It follows Sydney filmmakers Jason Gooden and Julian Saggers as they attempt to make an independent, self-funded feature film about the pornography industry and are beset with mounting setbacks and costs.

In September 1997, Sydney-based cousins Jason Gooden and Julian Saggers have raised $100,000 from family and friends to produce a comedy feature film about the pornography industry entitled The Venus Factory, based on a screenplay by Glenn Fraser.

As the shoot begins, the production is already in deficit by $50,000 while Fraser is still heavily editing the script and neither Gooden or Saggers have read the latest revision.

During filming of a Roman orgy scene, the extras discreetly replace blackcurrant juice with actual wine and spend hours on set getting drunk.

The production ultimately passes MEAA's safety inspection, but filming cannot continue without more investment as the cost has now blown out to $204,000.

The following month, an unfinished cut of The Venus Factory is shown to a test audience who overwhelmingly do not enjoy the film.

They replace him with Denis Whitburn, who plans to rewrite the screenplay and direct the filming of additional scenes in a desperate attempt to salvage the production by turning it into a "romantic drama."

The film, now known as Starring Duncan Wiley, is completed only hours before a scheduled screening to a test audience in Canberra as part of the AFI Awards selection process.

[3] David Stratton reviewed Money Shot negatively on The Movie Show but said that Making Venus was "an excellent documentary... a series of catastrophes that are at the same time amusing and sad.