MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Steven Panayioto
"Science Meets Art"
By John Robbins

Many of us have experienced decisive moments in our professional lives, but few have remembered them more vividly than Steven Panayioto. He says he can still recall "all the sounds and sights and smells" in the gym where he went to sign up as a biology major for his junior year at State University of New York. He hasn't forgotten the clammy sensation in his stomach as he walked toward the biology desk. Along the way he passed by the Film program desk, stopped cold in his tracks, and signed up as a film major.

That decision didn't come totally out of the blue, of course. In high school in Syracuse, New York, he won an award writing and producing a spot, and was given a personal tour of a local TV studio. And filmmaking had been in the back of his mind during a two-year hiatus from education, while he traveled around the East Coast. He had ended up in the Florida Keys, working as a carpenter's helper in the mornings, and playing on the beaches in the afternoons. Now, after a stint in a real world that had become "a little too real at times," he had a chance to finish an independent film and get credit for it in a new college program that gave him plenty of latitude to experiment.

After graduation, Steven had a broad range of experience in jobs as an in-house producer, videographer, and editor in Atlanta (which he'd learned about in his earlier travels) and in Los Angeles, where he worked with a variety of interesting people, including Buddy Ebsen and Mary Wilson. "I got to do a little of almost everything," he says. "Editing, videography, you name it. It was very valuable experience."

Steven ended up returning to Atlanta to pursue his number one goal of working as an independent, something at which he's remained consistently successful through a number of changes in the industry. For Steven it has always been the interaction with other people that has made video and filmmaking a joy. "The camaraderie is great," he says, "but the collaboration-working together to make a great product-is what really makes this business worth all the hard work and even the occasional rough times."

Whatever he's doing, Steven always tries to draw ideas from the others around him, and to contribute his own. He keeps a close eye on changes in technology in production and post production, as he works with clients of his business, On-Line Productions. As an editor he is focusing on new forms of delivery for digital video, including CDs and the Web. As a shooter he gives his clients the benefit of both his experience and his unusual dedication, often scouting locations and reviewing scripts ahead of time, so he can make extra contributions if asked.

ITVA/MCAi has been a significant part of Steve's professional life. He is a former president of the Atlanta chapter. "It was a great way to meet people in this business and work with them in an informal way," he says. "MCAI is a tremendous resource for professional development." Steven has also been a regular attendee at the organization's national conventions, and anyone who has been around him at them can vouch that he's become an extremely well known figure nationally.

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