PROFILE • MAY 21 , 2001
Multimedia Production on the Mac
Star Wars Chronicled
[Page 2 of 3]

Orphmedia uses a JVC GVD 500 and a Sony PD-150. They also have a Sony VX-2000 for pickup. "[The] JVC GVD 500 is our main workhorse, and we couldn't have chosen a better camera," Orphanos says. "The best thing about it is the news lens from Fuji, and the chips really bring out the colors. Our second camera is the Sony PD-150, which is a great deal, and we are planning to incorporate it quite a bit more."

TFN Digital features rotating anchors who
announce news and introduce features.
Pictured: Host Hettienne Park.

Orphanos himself has a fairly traditional background in production, starting off as a production assistant and working his way around the industry. He produced The Deli, a feature that played on Showtime and the Independent Film Channel, and he produced a movie called Sugar: The Fall of the West. Also also worked as a production manager for the WB's on air promos before launching Orphmedia. His clients now range from blue chips like American Express to small Web companies.

Creative Mac: How did the idea for a Star Wars news magazine broadcast come about?

Peter Orphanos: Before I started my company, whenever I thought of video on the Internet, I always envisioned a Star Wars news show. I saw the original Episode IV over 20 times in the theater when I was a kid ... and I always wanted more of Star Wars. It may have been influenced by Bloomberg TV when QuickTime 4 first came out ('99), but it made me realize I had a chance to see what I really felt like seeing. So in July of 2000, I contacted Scott Chittwood, the cofounder and head of theforce.net, and we bounced the ideas back and forth for a few months until both of us were ready to go forward.

CM: How does TFN Digital fit into your company's plans? Is this a side
project or more of a showcase for the medium? And where do you get that
content?

Orphanos: TFN Digital is a passion of ours, and it may be a side project (we'd love to do this with a full blown budget), but we want to push the barriers with it (interactive). If we are going to do a show like this for the Star Wars fans, we want to make it the staple of Web programming. (Besides DMN TV, which I love.)

TFN Digital reporter Alena Kerins interviews
Mitch Cutler, owner of St. Mark's Comics in
New York. The shows usually include one
on the scene report.

CM: What's the future of TFN digital? How would you like to see it
develop?

Orphanos: The future is to try and push it through the barriers of "convergence" programming.... Yes, we will be implementing some type of [inter]activity shortly.

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