Edit Suite: Getting the Most From an Edit Bureau

Although great video gear keeps getting cheaper and cheaper, it remains just beyond the budgets of many aspiring videogrtaphers. How can you justify spending what you might pay for a good used car on a system to help you edit great videos a few times a year?

In most cases, you can't. Unless video production is your day job, financial prudence forces you to settle for editing gear that's not quite top-of-the-line, if you can afford it at all. Then you're stuck trying to create your own Citizen Kane on a system built for much smaller projects. As a result, your projects and your morale may suffer.

So what's an aspiring videographer like yourself, with big-budget creativity and limited cash flow, supposed to do in this situation?

Start by checking out the video edit bureaus in your area. Instead of spending thousands on lots of fancy editing equipment (which may be obsolete in just a few years), you can spend a few hundred dollars at an edit bureau and come away with an even better project.

The next few pages have answers to some commonly asked questions about edit bureaus, along with some suggestions on how they can help make your next video venture your best yet.

Edit bureaus are special facilities with complete, functional video editing systems installed and ready for you to rent. Sometimes they're called editing houses or editing suites. You don't need to buy edit controllers, special effects generators or VCRs to use an editing bureau. They've already bought all of the equipment for you.

You just need a stack of videotapes and some notes on how you want to edit them together into one program.

You also don't need to know every detail about how the editing system works. Most edit bureaus have trained video editors on staff to operate the equipment. All you do is tell the editor what edits to make; they push all of the buttons, and your video magically appears before your eyes.

For those of you who enjoy operating editing systems, a few edit bureaus will let you push the buttons yourself, and maybe save a little money in the process.

Typically, edit bureaus have more advanced equipment than videographers can afford to have at home. They buy the best special effects generators, character generators and edit controllers so their customers can create the highest-quality videos.

They also hire people who can help you get the most from the equipment, and hence make your video the best it can be.

When you rent an editing suite, you only pay for the time you need to edit your video, not what it costs to own the entire system.

Most shops bill on a per-hour or per-day basis. If you make only a few videos a year, it will probably cost far less to edit in one of these pro or semi-pro edit suites than to buy your own editing system. Even better, you'll wind up with the best-looking video you can get for a fraction of what it would cost to own the system yourself. What more could you want?