Yeah Dave, I can see that is exactly the position that you and many others are in .
It has it's pros and cons.
And it leaves a door open for me because the most expensive thing is usually the female talent (unless you're doing a real crazy location setup), and since I've always got her, that doesn't come into play for me.
Therefore I'm able to roll the dice and use amateur guys. And like I said earlier...we've had great success with them. Never lost a scene.
And it makes our content a bit fresher because the amateur guys are really having sex. They are excited and take direction really well from me. So I end up with some real passion.
And since our scripts and setups are always comedy based the dialogue is always "good", even when it's "bad"
But yeah...for someone in your position, you pretty much have no choice but to use your "go to" guys that you can depend on.
You have to have a consistent dependable product.
My stuff can be a little more "catch as catch can" heh-heh