Bree Xfo

GMS Photo and Video did fantastic job on my friend wedding

GMS Photo and Video was easily one of the best decisions my friend and I made during their wedding planning process. We were completely on the fence as to whether we should even get a videographer until we came across one of their same day edits online.

The second we saw it, we knew they wanted them to be a part of their wedding.They took the time to explain to us the different options and packages we could choose from, and his passion for his craft really excited us and put us at ease. He was extremely responsive during the entire planning process and made sure each detail was thought out. On the day of the wedding,we were so much fun to work with and it was like having another friend or family member there with us as he ad his bridal party were getting ready. They really made everyone feel comfortable and did a great job of capturing all of those small but meaningful moments.They just sent their cinematic highlight and it put both of them and their family members in tears!

They did such a good job of creating a story on film and in such a beautiful way...

it's like watching a love story in 5 minutes :) We could not be happier with what an amazing job he did! I would recommend GMS Photo and Video to anyone who is looking for or trying to decide whether to use a videographer it will be one of the best decisions you make during your planning process!

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1 comment
Guest

Thanks Guys....I tend to push people to see who we really are by sending them to Wedding Wire for our reviews.

http://www.weddingwire.com/reviews/gms-photo-and-video-columbia/cbdffbaff0704992.html

Thanks

Anonymous
map-marker Baltimore, Maryland

Scammed!!!!

Here are the facts:

We have a WRITTEN contract with GMS Photo and Video for the following:

2 DVD’s covering your event (Cinematic, High Definition, Edited for Content, White Balanced.)

NOWHERE in the WRITTEN contract does it show a discount was given because the price that we paid was the price that WAS QUOTED to us by Mr. Diffenderfer, the owner of GMS Photo and Video.

1. NOT CINEMATIC- Putting a video on a tripod and pushing record, adding cheesy captions throughout the video, does NOT make it Cinematic. Look up the definition.

2. NOT HD-The resolution of our DVD’s are 852x480 (HD is 1900x1080). Disc capacity is just under 4GBS, an HD/Bluray disk capacity is 25GB. HD has to be burned on bluray in order to be HD. Furthermore, HD discs DO NOT play in standard DVD players! They have to be played in HD/Bluray players, The discs that we received were SD, so therefore, NOT HD!

3. NOT EDITED- Once again……40 minutes of camera on tripod shooting dinner footage is a HOME MOVIE and boring….this should have been cut. Dance scenes during the party should have been shortened, last dance with bride and nephew should have been cut and MOVED. You don’t end a wedding video this way, bride dancing with nephew to the cheesy caption of “And they lived happily ever after….” Your videographer also forgot to film the bride walking down the aisle! This is obvious by the jerking, shaking camera suddenly moving off of the soloist to the bride as she approached the groom. I can go on and on and on…the proof is in the video itself!

4. NOT WHITE BALANCED-Bride dancing with father, the camera opposite the videographer had a spotlight on. This is on the end product we received! Your videographer obviously forgot to turn off this light, because there is no footage from this camera on the video! This is videography 101!! This should have been edited! There is PLENTY of footage where there is no artificial lighting being used because it didn’t need it! When your videographer turned on the spotlights, the bride becomes washed out and dark shadows are created on the subjects dancing…..the proof, once again is in the video!

The wedding video that we received from GMS Photo and Video was an amateur home move, nothing more. PROOF is in the video, PROOF is in the WRITTEN CONTRACT.

We were extremely disappointed and unhappy with the product that we received and all Mr. Diffenderfer had to do was fix it per our request! That is what ANY professional would have done…END OF STORY! Mr. Diffenderfer YOU ARE IN BREACH OF CONTRACT and you need to take responsibility and accountability for this inferior video! Stop blaming and insulting YOUR PAYING CUSTOMERS for your mistakes and incompetence!

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1 comment
Guest

I refuse to address this as it is written with a lot of false accusations. This is the only bad review we have ever had out of 90+ reviews. I would hope that you will look at our wedding Wire and Thumbtack reviews before basing your opinion about GMS Photos and Video and if you stop in we will be happy to share the entire story and video with you.

Marla Vhc
map-marker Baltimore, Maryland

GMS Photo and Video ruined my wedding day video!

