The Man Behind the Scenes Who Is Making You Cum

You don’t know his name, but Brian Fitzgibbons has been one of the architects of the porn you love for going on four years now.

A writer for Carnal Media, Fitzgibbons has helped shepherd to life such sites as Boy for Sale, Scout Boys, and now the brand-new Masonic Boys. Each site has its own identity, style, and look—but they are all riffs on power dynamics.

“Our primary passion is the daddy-son dynamic,” Fitzgibbons says of Carnal’s creations. “That’s where we feel most at home in what erotically charges us and what we think is exciting for others. And inherent in that is an exploration of power dynamics, which exist in a lot of areas of life, not just specifically related to the daddy-son genre. You find that a lot in the medical field, in religious societies. Anywhere someone is put into a position of power and you’re expected to do what they say. Even if you feel uncomfortable or uneasy, you’re supposed to put your trust in them. There’s a dynamic to that that’s incredibly erotically changed and, for some people, way more provocative and effective than any costume or sort of sexual ritual that they could come up with on their own.”

That’s certainly part of Masonic Boys, which is Carnal’s triumphant reclaiming of MormonBoyz, first created by Carnal Media CEO Legrand Wolf and his husband, Jay, before it and fellow property Family Dick were seized from their control in a hostile grab by the company Paper Street Media. The large straight company would go on to change the name to Missionary Boyz, in response to a letter from a law firm representing the IP interests of the Utah-based Mormon church. But Masonic Boys is in a way the granddaddy of them all; Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church, was a member of the secret society the Freemasons, and many of the Church’s rituals come directly from what he lifted from Freemasonry.

Fitzgibbons points out that what Masonic Boys—and the other variations of the domination-submission fantasy that comprise the Carnal universe—does is provide an entryway for those looking to explore that fantasy without the visual extreme of bondage or sadism. “This is more of a dominance of the mind and of the spirit,” he says, “and so much of that is based off of the quiet expectation of submission.”

If Fitzgibbons sounds as if he spends a lot of time thinking about porn, well, he does. In addition to writing the scenarios for releases, he also works closely with Wolf to give life to the new worlds Legrand and his husband explore, as well as the short story adaptations of the videos that accompany each on the sites. But even the perviest pornhound must run out of ways to make the 37th dick just as enticing as the first, right?

“I always try to look for something in the chapters that surprises me,” Fitzgibbons says of keeping the writing fresh, using the terminology specific to Carnal releases. The company doesn’t refer to their videos as “scenes,” instead using “chapters” as each series exists in its own carefully crafted universe. “Something I didn’t think would be there that really makes me curious to learn more about the character. That can be a facial expression, a moan, the way they rush towards an action or hesitate away from it. The setting inspires me! I try to focus in on that and write an entry point for the audience. So even if they’ve seen this before, too, I’m highlighting something new to focus on.”

In terms of crafting the scenarios, one of the hallmarks of a Carnal release is that very few of them include scripted dialogue; what you hear is usually delivered via voiceover. That’s by design, as Fitzgibbons points out. 

“It would be great if we could just hire Academy Award–winning actors and teach them to fuck on camera,” he says with a laugh. “But so much can be delivered with a look, with a touch. With a pause. With a sense of anticipation. Really allowing for those non-verbal moments works to capture the tension between two characters. Nothing is thrown in just because. It always answers the questions, ‘Does this let us know why these characters are here? What is their relationship to each other, and what about this moment is leading them to intimacy?’”

As a longtime porn fan, Fitzgibbons finds himself under (self-imposed) pressure to provide the same kind of memorable viewing experience that helped form his own sexual desires. 

“I don’t want to make anything that feels like it’s going to be an easily dismissed thumbnail in the giant tube site that is the Internet of porn,” he says. “People have so many options, which means it puts an extra responsibility on us as content creators to make something that feels really special for the audiences we’re looking to attract. 

“I can remember specific porn films that helped to define my erotic sensibility for the first 30 years of my life. For those who are of age to enjoy it, I really want to create something that will be just as impactful for someone else in the future.”