I hired Xtreme Films for my wedding in May 2011, and was very unhappy (more accurately angry) with his service. First, I hired him for 10 hours because it was an Indian wedding and they are usually long. Though he had told me he had never done an Indian wedding before, I was confident he would get enough coverage of the event to satisfy my needs. I also was confident because the reception was American. I thought we would be okay as long as he captured everything. What I got for my 10 hours was a 50 minute edited video. There were no shots of the hotel, the entrance or of the venue in general. There was no shots of the mandap, an Indian alter or stage. It was as if I was married in a small room with no guests. As for the western reception, there was no footage of the gift table, the limo of us leaving for photos or when we came back and talking with guest. In fact, he was just sitting there when the limo arrived. I was very disappointed, so I asked him to send me a copy of the raw footage. I believed maybe he just did not edit properly or not know what to include in the final production. However after receiving the raw footage I had 2 hours total with none of the above mentioned things normally included in a wedding
I thought it was unfair for him to charge me for 10 hours when his work was actually 2 hours long, so I sent him an email stating the fact, and he replied saying I paid him for the time he was there and not the video time. I did not expect him to have 10 hours of video. I also realize I was hiring for his time, but I was not hiring him to be a spectator. I hired him to shoot video and for him to be there for 10 hours and come up with just over 2 hours of raw footage is ridiculous. I realize there were breaks and down time to be taken into account but 8 hours of down time? This just seems a bit too much. All I got was just over 2 hours of what one would expect from someone with a camcorder. If he had captured everything in 2 hours , I would have been fine; however, a lot was missed and when I questioned him about it I got excuses such as it slipped my mind, or I overlooked it, or I was on break. This was my wedding and not a birthday! It is not happening again next year. All of those moments will not be captured; they are simply lost.
The videographer at Xtreme Films presents himself as a professional videographer. His website is well done and the equipment seems top notch. In actuality he is at best amateur. Though he uses excellent equipment the video did not turn out well either. I realize lighting is important, but he brought no external lighting and made no indication to needing more light, so the video turned out grainy. Finally there are very few close-ups of us during the entire ceremony. It is as if he did not use the zoom function on his camera. Almost all of the angles were of him just walking to one side or the other, and as for the second camera that was supposedly part of the package, it simply was not there.
Needless to say this was a very disappointing experience. If you have a limited budget for video, buy a camcorder and give it to a friend or relative instead of hiring Xtreme Films. You will probably get the same quality, more footage and have a camcorder at the end, and just have it edited when you can afford it. Bottom-line, I WOULD NOT recommend him to anybody for weddings. You will regret if you do. read more
