Fadi Kdayssi's VideoDub handles diverse video formats for CIFF

Fadi Kdayssi in his VideoDub International studio.

Remember purchasing your first VCR and having to choose between Beta and VHS formats? While VHS dominated the consumer market, Beta became the preferred format among video professionals worldwide.

But it didn’t end there. Both here and overseas, dozens of other formats developed, along with DVD technology; and the situation couldn’t be more confusing. There are source formats (what comes out of the camera), editing formats, sharing formats, and archiving formats.

Although some filmmakers still shoot film, an increasing number are turning to video. That’s where Fadi Kdayssi, president of VideoDub International, and a Cleveland Heights resident for 25 years, comes in. He’s the go-to guy who converts video submissions to the Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) to the format that the festival uses in screening movies for its audiences. Because filmmakers from at least 60 different countries submit movies to CIFF, Kdayssi is a busy man in the weeks before the festival’s opening night, and even during the run of the film festival.

Films selected for the festival begin to trickle in about five to six weeks before the event’s opening night. Like taxpayers waiting until the last minute to file their returns, many filmmakers are reluctant to release their projects in advance, making adjustments to their films until the last possible moment. That means long hours for Kdayssi in the final days before the festival begins.

Kdayssi started VideoDub in the mid-1980s with a small office in the Hanna Building, a couple of video converters from England, and a few other pieces of equipment. As his business expanded, Kdayssi moved his company to a larger space, and added an impressive array of professional equipment to handle the demands of his growing client base in television and video production, and in the corporate world.

"Kdayssi’s VideoDub has been essential to our industry for over two decades," said Reggie Carter, a videographer and regular client. "We don’t know what we would do without him."

With the new technologies, movie submissions to the festival began arriving in a variety of different and incompatible formats. That is when David Wittkowsky, volunteer and later executive director of the festival, turned to VideoDub to convert them. It was also the start of a successful and ongoing relationship between Kdayssi and the festival.

Currently, about 70 percent of the movie submissions CIFF receives are in digital formats. Kdayssi converts them to a single format that is compatible with CIFF’s equipment. Kdayssi’s VideoDub is the only company in Cleveland with the capability to convert these formats, thereby providing a fast turn-around for late submissions.

The walls of VideoDub International are neatly lined with racks holding dozens of broadcast and professional video recorders, computers, and sophisticated video processing and testing equipment. In addition to converting materials from one format to another, Kdayssi is adept at enhancing them for optimum visual and auditory quality, an important skill when working with the output of new filmmakers.

Kdayssi said he is happy to be one of the sponsors of the film festival. "CIFF not only enhances Cleveland’s reputation," he added, "but it also provides a great showcase for new filmmakers from around the world."