Avoid this vendor!!!

pimiento

SureShot Videography is now running under a new name - Magnolia Films LLC, with the same owner Jesse Clark. There are too many negative reviews online about the former, and none about the latter, but we brides and grooms who have been mistreated and ripped off by Jesse Clark want to warn future couples to stay away. Check out this segment from NBC News in which the investigative reporter tries to get answers on our behalf from Jesse and he bolts out the door and runs away. http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Couples-Claim-Photographer--153418195.html

katiegreeniz

I am also one of Jesse's victims.  Our wedding was September 10th of 2011 and we hired him the February before the wedding.  It was a promotion for the "premier package" deal and the price was excellent.  Jesse told us that we would have our highlight video before we were home from our honeymoon and that our finished video would be done by the end of October, 6 weeks to complete.  Sounded amazing so we hired him.
Instead of the usual $1200 it was only $850 and it was to include 6 hours of footage, 2 fully edited 90 minute HD DVD's, bride perpetration and family and friend interviews, a custom interactive DVD menu, a sterling silver plated DVD case with our wedding photo, and a fully edited 10 minute youtube highlight video.  3 months later, after getting in touch with the actual person that Jesse sent to film our wedding, we got a highlight video from him, not Jesse.  It was only 3 minutes long, not 10 and was not at all the color OR quality that Jesse's other video's that were on Vimeo were and that I was expecting.  Major disappointment.  And when I questioned Jesse, he told me that "i find you have been real difficult since your wedding".  WOW, what did I get myself into.....
Did anyone else hire SureShot based on that gorgeous wedding highlight video he posted on Vimeo?  This was the link at one point http://vimeo.com/17459754  It was a cute young couple, the reception looked like some really cool old dive bar with wood paneling, etc...  and one of the songs was a Goo Goo Dolls song, Black Balloon.  I started poking around asking Jesse questions about it, because it was just so beautiful and I had another friend that wanted that location for a reception, and after he evaded my question for weeks, he finally told me that it was a wedding he filmed for friends in Ohio some time back.  Wouldn't you know that he took the video down off of Vimeo that same week, and it has been missing ever since.  So now, not only is he a lying thieving scumbag, but he's a plagiarizing one as well.
I wonder if the Mass Department of Revenue and the IRS know that he had everyone writing the checks to his name or his wife Veronica Clark's name instead of SureShot.  Filming over 100 weddings a year and charging between $500-$1700 for services, he must have to pay some serious taxes?
I have a scanned copy of his brochure that he gave me at our consult if anyone needs a copy for their records.
I have given him every opportunity to redeem himself, either by returning my money or giving me my raw footage.  Now I will proceed with my attorney (she's female and passed the bar, Jesse probably won't like that http://abovethelaw.com/2010/07/when-unemployed-law-students-attack/ )

samantha24p

thanks for the warning. I had gotten an email from them and was going to check them out but now I'll stear clear.

lmgarlett

Report them to the Attorney General's Office and the Better Business Bureau.

Remember what seems too good to be true , usually is.  A professional photographer usually gets $150-$350/hour.  That may seem like alot but remember, they have to spend hours editing, color correcting and cropping your photographs and if you want an album, they have to design it.  Its the most important day of your life, don't leave it up to a weekend photographer wanna-be. Use a professional that is educated, trained and works at his profession full-time. 

The Professional Photographers of America can give you a list of members in your area.

http://www.ppa.com/findaphotographer/