David Zuckerman is the president/owner of Easy Edit Video.
WHEN WAS THE
COMPANY FORMED?
“Easy Edit Video opened in 1993. I never had a partner. I moved to Jacksonville with nothing more than a business plan and a dream. With the help of an excellent engineer, I was able to open the company.”
WHAT DOES HE DO?
“I oversee all the operations of the company. Currently, we have four full-time and two part-time employees. My emphasis is on sales, marketing, business management and bookkeeping.”
WHAT’S SPECIAL
ABOUT EASY EDIT?
“We are the largest videotape duplicator in North Florida with the largest duplication system. We have the ability to do 210 dubs in one run. Our orders range from one copy for a consumer to 1,000 copies.”
CLIENT BASE?
“The bulk of our work is corporate, business or government. Duplications are 50 percent of our business. They make the tapes and we make the copies. The rest is production and post-production.” Other clients include schools, municipalities, hospitals, churches and various other organizations — both non-profit and for-profit.
WHAT DOES HE MEAN BY POST-PRODUCTION?
“Many clients shoot their own videos then bring the tapes to us to edit. They may have 30 minutes of raw footage and we trim it to three or four. They may want to add music, tie-ins, voiceovers, titles, graphics or special effects. They’ll have an idea of what they want and we edit to their specifications.”
WHAT DO
COMPANIES WANT?
“Some clients don’t have the resources to shoot a video or they want it shot professionally with good audio and lighting. We do a lot of work for businesses as presentations or sales. The company has a product and they want to actually show what they do. It’s like a video brochure. A lot of companies do training or informational videos, too.”
WHY SPECIALIZE IN INDUSTRIAL VIDEOS?
“More money is spent on non-broadcast video production. That’s the market niche we fill. So, if ‘America’s Most Wanted’ comes to Jacksonville, they won’t call us. We are not filming footage to air.”
EDUCATION
Zuckerman earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina and a master’s degree from the University of North Texas.
WHY NOT CONTINUE WITH JOURNALISM?
“For 10 years I was a television news reporter working in Wilmington, the tri-cities market in Tennessee and Dallas. The station I was working for in Dallas stopped doing local news. I realized then there was a huge market for corporate video production and moved into doing that.”
HOW IS IT MORE REWARDING?
“I enjoy creating videos, working with customers and helping companies and individuals with problems. We are giving people solutions. I do it because I enjoy TV and video production. You’re never doing the same thing day in and day out.”
BORN
Long Branch, N.J.
WHAT OTHER WORK
HAS HE DONE?
“In high school I made pizzas on the boardwalk in Asbury Park over the summers. Growing up on the Jersey shore, you’re going to work in a restaurant, an arcade or the racetrack.”
WHAT BROUGHT
HIM HERE?
“I was familiar with Jacksonville from when I lived in the Carolinas. I used to come down here to go surfing. I knew I wanted to come to Florida. I did some research and decided the best business opportunities are in Jacksonville. I was impressed with the growth potential and the strength of the economy. The economy is broad enough that it is not dependent on one industry. Plus, I liked the fact that, at the time, no one else was doing what I wanted to do here. There were a few large production companies going after the high-end stuff and individuals doing weddings, but no one targeting the corporate market.”
WHAT ARE SOME OF HIS CURRENT PROJECTS?
“Right now, we’re working on a huge project for the PGA Tour converting BETA tapes to DVD. Now we’re getting into that in a big way.”
WHAT’S HIS BIGGEST CHALLENGE?
“Keeping up with the changes in technology. We’re in the information distribution business and the industry is going through incredible changes very quickly. We just purchased our first non-linear editing system.”
NON-LINEAR?
“You load the video into the computer, use a timeline on the screen and the output is a finished product. It’s digital as opposed to analog. Analog builds the video one shot at a time. This is like building a document using a word program.”
WHAT OTHER CHANGES LOOM AHEAD?
“We are seeing the first entrance of high definition production in Jacksonville but we’re not there yet. There is a small percentage of TVs on the market that can play it but we will see a lot more in the next three to five years. It’s on the horizon. A small part of our business is transferring old film to video. We’re getting ready to move into compressing video and creating DVDs. Technology is expensive. A lot of people lost a lot of money on laser disks. Anticipating what will happen next and having a feel for what corporate clients want is a challenge.”
PROFESSIONAL GROUPS?
“I was treasurer of the Florida Motion Picture Television Association for eight years until the chapter folded.”
PERSONAL INTERESTS
A beach resident, Zuckerman often surfs and jogs. His ideal day includes burgers and fries from Cruisers restaurant, followed by a movie at the Pablo 9 theater. His favorite getaway is the Bahamas.
HIS HERO?
“Bruce Springsteen. He was a kid from Jersey that proved you can make it. And he did it his way.”
— by Monica Chamness