The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Video transfer biz wins big at studio conference
An Amherst business specializing in video editing and transfer won a competitive award in Florida.
An Amherst business specializing in video editing and transfer recently won a competitive award after years of nominations at this year’s Home Video Studios Getaway conference in Clearwater, Fla.
Melendez Video co-owners Tony and Lori Melendez received The “Hanley” award for Best Sports Video at the conference for a highlight reel compiled from basketball star and Lorain native Rick Melendez’s career in Puerto Rico.
Tony Melendez said the reception of the award was all the more special, given the competitive nature of the category and the video’s subject being a local.
“It’s hard to win because sometimes you get somebody who just has that artistic ability to do that one thing better that beat you,” he said.
The business, founded in 2002, has won countless other awards at the conference, having run for 19 years, winning other awards like Studio of the Year, Storefront of the Year and Rookie of the Year.
Having grown up in Lorain and graduating from Lorain High School, Tony Melendez said he returned to Lorain City Schools as a substitute after graduating from college and constantly was asked if he was related to Rick Melendez.
It wasn’t until a year or two ago, that Tony Melendez heard from Rick Melendez, who asked him to create a highlight reel of his time playing professional basketball in Puerto Rico from 1987 to 1992.
“He wanted it for posterity, and he wanted to be able to show his kids and share it on the web,” Tony Melendez said.
Tony Melendez sorted through Rick Melendez’s CDs and VHS’s and edited together a nearly 25-minute video.
He then submitted a three-minute portion of the highlight reel to the conference for consideration.
Tony Melendez said watching the games and the engagement from the crowd made the project interesting.
“The whole town would come in and support the teams playing,” Tony Melendez said.
Although he enjoys compiling and editing videos for sports scholarships and highlight reels, Tony Melendez said his business digitizes once lost videos and media from clients for just about anything, from high school reunions and prom nights to family trips and parades.
He said the company will take video, audio and photographs from VHS’s, DVD’s, CD’s, tapes and more and compile them using a digital video archive, which is subscription-based and can be viewed from anywhere, whether a television or a mobile phone.
“We like to call it family Netflix,” Tony Melendez said, adding that his own family has converted around 130 family videos to their own archive.
“We get people that haven’t seen this stuff in 50 years,” Lori Melendez said. “It’s a great business.
“It’s very rewarding work because you can actually give people back their memories that they haven’t seen in 40, 50 years.”