People often ask me what it takes to build one of these websites and I usually just say lots of coffee. While my statement is truthful, there’s a lot more to it than that. So to those who ever wondered, here’s a behind the scenes look and some trivia regarding my portfolio website and this blog.

1. I grew out a mustache specifically for the ‘fancy’ photo. The word ‘fancy’ is written with sharpie on an inside-out Hanes t-shirt (the type that comes in packs of three in the clearance isle at Wal-mart).
2. The layouts are designed in Illustrator CS3 and the images/photos were cutout and prepped with Photoshop CS3. The portfolio website was created and animated using Flash CS3 and coded with ActionScript 3.0. It’s content and text is provided by an XML file (which is populated by a PHP script that’s connected to a MySQL database).
3. The title of this blog is inspired by a 1979 British pop-hit song by the Buggles:
   Video Killed the Radio Star. (UPDATE - 02.25.08)
4. This blog is laid-out using only HTML and a CSS style sheet. No images are used at all (with the exception of the images within posts).
5. In the portfolio, my last name is used as a watermark and is spelled out how it was originally intended - de la Peña. Quickly after moving to the states, I realized it was a horrible idea to spell it out that way. Often times I’d get lost in filing systems (sometimes placed under D, sometimes L, other times P) and I eventually decided it’d be best to shorten it up to just one word - Delapena.
6. The font used for de la Peña is Bodoni. In the first graphic design class I had ever taken, I had to choose a font from a list to write a report on. I chose the same font the cutest girl in class chose - Bodoni.
7. The video grabs for the website category was captured using IShowU and prepped for web using Final Cut Pro. The The Studio Corp - Splash V.2 piece in particular was made using a combination of Final Cut Pro, Motion 3, Live Type 2 and Flash CS3.
8. Cameras used: Nikon D100, Nikon D300, Canon AE-01 (covered in ducttape), Nikon F10, Sony CyberShot P200 (named Charlie), a Holga and a piece of shit flip-phone with a cracked LCD.
9. I debated for a while trying to decide whether or not to have a public blog linked to my portfolio. For me, blogs are more or less an exercise in revealing too much. Plus, I know some of the stuff in my portfolio already isn’t marketable enough in the ‘real’ world so it’s a bit of a double whammy. I rationalized it though by arguing that I probably wouldn’t want to work with someone who won’t hire me due to the stuff I share on here. Worst case scenario: I end up unemployed, sell all my belongings and hitch-hike to Mexico… and you know what? That sounds like fun.
10. “Narf” is Fran backwards. Fran is the sissier version of Francis. Since Francis is a pretty sissy name to begin with, guys always ask me if I go by Frank (you know, to make it more manly). The answer is I don’t. Personally, I think people named Francis who go by Frank are a bunch of pansies.

I built the website so just about everything is database driven (menu items, page content, text, images) and is capable of having a user-friendly content-management system - which means you don’t have to be a geeky, web nerd to modify/update content.

How did I learn how to do all of this crap? Lots of coffee…