Answer to first question. Never ! I'm not a performer although privately yeah I'm a stud apparently. he he he just joking. "Hollywood filmmaking" Yes it is. I bought a camera or two and I created a youtube channel which was kinda interesting initially but now I've kinda lost interest in it. I had to learn about lighting to light my projects which initially weren't lit very well and that's how I started studying light which is a science. The older version of Bladerunner 1982 used film noir lighting which I found interesting. My father used to take a lot of photos with his film camera. The old film cameras had really great bokeh. I like how film renders light. Sometimes I think how wonderful it would be to use these elements on camming. Some girls have good cameras and nice lens that render their bodies in a beautiful way. I guess maybe cam models never think of the artistic elements of being a cam girl but I think there is a lot of potential to make it a lot more erotic. Fills and accent lighting, I had to look the last one up. I know that the purpose of a key light is to create depth or to give the model or object or subject a 3 dimensional look. Fill light is on the right side and that shines light into the shadows that the key light creates. Accent light is I guess artistic lighting to create mood I guess. If you remember the Bladerunner movie (1982) it had the most beautiful lighting. Stress over. Yes I guess you are right maybe people just don't appreciate the effort you put into lighting your shows. I do because of my cognitive bias. for example if you have a red car you notice red cars. If your a builder you notice houses and how they are built. its the same with me I notice many things aside from the model but i guess not everybody is like that. This is my personal preference as a consumer. I think everything is important although some things are more important than others. I think there is more to this than just her age, her looks, and her body. I had to think about it for awhile what are the elements that are the most important? what are cam girls actually selling ? what makes a good show ?
It's eroticism.
I've lightly studied what women like in men.
I've also studied what men like in women.
To some degree its her age, its her facial beauty, its having what a man considers a hot body but to me its more than that.
I guess there are similarities with what women like.
I've read that women like tall men.
I read that young women like a man to be clean shaven.
As women get older the don't mind some stubble but NO goatess please!
Women are very fussy about things like clean finger nails or dirty hands. You do not want to have dirty hands.
Now back to women.
posture for example - arching your back and pushing your breasts out is more erotic than being slumped over.
On all fours and lowering your upper body to the floor is an erotic pose there is something very primordial about that pose.
Laying back with your body slightly raised and your legs spread, or your legs spread eagled directly in front of the camera - this is erotic I guess because its how men enter a women. its a very erotic pose.
It looks very vulnerable and inviting.
Also other ways that women move and pose for the camera are either erotic or they aren't.
how a women hold themselves, their gait and how they walk and move.
if you've studied body language there is a silent language of communication that we unconsciously or consciously use to communicate with. Me because I've studied it. Women instinctively understand body language much more than men do unless they've like me (men) studied it themselves like me.
I pick up on these subtle cues that women do.
I can tell if a girl is anxious because she bites her bottom lip.
She's defensive maybe she folds her arms or places her hand over her vulnerable parts.
These things either enhance her show or deduct from it.
It's the same for men.
One wrong look one wrong touch, too fast, too slow, too rough, not enough pressure we are both put off very quickly and easily.
In that way its a challenge to turn a man on.
There are some things that you cannot hide.
Older women are better at this than maybe than younger women because they've learnt these skills over time.
I don't know why but some women have a flair at doing things that are erotic they know how to press your buttons.
I guess there is a lot of information here probably way too much to process.
I'll try to summarise some important things based on importance.
A young 18 year old model thats beautiful and has a hot body has a distinct advantage just like a 6 foot man that has a lot of wealth and is very good looking is going to have an unfair advantage.
I quarterback thats 18 to 25 thats very very good looking is going to attract a lot of pretty young girls. unfortunatly us men cant do much about it and its a fact most of the alpha males are getting 90% of the women.
in this way pretty girls have a very unfair advantage to.
still in some ways that is a disadvantage also because maybe she is much too reliant on her looks and her body. she doesn't learn how to attract a man with her charm and other skills...
Some women have other advantages aside from a beautiful face and a great body.
Maybe you have a great pair of breasts or a nice vulva or a nice buttocks.
A wispy voice can be a very attractive. Maybe you have nice eyes and nice mouth.
see this can give you an advantage that maybe you are not aware of. You never want to assume anything. You may be wrong.
