Professional’s touch

In the early 1990s, Steve Kosch called it quits as a weathercaster for CNN to move back home to California.

Looking for a new challenge, he began the Video Editor in 1993 as a way to make video a more accessible medium for mainstream America.

Thirteen years later, he’s settled into his newest location ? he made a small move eight months ago move to expand the business ? and expects to keep busy.

The move ? which only took him from one side of the Bison Avenue Newport North Shopping Center to the other ? afforded Kosch an extra 300-square-feet of space and allowed him to put in couches and other amenities to make his customers more comfortable during the editing process.

“It was just an opportunity for us to streamline the workflow and make it more pleasing for the customer,” he said.

The Video Editor keeps up with the latest technology, spending roughly $50,000 per year on equipment upgrades, a seemingly never-ending process.

“It has been difficult in regards to buying all the equipment that is necessary ? and we’re trying to be very careful with that, but we obviously have to have it,” Kosch said. “I’d like to say we’re on the leading edge of technology, not the bleeding edge.”

Kosch defined the bleeding edge as equipment that’s too technologically advanced. He likes to have the equipment consumers are actually using.

A large portion of Kosch’s business comes from corporate clients, and he also specializes in converting media onto DVDs.

Edward Domanskis, a Newport Beach plastic surgeon, began using the Video Editor a couple years ago for a website on which he posts surgery footage.

“What they do is actually edit it as well as dub it in ? Steve actually voices over what I tell him to voice over ? and he produces a teaser as well as a full-length video,” Domanskis said.

Kathy and Gary Conrad of Newport Beach are big fans of Kosch’s services, for about five years.

“My husband practically lives down there,” she said. “He was just there yesterday with an entire order.”

The Conrads have produced slideshows for anniversaries and birthdays, and videos of vacations and corporate Christmas parties. Domanskis has had Kosch put his childhood slides on DVD to preserve his memories.

“They also enhanced it with music in the background and made it more interesting,” Domanskis said. “They’re really very creative.”

Despite the growing number of people with home computers and DVD burners, he’s not concerned that his business will slow.

“Oftentimes when they realize what is really involved, they don’t want to do it by themselves,” Kosch said. “It’s a complicated animal unless you’re actually in the business.”

Video editing doesn’t always come cheap, and Kosch said he wants to keep his prices reasonable so everyone can benefit, something Angela O’Mara, president and owner of Newport Beach-based public relations firm the Professional Image, said is a rarity in the area.

“It’s a fast turnaround ? they’re very professional,” she said. “We’ve always had good working relationship, and they’re really one of few reasonable firms that I know of in the area.”