Remote Access to Media, Do I need a server?

Hey everyone, thanks in advance for any assistance.

We've been having a discussion over in the Home Theater/Apple TV section of the forum in regards to remote access to media.

My problem is this: I have a tremendous amount of media (movies/tv shows/and also photography backup) at my primary residence in Phoenix, AZ. These files are all on my MacPro here. I'd like to be able to gain full and easy access to all of them at my residence in Los Angeles, CA.

I have to admit, it's been years since I did a lot of real work with networking, and even then, didn't do much with offsite grabs.

My thought has been that the best way to be able to see this as a remote disk and gain full access would be through the creation of my own VPN. Is my thought process correct on that?

Any help you geniuses could give us would be fantastic! (Please keep in mind with the answers that I'm quick witted but will need just a little bit of hand holding to get started, after that I'm sure I can figure out most things with the proper application of Google)