There is a lot to be said about the saying : its not the dog in the fight its the fight in the dog! some women maybe are not 9s or 10s but they learnt the art of seduction better than of the pretty girls.
okay im rambling on way too much.
I think you need the best webcam that you can afford. a good webcam makes a huge difference without that I can't see anything.
audio I wish I could hear a girls voice or her BREATHING its her breathing that is erotic and indicates she's aroused. its not the vocalizations.
Silence is more erotic than moaning or saying things that that are just not erotic.
A women breathing faster sends chills up my spine.
Okay here's a treat for you that not even a Harvard educated professional with multiple degrees and a PhD knows.
real orgasm is surprisingly quiet aside from the heart beating.
so don't vocalize anything during a show. breath like you're aroused
Okay now the technical stuff:
Resolution is absolutely important and can not be underestimated . if your hot and your cam is poor quality your potential is stopped or very difficult to gain traction. I've seen so many camgirls that had poor quality cams that hurt their income.
640 x 480 you might as well not bother trying. its just not good enough.
1080p is mandatory really although 720 with good optical quality from a really good quality camera might actually be good enough still the more resolution then the higher the image quality.
Image quality make you look more realistic the more realistic you appear the more erotic the show is.
Another very important aspect of the camera is its FOCUSSING and minimum focal length. A camera has a minimum focus distance. If you move your camera too close to you or your vulva
then image becomes blurry. you have to move back until the camera is "in focus".
good cameras also have the ability to focus on the object very quickly without HUNTING or moving in and out trying to find what you want it to focus on. I bought another camera for that reason. My main camera would continuously hunt for focus which would drive me nutts !
On my SONY ZV-1 it has a mode called showcase mode which makes it very easy to focus on my subject and lock onto it easily.
That can be very annoying if you are watching a girl and her camera breaks lock and starts to hunt for her vulva then her face then her vulva then her face. if guys are watching her vulva then it loses focus - yeah its so annoying.
I know this girl and thats what happens. she stops the show and puts her hand up to the screen trying to get it to focus on something.
okay more technical stuff:
What's also important is frame rate 60 might be better than 30.
as you pan up and down and left and right the higher frame rate is better and smoother.
Bitrate, the more the better, but then you need "processing power". you need a powerful processor to stream to a server for streaming to multiple websites. Intel Core 9 ?? or Core 7 Maybe yeah.
Memory they say 4 GB is enough but is that with plugins ? I think most computers would have 16GB these days 32 would probably be over kill.
Fast internet connection especially the "upload speed" download is good but UPLOAD SPEED is very important.
Now the problems with better quality is that it requires as you know a lot of processing power. A fast processor with a powerful video card and lots of memory especially if you have lots of tabs open and plugins hogging resources.
Also you need storage and best storage is probably Samsungs 970 1TB SSDs.
I guess all this info is useless unless you have the funds to buy it.
I saw a Russian girl buy all the equipment straight away. She bought I guess a Sony A7S ii ? something like that and yeah her image quality was incredible.
Again lets go over lighting. Light is so important. I know this girl and she has a hot body but she just doesn't have enough light. its just too dark.
Another aspect of lighting is the temperature of it in kelvin. I would stick to 2700K to 3200K its stamped on LED bulbs. Warm white to me is warm and makes your skin look better.
Cold blue LEDs NO !
You know the basic 3 light setup with the right angles and the right height. Yes height is important. you want a glint in your eyes otherwise eyes look dead.
there is a light setup just for women portraiture. It has to be the right height and the correct angles and it may not be suitable for models that are moving around.
accents are nice and yeah I would add them but if you constrained by money then like you said maybe its not that important.
okay now erotica again.
I guess what is erotic for one man may not be erotic for me.
I don't think toys are that erotic its not the main thing that gets me aroused.
in fact they kinda kill my vibe.
what a girl does with her fingers is what I find erotic the speed that she does it at her breathing.
Masturbation is very erotic especially if she does it slowly. Just watching a girl masturbate is such a turn on.
I guess everybody has gone home by now and or gone to sleep. lol Ive been typing this for hours.