We hired GMS Photo and Video to shoot our wedding video on May 11th, 2013 because they received such high reviews on Thumbtack.com and were extremely affordable. They own the professional equipment but this is something that they do on the side part time…..so beware!Our wedding was very small, only 35 guests and it was in a wine cellar at Admiral Fells Inn in Fell’s Point. We met with them two months prior to our wedding and they assured us that they were using brand new, high def, professional video equipment. The videographer also assured us during that meeting that she would pass a microphone around to the guests to make sure that everyone made it into the video, something we specifically requested. The video was over 2 ½ hours long, 40 minutes of which was the camera on a tripod videotaping people while they eat. This would have been a perfect opportunity for the videographer to go from table to table with a microphone, to ensure that every single one of our 35 guests gave a wedding interview for our memorabilia. Instead, she videotaped only 9 guests prior to the start of the reception and the sound quality was so poor that you couldn’t understand them. A PROFESSIONAL videographer would have used a microphone to make sure that we could hear and understand what was being said during the interviews, especially since our wedding was held indoors in a small, noisy wine cellar.There is way too much footage of the reception dance that should have been cut and edited. Other than the bride/groom dances, the other dances should have been cut to 60 seconds or less. It’s too long and boring to watch. Most professional wedding videos are 60 minutes or less due to good cutting and editing. Any PROFESSIONAL videographer will tell you, that recording the footage is the easy part, the art and quality of producing a great wedding video goes into the editing, which apparently was not done in our case.There are also a lot of inappropriate scenes that should have been cut completely but instead, for some reason made it into the video. E.g.….My husband and his brother in law shared an embrace and for some reason, the videographer chose to use a slow motion special effect, so it looks like they are making out. There is a scene after dinner where my husband and I are chewing gum, nothing is being said, we are just sitting there, chewing gum….why was this put into the video? The video ended with me dancing with my nephew and the videographer faded it to black with this caption: "And they lived happily ever after"…..This was my NEPHEW…..not my HUSBAND! I had emailed the owner our baby photos along with our top 5 wedding song choices for the video, two months prior to our event. Our wedding song, "Somewhere over The Rainbow" by Iz Kamakawole, never even made it into the video, instead she rolled the badly punctuated ending credits with the theme song from "Legends of the Fall".We emailed the owner with a direct, honest and constructive critique of the wedding video along with a list of corrections to be made and instead of being a PROFESSIONAL to paying customers; his response back to us was rude and defensive. This was his EXACT response:You contract called for two DVD's and that is what you have. You have chapters you can jump ahead all you want. It is not a highlight reel. The video is an exact reflection of the ceremony....call it what you want!

Anthony its really not the quality of the video as much as it was the quality of the venue. We were forced into corners. It was so crowded our tripods were useless so we were forced to go handheld and yes that does make for some shakiness in the video. The ceiling was low and the volume of the people was high. You could not hear your musician. The place was dark. Not of these scenarios are our fault. As far as microphone placement We had a choice we could hear your vows or hear his music....we chose the vows.

You guys were getting two DVDs and we needed to fill them with as much as you gave us and I am sorry to say it wasn't as much as most weddings. So we were forced to film tables and a lot of dancing. I am surprised because all of our clients up to you guys love the fun dancing parts. When we saw you messing around with "Pat" we thought it was funny and we worked on making it funnier. You guys don't like it but it was what it was. Everyone was laughing when it happened...

I am sorry but you can not make a silk purse from a sow's ear and the venue was certainly NOT Cinderella's castle!Our wedding wasn’t filmed at Cinderella’s Castle, but it was still OUR WEDDING….and as PAYING customers, we should have received what we PAID for. Instead we got an unedited, amateur video and an insulting email from the owner.I advise anyone reading this to hire professionals who do this FULL TIME for a living. You will pay more, but it is worth it to preserve your important day and memories. It is going to cost us over $800.00 to have our video repaired by a Professional Video Editor.

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Loss:
$1175
5 comments
Guest

I refuse to address this as it is written with a lot of false accusations. This is the only bad review we have ever had out of 90+ reviews. I would hope that you will look at our wedding Wire and Thumbtack reviews before basing your opinion about GMS Photos and Video and if you stop in we will be happy to share the entire story and video with you.

