award-winning Kay Brandt stands in stark contrast to the setting.

Shawn Alff ·

On the Set: Bree Mills' 1st Pure Taboo Feature 'Half His Age' Slays

“How would you dispense with a dead body?” Bree Mills asks, adjusting her black-rimmed glasses to appraise her assistant’s work.

On the Set: Jessica Drake Fashions Trans Haute Couture

“Have you had sex with a woman before?” I asked Domino Presley.

On the Set: Kay Brandt Blazes Trails in 'Naked'

Lead-bellied clouds loom over the golden slopes of a mountain estate just outside of L.A. Dressed in all black, with red highlights shining through her long raven hair, multi XBIZ Award-winning Kay Brandt stands in stark contrast to the setting. Although she has been on location since dawn, her makeup looks so meticulous, that I wondered if she’s appearing in front of the camera as well.

profile

2017 XBIZ Trans Performer of the Year Reigns Supreme

It’s easy to see Aubrey Kate now — the modelesque, blonde bombshell — and dismiss her recent awards in the erotic arts as inevitable. It’s easy to say that she was simply born with something other models weren’t, like her photogenic physique and a preternatural ability to hold the camera’s gaze.

Shawn Alff ·

Stars Align for 2017 XRCO Gala

The Hollywood Walk of Fame bustled with tourists marching over the names of famed figures who have since faded from the collective consciousness. These monuments to the former giants of mainstream media lay underfoot, collecting the grease of street food, wadded flyers announcing the impending apocalypse and the emissions of apartment dogs. Several stories above this famed sidewalk, another kind of Hollywood star waited outside the OHM nightclub on Thursday night to be recognized at the 33rd Annual XRCO Awards.

Jonni Darkko Seduces Evil Radiance 'Neath His Lens

Photography is the art of capturing a story in a single frame. The discipline puts an emphasis on economy, on enhancing natural beauty and distilling a subject to its essence. This focus is what Jonni Darkko brings to porn.

Mason X: The Enigmatic Maestra of Hard XXX

Pornography reveals the concealed. It revels in what happens behind closed doors, in the dark recesses of fantasies. The only thing that remains hidden in porn is the work that goes into creating it, and by extension, its creators. As such, much of what we know about the enigmatic director, Mason, comes from reflecting on the films she has shot for Elegant Angel and most recently, Hard X. While Mason remains largely a mystery, the following discussion of her work brings to light a kind of film negative of the shadowy figure lurking behind the camera.

Jasmine Jae Talks Stardom, 'All Access' for Airerose

Jasmine Jae possesses a rare quality among porn stars... mystery. While the European star exposes every salacious inch of her figure for fans, she remains something of a distant, “dark star,” a shadowy anomaly with a strange gravitational pull.