Mitcz.com : Official blog of Rev. Mitcz, the demented devilish comedian from Hollywood, CA.

Another in the line of Mitcz productions, this was a “for hire” project. Meaning it’s not technically my production, just my design and implementation. The idea, and the site’s content, are owned by Bella herself. It’s been a long time a-waiting for this fucker to launch, after so many issues w/billing companies, but we’re all pleased. I want to, however, give you my lengthy write-up about the process, and the making of the site. This is more than just an entry on design. I emphasize that because, as you’ll see, some very interesting things happened while making the site, and it’s probably one of the more “personal” touches I’ve ever put on a site, even my own. So I present the making of…

BellaVendetta.com

The Bella gig hit me ’round about mid-January. My photographer friend Michelle Collignon told me a friend of hers in New York, “Bella”, needed her porn site redone. I took a look at it, and uhh.. well, here’s what it used to look like :

Not too pretty. Kinda thrown together, navigation from hell, incomplete (and totally non-compliant HTML 4.01, at best) HTML code was actually throw into the MySQL DB tables (if you know what this means, you’re cringing right now) – all in all a complete mess. Not to mention – 924px wide! That’s just insane.

When you’re going about a redesign, you need to look at what the site is doing right now that needs to change. You need to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. That’s often much easier said than done. About the only thing the old site had going for it was its amass of content. Unfortunately, locked away in MySQL tables – it was of no use to me. Sometimes, as was the case here, you need to throw the entire “version 1″ away and start fresh. And so it was with BellaVendetta.

Personally, I like designing logos. I’m not altogether that great at it, but I like doing it. I feel like getting a good logo in place puts me on solid ground for imagining the rest of a given design. I can take from the feel of the logo, and I can see where to put the logo, and how the elements of a page can work with it.

Here are a few of the first-round logo treatments…

In the end, she liked this one best, so it became the official logo :

So, I had a beginning point. I had a logo started. I was ready to roll. I did what I always do with clients, I sent her mockups. She didn’t like a one of ‘em. They didn’t “feel” right. I agreed, but I couldn’t figure out why. Before I get into why this entry has any interest to a non-designer at all, I’ll show you those original mockups, then you’ll get the story of what happened next…

As you can see… kinda dark, but very “clean”. All the edges were smoothed, and/or rounded. There was a “gloss and sheen” to everything. Looking back, I see the problem immediately. BellaVendetta is NOT fuckin’ clean. Right. I get that now. I didn’t quite “get it” then. I work for Vivid, remember?

Something happened, though. A few somethings. Want a laundry list?

1. Mom called me to say she had cancer and might not survive multiple operations and months of chemo and radiation treatment
2. Girlfriend’s mother died and she broke off all contact with me to leave the state for a month and bury her, get away from it all, and “cope” with it.
3. The Scientologists, who owned the Celebrity Center directly behind my apartment complex, were moving us out. I had 2 months to find a place, pack everything up, and get the fuck out.
4. My workplace had denied me a much-needed raise after a year and a half of hard work.
5. …wasn’t getting sex from the girlfriend, but had to spend some 80+ hours editing frame-by-frame hardcore porn clips and making them “censored” by placing stars/obstructions over anything “pink” or nude on anyone in the span of 12 different 5-minute clips
6. Roommate had a busted arm, and couldn’t help move anything from one apartment to the next
7. I cried for the first time in 14 years
8. Girlfriend returned, unbeknownst to me because, as it turned out.. her mother was not dead. No, her mother was alive and helping her plan her wedding to her ex-boyfriend. In response, she said “I couldn’t tell you any other way”, once her friend accidentally tipped me off to the facts.

Most of that happened in about a week’s time. The last part.. about 2 weeks later, once I was just moved into my new apartment.

In making the site, I read the BV Manifesto. That was like a mantra to me. Don’t just get down and stupid about shit – fuckin’ get angry, fuckin’ channel that anger into your art. I was making BellaVendettaDOTFUCKINGcom. This wasn’t your mother’s pornsite. This was organic. This was real. This was borne of people tired of the mainstream, tired of shitheads bringing down the hammer, tired of being confined into society’s “safe” versions of our deepest carnal desires. This was the site without apology. Without censorship. I fucking owed it to Bella, to the site, to the models, to the viewers, to the fans… to the fucking world at large to put that energy into the site.

So I got drunk. Consistently. I was drunk for about 2 months straight. I tried drawing lines. They came out jagged. I said “fuck it!” and kept them (note the “bloody grass” at the bottom, that was me trying to draw straight lines). I tore apart the sides. I tore apart the interface. I added little hints of “classy” alongside the torn up remains of the once glossed-over lines, as a juxtaposition. It was to mock “happy” and “clean” by putting it alongside the ridges of whatever torn up shelter made it’s way into the shell of the side. Pink turned to the dull grey, and went dim and empty. Everything was cracked. Broken. Bloodied. Bruised. Like I was. I put my soul into that design, and into that site.

I owed it to Bella. She inspired me. She probably doesn’t know it, but she’s a hero to me. I sheltered my emotions, kept them locked up. I didn’t channel fuck-all into what I was doing before. She saved BellaVendetta.com from being “pretty” as I’d originally intended it.

The site took longer than I thought it would. It took.. all told, about 9 months. That isn’t straight work-time, however. I had to battle my personal demons. Bella battled hers. The models, some of them, dropped out or moved on or decided they weren’t “for it” anymore. I had to work long hours toiling over the battle between what was right for the site, and what was right for my sanity (and my sleep schedule). In the end, the site won out.

Here’s what I’ll always find amusing…

BellaVendetta.com is the most honest, uncensored, forthright pornsite I’ve ever seen and ever had the pleasure to work on. It’s a labour of love from ALL involved, making it the most intimate pornsite you’ll ever run across. Not a one of those models has been paid for their time. They love the expression, and the freedom. They’re all releasing their “Beautiful Revenge” on this society of cleanliness and “no, we don’t talk about that” people.

For all of our hard work, guess how many billing companies jumped at the opportunity to take Bella’s money..

Not a single fucking one.

So, she begged. She pleaded. She reasoned. She was completely ignored. Some of these billing companies had incest and rape fantasy porn – but said BellaVendetta.com was “Too Hardcore”. Did Bella buckle? Back down? Bite the fuckin’ bullet and say “ehh… people can do without necrophiliac menstrual art”? Not at all. Though the road was tough for her, and I spent many hours begging her to stay strong, for all of us, and toll on and move forth and for the love of all things with passion and integrity in this world just keep the fucking site up. Bella Vendetta was our pornographic martyr.

She lost what she considered a great lover (perhaps even two) in the process. In a time and place where she really needed that kind of moral support, they wanted to censor her and live a “normal” life with her. She could’ve given it all up, right then and there, and moved away to a small town into a house with a white picket fence and been done with it. While you might sneer at the mere thought of it right now, that idea becomes a lot more appealing when it seems the whole world is against you. She’s no stranger to struggle, but it gets tough to carry that ax for too long. Forced martyrdom, standing alone, isn’t a place I’d expect many people to relate to or deal with. But she did.

In the end, of course, she kept the site – all obstacles be damned. And, we finally found a billing company. She lost lover. I did too. I even went celibate. And Bella… well, she peed herself when that first member joined up. Knowing her, she prolly photographed it, too.

Welcome to BellaVendetta. Enjoy your stay. We’ve got a piece of your darkest secrets… just behind that door.

p.s. –
Bella..
Thank you. Hero.

- Love, Mitcz.

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