'Footnote' Delves into Truths, Raw Stories of Porn Industry
Every second 28,258 Internet users are watching porn.
The public is familiar with the statistics and are well aware that pornography is the biggest industry in the world and the most consumed media worldwide.
But most never hear about the young girl who was curled up in a ball between takes in the production of a porn film, sucking her thumb because her mind was so blown by what she did.
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It's those personal stories – the "small things" in a big and otherwise nameless picture – that one crew of Christians is hoping to communicate.
For the last 18 months, a television show called "Footnote" has been in pre-production, capturing the funny, the sad and the raw stories of real people.
Donny Pauling, an ex-porn producer, recalls seeing young women get started in the porn industry. They would be paid $500 a day just for having some photos taken of them, which sounded better than a $200 paycheck every two weeks at Starbucks.
But the women would be led into "harder stuff" once they got used to the pay. And Pauling would eventually see "the lights go out in their eyes" and their lives fold.
"The industry breaks them," he says in the first episode of "Footnote," which premieres this fall on cable. "They're just people who have bought into a lie and it's so easy to get caught up in."
One porn star, who identifies herself as Kyanna Lee, submits, "Pornography is my boyfriend. It actually hurts but we have to make it look good because we have to sell the product."
Pornography is the first of a dozen modern and sensitive topics that "Footnote" addresses. Tyler Huckabee, head writer for the show, and Producer Jon Reisinger say they decided to kick off the television program with porn because it's something everyone's affected by but also very hard to get people to talk about.
"We knew if we wanted to be known as a show with no 'off-limits,' porn would be a good place to start," they told The Christian Post.
And in the midst of big numbers and the supposed fun and glam of the porn industry, they wanted to delve deeper into the issue and reveal not only the small details but also the truths.
"This story (of the young girl curled up) speaks these earth-shattering truths about a lot more than just porn – it says something about who we are as humans," they stressed. "That's what we want the show to be about."
"Footnote" is a project launched by Back to the Bible which is producing episodes in conjunction with Brad Knull and Cooke Pictures.
Huckabee and Reisinger hesitate to call "Footnote" a "ministry" because of some of the stigmas associated with the word and because of their desire to reach audiences that would never get involved with a ministry.
The show is also targeted to people like them who grew up in the church but went through and continue to go through times of "disillusionment and cynicism towards the usual idea of what a 'Christian' should be."
They say their aim was to produce something that they themselves would want to see on TV and something that actually starts conversations.
Jamie Gaylor, media strategist for LightQuest Media, Inc., describes the program as an "on-the-street documentary rather than a religious teaching program." But it is Bible-based, she noted.
The name of the show came out of their desire to convey the important things, which they found were in "the small stuff."
The first season will feature 13 episodes.
On the Web: http://fntv.com/
