I had previously written a review but I would like to update it since we have received the final product since I wrote the review. Thanks!
Videographer: Daniel Lee Video: F
Overall, our experience with Daniel Lee Video was extremely negative and was, by far, the biggest disappointment of our entire wedding.
We had never met with Daniel because of the distance between where we lived and his base of operations but we did have a phone meeting prior to booking him and a few follow up calls between the time of booking and our wedding. Based on reviews and our phone meeting we decided to book him. My husband called him the Tuesday before the wedding to confirm and everything was all set. On the day of our wedding, the videographer, a man by the name of Ben, showed up at my door and told me that Daniel had overbooked and was in San Antonio. Ben told me that he had known for two weeks and was shocked I didn't know and felt badly for dropping the bomb on me about an hour before the ceremony. I called my husband to confirm that he did indeed confirm with Daniel earlier in the week and he said this was the first he had heard of Daniel not being there. If he had been sick or had a family emergency we would've been fine with it but hearing that he was overbooked, asked Ben to come two weeks before the wedding, and didn't tell us when we talked to him 3-4 days before the wedding has not sat well with us. After the wedding, we contacted Daniel to express our disappointment that we were led to believe Daniel would be filming and that someone else showed up the day of. Daniel told us that Ben would "exceed our expectations." Eleven months later, we finally got a sample of our video and it became clear that the quality of the video was worse than we could have ever imagined.
There were four main problems with our experience with Daniel after the wedding and the video: (1) We began emailing him monthly 6 months after our wedding (and 3 months after we sent him all the material he needed) to get an update on when we could expect our video. Daniel frequently noted how busy he was, and other activities related to his interests outside of the wedding video business and told us starting in February 2011 that he would try to have the sample out by the end of the month. At this point, we are now aware that he did not even look at the footage until April 2011 and we did not receive the sample until May 2011 (wedding was June 2010); (2) Both the video and audio were
extremely poor quality for a majority of the ceremony and the reception, to the point where even Daniel noted that much of it was unuseable (as examples, the footage selected for the big kiss was a shot of our kiss with a cousin standing in front of the stationary camera and we can just barely hear the readings during the ceremony); (3) the videographer, Ben, missed a key toast given by my husband's father at the reception; (4) There is no footage from the end of the ceremony until the introductions and we do not have all of the introductions of our families and bridal party. This is about 1.5 hours out of a 5.5 hour time period from the end of the ceremony to the end of the reception.
Overall, it seems like the video was unprofessionally done and could have come from any relative with a video camera. The video is poorly framed and lit, is frequently out of focus (especially the footage of the ceremony), the sound is usually muffled or barely audible, and most of the shots taken by the handheld camera are shaky to the point that they are useless. The video is not anything close to what we expected, especially based on the video samples Daniel pointed us to before hiring him.
We were severely disappointed with our experience with Daniel Lee Video since we do not have the video that we expected and wanted or even something remotely close to it. The package containing the video arrived with a cover letter apologizing for the quality of the video and the delay in getting it to us, and offering us a ~50% discount. Based on our conversation with Daniel expressing our extreme disappointment after receiving the final sample he voluntarily gave us a full refund plus everything included in the contract as well as the raw footage. We have finally received all the material and the full refund as of the end of June 2011, although Daniel had to send a replacement check for one he sent us that bounced. Do not hire Daniel Lee Video in any capacity, and tell your friends.