Is the adult film industry what it use to be? And will it get worse or better?

Here's some free advice: study hard and then get a decent job. At 17, you'll need a lot more skills (than making porno films) to make a decent living.

Besides, the porn industry is full of unscrupulous people and not what I would call a reasonable career path for a 17-yr-old.

This is, in many ways, a business like any other. And of course there are ways that it isn't.

As with other performing arts industries, you'll be dealing with union labor. Sets, makeup, hair styling, costumes, talent, lighting, catering and scripts. Even the cheapest and most seemingly unscripted porn has something in these areas. Of course there are ways to do this on the cheap like anything else. But it's going to be a lot more noticeable in this area because it's such a visual medium. After all, if the lighting is bad, your audience can't see the performances, right?

And in the adult films industry you will also need to have a good system in place for assuring that you are only working with persons who are over the age of 18. Unless you're comfortable with being arrested for contributing to the delinquency of minors. Might want to be sure you've got access to a good legal department while you're totting up your costs.

Do yourself a favor, and instead of thinking of it as porn, think instead of cheap videos. What makes one more compelling versus another? How can they stop being laughable? I'm not talking about the one in a million viral videos you see. I am talking instead about amateur productions. Go on Youtube and look for fan films, for large fandoms like Star Wars, Star Trek and Harry Potter. Some will be far better than others. Explore what makes one better than another. It is not exact; this is an analogy.

And then see what it really takes to put on a decent film with a virtually zero budget. Because, until you get industry connections, you're not going to be able to command much in the way of budgets.

As for how you get your talent, how else? Advertise in a trade publication (probably something like Variety). How are they interviewed? By the director or producer, I imagine. Do you honestly think you're going to be doing 100% of the behind the scenes work here?

How much will it cost you? Where's the industry going? Will you make decent money? No one here can predict the future. But like any new venture, the ramp up costs tend to be large, but they can be spread out over time if the business survives.

Keep in mind, you are talking about starting a new business. Forget the trappings. This is a new business venture, much like if you were opening up a tattoo parlor or a coffee shop. And new business ventures, everywhere in the world, more or less since the beginning of time, have very high failure rates.

Is the adult industry what it use to be? No idea and I have no idea why you thought a2k was overflowing with porn industry producers (there are none that I know of) who would answer your questions for free.
Will I make descent [sic] money? If you have to ask this question then very likely you would be bleeding money rather making a livable wage if you try to make a living by producing porn movies.

Where would I find the models/actresses? If you want to go cheap, go Craigslist or its UK equal. But prepared to get what you pay for.

ow much will it cost me? Literally thousands of dollars in up front costs. You'll need more then a cell phone camera. As Jespah mentioned, you'll need lighting. You'll need sound equipment. You'll need a computer as you need to edit your film. You won't be able to professionally edit a film on an iPhone or iPad either. You'll need the time to write the script (on your computer's office suite like program not your phone's Twitter or Facebook app) and edit the film postproduction.

You could hire your friends as free labor (acting and production) but once again you'll likely get cheap production value with your very cheap production crew.

Even if you finish filming then postproduction then you'll need money to distribute the product. Of course, things are much cheaper in the digital age but being a newbie you're not going to be accepted that easily on the established pay-per view sites. You won't be putting/hosting anything free on Youtube as they don't allow porn.

( I've seen videos on the Internet and well... We all know that's not how it really goes down). No... no I don't but I can imagine that few professional porn actors and actresses will take a horny 17 year too seriously to even give him or her the time to interview for his budding porn production career.

Best case scenario, wait until you're 18 and try to intern for a film production crew. Learn your craft there. There is little chance you will succeed in creating a brand new porn studio from scratch with little or no know-how or capital to boot.

So you watched a movie and said to yourself, Wow! That's the life for me.

Here's a clue, for free. Movies are fiction. Movies bear the same relationship to reality as Christian Science does to real science.

As everyone else has been telling you, stay in school, and work hard to find a decent job.

Alternatively, you could jet a nice, white t-shirt and with a black marking pen, write: "Lie to me, cheat me, rob me." on it. That's what will happen anyway, and this way, it will let people know up front, and save everyone a lot of time.

Yep. The porn industry has always been known for straddling the line between what's legal and what's not legal.

1. Underage actors and actresses film = child porn.
2. Improper safe sex allows sexual transmitted disease to run rampant in the industry.
3. Actors and actresses infamously known to have illegal drug habits to boot.
4. Etc.... I'm missing more of the seedy side of the industry. Probably mob connections are needed to succeed in certain areas of the porn industry.

PS: It may not even be legal for you the OP to participate in any part of the porn production UNTIL you reach 18. But then again you claim to live in Europe (Ireland? North Ireland?) and they might have slightly different laws.