Filmbalaya Films
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Budget
Sorry this pro can’t do your job, but we know other pros who can.
Introduction: We are like jambalaya we have a little bit of everything in our portfolio. From birthday parties to corporate events to band photography.
We always start out as clients but end as friends and love that we get to travel to new places.
Overview
Hired 8 times
2 employees
11 years in business
Payment methods
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Featured Projects
10 photos
Reviews
Good 4.4
5 reviews
5
80%
4
0%
3
0%
2
20%
1
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Libby R.
Jul 23, 2015
Very friendly and quality service and product!
Courtney G.
Jul 23, 2015
They were great! Captured every moment of our special day so beautifully! The final product came out so great! I would happily recommend them to anyone!!
Teree P.
Jul 24, 2015
I have used Filmbalaya Films several times for photos and what else can I say other than I LOVE THEM! They make every experience an awesome one plus the photos are incredible. I was fortunate to have them take pictures of my baby girl when she was first born and the pictures bring our family such joy. I have referred them and will continuously refer them to friends and family.
Jill S.
Jul 28, 2015
Amazing, amazing, amazing! They did a beautiful job on our wedding video. We were blown away, they exceeded our expectations and we could not be happier with their work. I am so grateful to them for creating such a beautiful memory for us. They went above and beyond for our wedding. Go with them and you will not be disappointed! - Jill Hattala
Ashley F.
May 20, 2016
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Hired on Thumbtack
Hired on Thumbtack
Gosh, where do I start? Well, In the words of my husband, "They weren't TERRIBLE, but they weren't good either! The end product was just not good.. not even close". I can honestly say that we were extremely disappointed with these guys in terms of our "Videography" experience.
Matter of fact, when I was initially searching for photographers, I was offered a quote for photography by Candice but had an "off" feeling. Based on the short, impersonal and seemingly "rude" message communications from her, I knew I didn't want to hire them to do the photography for our Valentine's Elopement. However, after hiring another photographer and asking her for referrals for a videographer, she highly recommended these guys, stating that she "worked with them all the time" and "they do an awesome job". Hesitantly, I decided to go with the word of our photographer and requested a quote for videography services. Again, I received the same short, "snippy" responses via message, but followed through and hired them anyway.
The day of the wedding, Jorge arrived and was extremely pleasant to work with! He was patient, kind and made us feel very comfortable. We were really pleased with the interactions we had with the photographer and videographer working with our officiant to pull off our adorable little Valentine's elopement for us. My husband and I left feeling so lucky to have found such an amazing team for our special day.
Fast forward to a month-ish later, we finally receive our flash drive of wedding video coverage. Before I delve into the trauma of THAT.. let me preface it with the following. I had messaged Jorge after the wedding to ask what to expect in video coverage as it was not explained or described to me in any way prior to or following the ceremony (as I mentioned before, the communication was poor, very minimal and always seemingly rude). I was informed that the services that we had paid for were for for raw footage only. I asked if he could make a highlight video as "raw footage" seems like he would just hand over the 3-ish hours of video completely unedited and that's not what we hired a wedding videographer for. Jorge agreed that he would try to make us a short highlight video with the footage he had, so we were so pleased that he was willing to do that for us.
We anxiously awaited the arrival of our amazing wedding day footage to receive a regular postage envelope with a USB drive that was mangled to bits. I wish I could post pictures on this thing, because the USB looked like it had fallen into a garbage disposal 18 times before they threw it in the envelope and mailed it!! Instead of losing my mind about their lack of packaging consideration and calling to Bridezilla all over the place, I spent an hour carefully unmangling the bent USB port with pliers, a flat head screwdriver and a butter knife so I could even ATTEMPT to plug it into a USB port on my computer.
