Couple Is a Team in Video Post-Production Venture

He is a field representative for the Siemens Ultrasound division of Siemens Medical Systems. She is a video editor at the Point Mugu Naval Base. He has the practical business experience. She has the technical video knowledge.

Together, they have a new business.

Husband and wife Ken and Dee Finning recently opened Virgin Moon Post, a video post-production facility in Ventura. With their new venture, they are trying to fill what they see as a growing need in Ventura County’s video and film industry.

“There are quite a few production companies moving to this area from L.A.,” said Dee Finning, who has worked at Point Mugu for 12 years.

“Producers and directors are putting pieces together like training films, features, commercials. Anybody who has gone out and shot video would have a need for our services.”

That’s what the Finnings are banking on. And that’s why they made a six-figure investment to start the business with the latest in digital editing technology, Ken Finning said.

Virgin Moon Post provides video editing, sound work, music, special effects and other elements added after filming.

“Right now in Ventura County there are 35 to 50 different production companies out there ranging from full-fledged production to independent producers,” Finning said. Some of those companies do their own post-production work, he said, but many use outside facilities.

“You hear all about there being 500 cable channels, satellite broadcasts delivering 300 channels, the phenomenon on the horizon of sending video on the World Wide Web,” he said. “There’s going to be a tremendous demand for video and in turn a huge demand for producers. We feel because of that environment a post-production facility for us makes sense.”

John Lockhart, president of Halsted Communications and a member of the Ventura County Film Commission board of directors, said a local post-production house is a welcome sight.

“Communications is not brochures or printed materials anymore. You’ve really got to do stuff with video,” said Lockhart, whose Halsted office is located in the same downtown Main Street building as that of Virgin Moon Post. “There are several communication firms who haven’t been able to edit here. They have all had to go to Santa Barbara or Los Angeles.

“It’s definitely something that will benefit the local communication and filming folks,” he said. “A lot of people in Ventura County would just as soon do the post-production work here.”