Guest

We hired GMS to cover our small wedding (35 people) in the historical Stone Room at the Admiral Fell's Inn, in Baltimore City, May 2013. We bought and contracted for the Basic package which GMS claims includes Cinematic, High Definition, Edited for Content, and White Balance – which we received none of. We sent this video to amateur photographers like GMS who only do this as a “side” business on the weekend as well as true professionals with several years of full-time experience and they all thought it was and I quote “pure garbage”; even the novices.

Here are just a few of the “screw-ups”: They completely missed the beginning of the wedding when the bride walked down the aisle with her dad; instead they videotaped the ukulele player the entire time. I won’t even discuss the hours of video-on-a-tripod stuff and I’ll jump to the end. As far as the ending of the video, they decided to go with the bride dancing with her “nephew” not her husband to the following caption: “And They Lived Happily Ever After” to a song we never heard of before; despite supplying a list of songs we wanted.

We reached out several times to give GMS an opportunity to make the video right. When we made a list of some of the things we wanted corrected, instead of taking responsibility for an inferior video and working with us, the owner decided to insult us, defend his wife (who just started out in the biz) and blame our venue by saying “You can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.....”Let's face it… it was not Cinderella’s Castle”. Who talks to customer’s this way, mind blowing !! The guy even wrote it in an email. Is this characteristic of a 5 star class outfit? I think not; interesting how he keeps mentioning his “bogus” 5 star rating.

Let’s face it folks, anyone can post positive reviews but how “real” are they. Also it seems pretty easy for GMS to “dispute” claims and they magically disappear. We’ve substantiated ours via emails and contracts; but despite this it appears that most sites have vendors like GMS pay for their “contact” service. Wish there were more honest reviews.

So do the math, it’s easy, you get what you pay for, unfortunately with us we didn’t even get that, just insults, feeble minded excuses, bogus reviews and defensive accusations.

Guest

Sorry but there is something wrong here! GMS photo and video did my wedding just recently and the photos and video were awesome.

They have perfect 5.0 ratings on wedding wire and thumbtack including my wedding. Except this one??? A little odd and kind if comical. If you ever get the chance to meet Rob and Joalis you would immediately know that they care deeply about their customers and their business.

My family and friends love them and they have become part of our family. There is something definitely off here....WAY OFF!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-678679

Nice try Rob Diffendorfer of GMS Photo and video. See YOU in court.......

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-678679

First of all we apologize if we did not live up to your expectations. We have 40 reviews this year alone on two separate websites and all of them at a 5.0 rating. We did nothing different with the product and quality for these then we did for you! The only thing different is we gave you the whole package for one quarter of the price. However, we do want to thank you for teaching us a valuable lesson. You taught us that we need to be more diligent in our reviews and know when to walk away. All of the signs were there and we chose to ignore them. I can assure you that this will never happen again. I wish you and Anthony many years of happiness...Thanks....Rob and Joalis!

In response to some false statements:

1. The video was shot on a Sony HXR-NX5U NXCAM Professional Camcorder. All shots were 1080 HD. If you like I can go to file properties and show you what these properties are. There is no way that a person illegally ripping the information off of the DVD can tell what the clips are shot in so I question the professionalism and knowledge of the person illegally re-editing the video.

2. Any Professional photographer and videographer will tell you that light is the key to quality. This so-called professional wasn't there so it is impossible for him to know what the lighting was THAT day! We could have shot without on camera lighting but then you would have complained about the digital noise. Any professional will know this!

3. We did white balance every clip when necessary if you want you can buy Adobe Premier and we will gladly send you the project file and you can see for yourself or have your PROFESSIONAL look at it. We also use lighting for effects....if we want to reflect a warmer tone then we will purposely push the lighting towards amber. This is style. If you like it great if not you should not have hired us. All of our video samples reflect the same quality and why would you expect us to change our style.

4. We are human and we make mistakes and we made a mistake at the very end and we agreed to fix it. The misspelled and badly punctuated list was copied from an email that YOU sent. We do this so we DON'T make spelling mistakes with names. Like I said everyone makes mistakes and this one was on YOU!

Again I really do wish you and Anthony the best....This will be my final response!

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