Perhaps it was a sign of good fortune that the day Easy Edit Video first opened for business was also the 40th birthday of owner David Zuckerman…July 6, 1993
From the Desk of President David Zuckerman….
I always wanted to be a news director when I grew up. In the early 1990’s I was living in Dallas, Texas working for a video production company and going to college to pursue a masters degree in journalism. The industry was very different than it is today…video editing was tape-to-tape and required professional-grade VCRs, edit controllers and effects generators. During this time I did freelance work for a business that rented edit suites to people who shot their own video. The owner believed while most anyone could buy a video camera, not everyone could afford an expensive editing suite. This idea would ultimately become the basis for Easy Edit Video.
In spring 1992 I graduated with my master’s degree. But after meeting with several TV stations, I decided I no longer wanted to work in news. What I really wanted was to live on the beach in Florida. So I put together a business plan, then spent several weeks traveling the east coast of Florida researching the various markets, meeting with local film commissioners, Chamber of Commerce reps and production company owners.
I selected Jacksonville because there was no one else doing what I planned to do and the town had a diverse, stable economy. In February 1993, I made the move. It took four months to get the business open. About this time, the city’s largest production company closed. I became friends with their chief engineer, Dave Wilson. Besides helping me acquire a lot of their used equipment and design the facility, Wilson installed all the gear.
As the build out progressed, one of the many things I did was get a yellow pages ad and phone service. I found out when the yellow pages would be delivered. On that day I had the phone company turn on my phone service and I set up an answering machine. Every day I checked for messages, returned every call and told everyone I would be opening soon. It worked, and miraculously on my very first day, I had customers
I was ready to open July 1 1993, but a cousin was getting married in Miami on Sunday July 4th and my entire family was going. I decided it made no sense to open for two days then be closed for the holiday weekend. So I went to the wedding, drove back on Monday and opened on Tuesday July 6 which coincidently was also my 40th birthday.
But there is one more story that needs to be shared. While the idea of renting out edit suites may have worked in Dallas, Texas, it did not work in Jacksonville. Thankfully Dave Wilson was responsible for one more thing that changed the course of my business and contributed to our growth. He convinced me to buy a duplication system and Easy Edit Video soon became the area’s largest videotape, then DVD duplicator.
Now on the threshold of our 30th anniversary, Easy Edit Video has grown to become a full-service video production company, while continuing to be NE Florida’s premier DVD duplicator.
