Edit Suite: Getting the Most From an Edit Bureau (page 2)

How Can Editing Bureaus Improve My Videos?

Since edit bureaus tend to have better equipment, they can add special effects to your video that you probably couldn't add with a lesser system.

Digital video effects, for example, where images can warp, zoom, spin and fly around the screen, are pretty much standard fare at the better editing suites. Some may have interesting filters that make your video look like it's someone's dream, with smearing colors and blurred images. Some shops can also make video shot yesterday look like it was shot a hundred years ago, stuttering the motion and converting the color images to a sepia-tinted black and white.

Other suites may have titlers or character generators that can move on-screen text in hundreds of different ways to make your titles as eye-grabbing as possible.

Many edit bureaus also offer you much more than just video editing services and equipment.

Animated graphics are just one of these possible "extras." Do you want to add a map to the video about the places you visited on your vacation? Perhaps a video about repairing an automobile engine could use a cross-section graphic of the cylinder head. Whatever your graphics or animation needs may be, you can probably find an edit bureau with the tools to help you meet them.

Some shops offer audio enhancement, called "sweetening," to give your soundtracks all the punch and realism of a major motion picture. They may use music and sound effects from a library of compact discs, or generate their own using electronic keyboards and sequencers.

Many video shops can even make copies of your video when you finish editing it all tog…