Once I got the USB plugged in, THANK GOODNESS it actually played. I could feel myself getting excited as I opened to find the highlight reel and the "wedding video" accessible. YES! I opened the highlight reel, which ended up being approximately 2-ish minutes long-- not the length of a full song, but it was pretty cute. Not earth-shatteringly awesome as it just cut off at the end, but I was happy that we had a cute little snippet of our awesome day!
Next, I opened the "wedding video" and started watching the 40 minute video compilation. Confusion. Shock. Horror. Dismay. All of these emotions fleeted through me as I literally cringed watching the VERY raw footage of our elopement. Some highlights of the awful, cringe-worthy parts include the awesome following:
1) clamoring, banging and obnoxious background noise of the lobby where my husband did his intro message;
2) the zooming in/zooming out and constant adjusting during the entire duration of filming;
3) ZERO video coverage of the huge, giant "reveal" of the groom turning around to see the bride walking down the aisle. It was completed cut out or not shot at all? who knows
4) ZERO voice recognition throughout the ENTIRE ceremony... you could NOT hear one. single. word. from the officiant, from my husband or from myself. But, don't worry, you could hear the rustling leaves in the trees, the piercing screeching and squawking of every bird in flight and, of course, the constant Niagara- like gush of water from the fountains that sounded like we were getting married under a 100 foot WATERFALL. To make it even worse, there was actually annoying generic piano "wedding music" added and overlaid on the video to attempt to distract from the deafening background noise, but it just added insult to injury
5) the dropping of the camera during my vows... one of my personal favorites. We got an amazing view of the sky and the ground and Blair-Witch Project level weirdness half-way through my vows though, so that's cool
6) my second favorite, the camera was dropped a SECOND time, half-way through the husband's vows... more spectacular views of the brick pavers and semi-cloudy sky instead of my awesomely sweet husband crying as he spoke his vows
Needless to say, by the end of this "wedding video" that we paid good money for, all I could do is sit in absolute shock that this was sold as "Professional Wedding Videography Services". Our wedding video is a JOKE. A literal, lough out loud while shaking your head at the ridiculous lack of professionalism and professional quality level JOKE.
After calming my husband down, I called Jorge to discuss our unhappiness and disappointment in the finished product we received. Jorge basically told me that "this is just what happens at outside weddings with all the noise in the background" and he tried to help it by overlaying music during the ceremony. I asked him if he could edit the video in its entirety to mute ALL background noise (especially since you couldn't hear ONE WORD of our wedding ceremony anyway) and overlay music of our choice on the video so it could at least be a little more bearable to watch. Jorge agreed to do what he could asked us to return the flashdrive with the list of songs we would like to have added to the video.
The husband and I chose several songs, listed them in order and wrote a clear description of how to begin the music from the very beginning of the wedding video. Jorge even called to confirm what we wanted, which I thought was really nice as it seemed he was genuinely trying to help make us happy with doing what he could to fix the video.
When we received the "edited" wedding video, the music did not begin until well into the video, during my husband's introduction. Sigh. That's not what we asked for, but at least for the rest of the video, the music was played and there was no more background noise. We now have a wedding montage with semi-decent quality video coverage of a silent ceremony.
I'm sure anyone reading this review could understand why we are extremely disappointed in the outcome of our videography services based on our personal experience. Overall, it just wasn't what we wanted, paid for or expected from "professional wedding videographers". Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about it other than laugh it off as part of the whole experience. I wish I could say that we had a better experience, but this was BY FAR the most unprofessional service rendered I've ever experienced with wedding vendors. I would never recommend them to anyone after such a poor experience and terrible final product. :\
Filmbalaya Films's reply
Let us first say that we love what we do. It's unfortunate that we were not the videographers you thought we were. There was a bit of miscommunication with the hours hired we were hired for 3 hours and in those 3 hours Jorge filmed every opportunity available. Typically we are hired to film 10 hours with multiple camera operators which in turns gives more opportunities to capture those special moments. That being said we hope y'all enjoy what we did offer y'all and have a blessed day.
Wedding and Event Photography