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Reinventing your videos Oakland company offers variety of editing services Of The Oakland Press Piecing memories together one film strip at a time, Steven Volk launched his new business last year. Volk Video Services offers editing of video and audio recordings. Volk, 46, of Birmingham, works on projects ranging from slide shows to depositions. While many of his clients are individuals, Volk also works with companies and nonprofi t groups. A key part of the business is transferring video from old to new formats. Customers can turn their family videos into DVDs, for instance, and discard the old VHS tapes. Old films can be restored and transferred to new media, as well. "People have so many videos, film and slides that they just don't watch," Volk said. "All their stuff is in shoe boxes." Volk enjoys helping people resurrect their pasts, he said. For one client, he restored the sound of her wedding vows. For another, he chronicled her grandfather's life story. "I have a lot of fun with the emotional things," he said. "It's like a side benefit of doing it." Many of his clients bring in boxes filled with family tapes, hoping to sort and collate their lives. Custom-made videos for special events such as anniversaries and birthdays are popular. Scholarship films can be made for artists or athletes. Videos can be made from pictures or slides. Volk can repair tapes and edit minor mistakes, such as with color correction and sound. He can enhance videos with special effects and subtitles and even add scene selection, so a viewer can skip through different parts of a DVD. Duplicating videos is another popular service. Projects are quoted but range from $150 to $3,000. Some jobs take as long as three to four weeks. After working in computer sales for 20 years, Volk began thinking about his own business three years ago. He came up with the idea because he always had an interest in photography and videography. He thought it would be more fun to work behind the scenes than behind the camera, and he wanted to work from home and spend more time with his wife, Susan, and three children. Volk invested $125,000 in video editing equipment and took four weeks of software training. He joined a network of independent business owners, called Home Video Studios, to receive technical support and help with marketing and training.
Name: Volk Video Services
Business: Video editing
Owner: Steven Volk
Phone: (248) 203-9801
Web site: www.volkvideo.com
E-mail: stevenvolk@volkvideo.com
Hours: 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays or by appointment.
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