Interview with Ela Darling: VR Porn Queen and a pioneer of VR in the adult industry

I had the chance to ask few question the VR Porn Queen and a pioneer of VR in the adult industry - Ele Darling. Ela is an extremely intelligent (finished a master's degree in library sciences at the age of 21), porn star and the co-founder of a virtual reality (VRTube.xxx) porn company and the first live 3D virtual reality cam website  CAM4VR.com. She creates a new service for users to have a porn experience that far surpasses what was possible with any 2D analog.

How long have you been involved in the adult industry? Can you tell us a little bit about your background in the adult industry?

Ela D: I’ve been in the industry for a little over 8 years now. I came to porn after working as a librarian and I was primarily girl/girl for the first several years. After a brief foray into boy/girl, I found my home in the nascent world of VR porn. I teamed up with the person who is now my business partner and we started exploring the space and eventually created the first ever live cam platform in VR.

How did you get involved in VR?

Ela D:  I first tried VR at E3 several years ago and I was excited to see how it could be applied to porn but I didn’t have much of a tech background so I figured I would just watch from the sidelines as this cool new sex tech developed. Then one day I was browsing Reddit and I found someone who wanted to make VR porn but didn’t know how to find performers for it. I reached out to him and we shot some of the first ever VR porn and eventually teamed up and started a business as pioneers in that field.

What is the story behind VRTube?

Ela D:  I met James, my co-founder on Reddit. He flew me out to the east coast to shoot a solo VR scene. At the time I knew very little about him, so I was surprised to discover that he was only 20 years old and the shoot location was his college dorm room. We shot our first scene in 180 degrees 3D and when we watched the footage it was mind-blowing. There was so much potential. From there we discovered that we had complementary skill sets and decided to partner up and try to make the most compelling VR porn experiences we could imagine.

How hard is to create VR content?

Ela D:  It’s definitely challenging. You have to entirely reframe your approach to production. I made the mistake of initially viewing VR through the lens of traditional cinematography and the result was horrible and utterly unerotic. There’s also a lot more post-production to keep in mind and far greater processor demands for the computer you use to edit. VR is not something to enter into lightly. It’s something you should dive into with the goal of learning a lot and working through a learning curve.

How did you come up with the idea of CAM4VR?

Ela D:  It was in working with my business partner trying to create better and more immersive experiences in Virtual Reality. We had created a dating simulator that made it feel like you were on a date with me in a coffee shop. The better you were at talking to me and navigating the conversation, the better result you would get. It was almost enough to trick your brain into thinking you were really talking to someone. Then we decided to take that aspect of it and make it so people could actually talk to people in VR so we made the first ever live webcam experience. I did the first ever VR cam show out of my bedroom and the rest was history.

What is the view like of the performer? Is it 360 degrees from the viewer's perspective or 180?

Ela D:  For our product the perspective is 360 3D. You feel immersed in the performer’s bedroom with them. The actual live broadcast is limited to about 120 degrees, with the rest of the sphere represented as a static image, but the view is 360.

You've performed as a cam girl in the past, how is VR camming different from traditional camming?

Ela D:  The need for authenticity and engagement with the camera are huge. Making and maintaining eye contact with the camera is key to create a great VR cam experience. The setup process is a bit more challenging, so it requires a performer who is very dedicated and invested in delivering a next level cam experiences.

Do you think the VirtualReliaty porn will replace regular/normal/standard/old style porn?

Ela D:  I think it will definitely supplement it but I don’t think we’ll ever completely replace the 2D analog porn that we all know and love today. Even as VR grows and becomes a booming industry, there will always be a place for traditional porn content.

What does VR mean for the future of porn?

Ela D:  VR is a new horizon of exploration and profitability. People who use VR are, at this point in time, open to paying for VR content. This is important in creating a profitable future for our industry. We live in a time when a whole generation of viewers finds it audacious to pay for porn, so if we can tap into this new medium to create a value offering of content that people are comfortable or at least accustomed to paying some entry fee for, the impact we see could be huge.

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