ENTREPRENEUR OF THE WEEK

The emotion and motion of special moments

Mrs McKenzie presents hurricane video to
HE the Governor Bruce Dinwiddy and
Mrs Angela Martins.


Hi-8, DVD, VHS, VCD and other machines in
Apex studios


Mrs McKenzie at the computer,
an essential editing tool

Christy McKenzie

Monday, April 4, 2005

Being able to capture more than a single moment in time is what Christy McKenzie said she loves about being a Videographer. Not only that she is able to preserve all the emotions and the important actions that make events, and entire lives, memorable.

“My interest in video editing began when I was in search of a change in my career. I have a family member who used to do video editing and so, along with my husband, I decided that this was what I would do,” Mrs Mckenzie explained.

She had worked at Kirk’s Home Centre and “Uncle Bill’s” in Grand Cayman for a number of years as a paint specialist and, in 1999, decided to go ahead and begin video editing on a part- time basis.

“We, that is my husband and I, officially opened our company, Apex Video Solutions, in the year 2000. For the most part, I taught myself the technical aspects of video editing. In addition, I became a member of the Wedding & Event Videographers Association (WEVA) in the United States and began attending the Association’s conventions in Las Vegas for training,” Mrs McKenzie explained.

This 36-year-old mother of two boys, Robert and Joshua, 12 and 7 years old, respectively, and daughter, Shemariah, two years old, credits her husband, Wayne Mckenzie with all that was needed to start the business and help her keep it running from day to day.

“He is my inspiration. Apart from that, he does the streaming of material, that is, puts video material on to websites. He keeps the company’s technology up and going. In spite of his full-time job in the IT department at Cayman Utilities Company, he is an integral part of the company on weekends and in his spare time.

“Every day is somewhat of a crazy day for me, but I enjoy it. My husband and I, or I, will do the filming of an event. The footage is brought back here (to the studio) and is put on the computer for editing. During the editing process, the footage is cleaned up and titles, music and other elements added. The material is then put in the format requested by the client. After this, the material is delivered to the client on the disc or tape they require,” Mrs McKenzie added.

Apex Video Solutions is able to provide DVD or VCD discs as well as VHS tapes. The company does DVD authoring, video format conversion to PAL formats, including NTSC and Hi8, as well as conversion to VHS format.

Mrs McKenzie is a Caymanian, who came to the Islands from Canada with her family, the Caputos, at age 11. Both her parents are also entrepreneurs. In addition, Apex Video’s offices are located in the same building as her sister’s enterprise, Chocolate Creations, on Belmont Road off Crewe Road.

“Apex’s business was pretty slow in the first two years but it has picked up now, especially since hurricane Ivan. Our Hurricane Ivan video has been very popular and is the only fully edited viewing of the hurricane,” said Mrs McKenzie.

On 2 February Mrs McKenzie presented H.E. the Governor Bruce Dinwiddy with a DVD copy of their Hurricane Ivan Documentary, the Cayman Experience, and a cheque for CI$10,000 for the Cayman Islands National Recovery Fund. Recovery Fund Executive Director, Angela Martins, was also present.

Then, the Governor said that the video is a well-presented and vivid portrayal. The Honourable Leader of Government Business also received a copy of the DVD.

“Cayman Memories and Cayman Diving Memories are two other productions that the company has on sale and sales are doing very well,” said Mrs McKenzie.

Mrs McKenzie explained that a great portion of Apex’s business is the filming of weddings for tourists and local weddings. Apex also does concerts and all types of events including memorial functions.

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