DMN: So, have you talked to Lucas about this? Has he shown any interest?

Chiolis: Lucas has shown interest. We are talking with them. Obviously we would love to do Star Wars III, but that's a decision for them to make. The best thing about Lucasfilm is that their entire infrastructure is set up around dual link HD-SDI, which is what the Viper outputs. So it's plug-and-play for them.

DMN: No more tape for them.

Chiolis: That's right. I don't know how much tape they used on Episode II.

DMN: Did they go directly to disk on that?

Chiolis: I believe they did some of both. But that's a question for them. I don't want to claim to know anything about what they did. I've heard various rumors. I don't think I've ever read something that gives the final word on whether they went to tape or disk.

DMN: Some rumors say they went to film for some of the shots.

Chiolis: Yeah, but people I've talked to there say, no, we didn't go to film.

DMN: That's what they all say there, but others are saying oh, no, they used film for some of the backgrounds.

Chiolis: The bottom line is it's making millions of dollars, people love it, and it works.

DMN: The critics liked it, for the most part.

Chiolis: Content is still king.

DMN: So your prospective customers, you're hoping they will look at this as just another palette. You're not positioning this, as a marketing guy, the way Sony did. You're not making the mistake they did where they said, "OK, everybody, throw away your film cameras, because here we are."

Chiolis: Absolutely not. We still believe that film is a viable medium for years to come. We're putting millions of dollars into R&D for our film products. We don't think that's going away. Like you said, there's a time and a place for DVCam, there's a time and a place for standard definition video, for HDCam, for Panasonic's format, there's a place for film and there's a place for Viper. It's another tool, and if it works in what you're trying to do, then, let's use it.

One of the really nice things that people have commented on with the camera, is it's extremely small, and they like its extremely light weight. They look at it and they say, "Where's the rest of it?" We say, "That's it," and they really like that. By the time you build out one of the other cameras, well, it's nice to have the on-board recorder, but by the time you build that out, it gets 19, 20, 21, 22 inches long. This Viper is 11 inches without a lens on it. It's very tiny. But that's what people like. It's fairly easy to do hand-held, you can tether it if you want to do Steadicam, it's easy to manipulate.

DMN: You're speaking right to the DPs here. I guess you guys did your homework.

Chiolis: We're trying to work with the DPs. We're trying to meet with the ASC members, with the SOC people, and say, "What do you want? What's going to help you to do your job? We want you to be able to get the vision you see in your head out to the screen, whatever the screen is, whether it's the home theater, digital cinema, or film."