Hello! Chip Cheesy here. I’ve been told to answer some FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS. I felt completely useless in life and then BOOM, this comes along.
You: If a date is booked before my deposit gets to you, will I get my deposit back?
Chip: Yes, yes, and um, yes.
You: Someone mentioned that photographers and videographers can sometimes clash.
Will this be a problem?
Chip: Gosh, I hope not. Our shooters are instructed to “get out of the photographer’s way.” We want them to refer us.
You: I saw a particular wedding location on your demo where we are planning on getting married. Can I see more footage of that wedding/location?
Chip: Sorry, but we get this request often for lots of locations and it’s just too time consuming to construct a different demo for every location. But we’d love to shoot your wedding there!!
You: What will your crew wear?
Chip: They are required to wear either all black (like many photographers wear) or “church clothes.” If they go the "church clothes route," it would be a tie for guys and never blue jeans, but if the event seems casual they may shed the tie.
You: If a camera malfunctions, will there be a backup?
Chip: That’s why we have three cameras during ceremonies. You really only need two.
You: Can I subtract something from a package to lower the price?
Chip: No. With our packages, we are already “throwing some things in” for free. If we added up each feature in our packages, it would well exceed the price. Each package should really be at least $500 more, but we are doing our best to keep the pricing down for you. We’re still open to ideas though. Email Tiff with any special requests. Oh, I’m sorry… “tiff the Wedding Video Queen.” How come I don’t have a special title? Chip the non- existent-fake spokesman guy. Hmm.
You: Do you travel to states/destinations other than the ones listed?
Chip: Yes, send us an email for a quote.
You: Do I really need to video my wedding?
Chip: I don’t think any person has ever asked a video company this, but it’s on every single wedding video company FAQ page. I refuse to answer this question.
You: What if someone gets sick?
Chip: We have a list of people that can fill in for a shooter, in the unfortunate event that they take ill. We’ve only had to fill in for a shooter on one occasion (and the shooter was willing to shoot even though he was very ill).
You: Can we choose the music for our video?
Chip: By all means. We're not allowed to use copywritten music, but we will dub copywritten music from your personal collection, if you provide it. It can only be for "personal use", so don't plan on showing it the next time you're a guest on Oprah.
You: Will you use lights at the ceremony or the reception? “I was at this wedding and this guy was shining lights in everyone’s faces…” or “my reception is going to be very dark. Are you going to have a camera light…” or “I wanted a candlelight ceremony, but I’m afraid the video…”
Chip: Silence! We’ll do whatever you want, silly. Simply express your needs somewhere on the information sheet that you send in with the contract. Bear in mind that our particular cameras were purchased mainly because they do well in low light conditions.
We refuse to alter your lighting choices at the ceremony unless you specifically ask us to.
During the reception though, we have small camera lights and may use them, if needed (unless you tell us not to).
You: Do you have any hidden fees?
Chip: Yes, but you’ll never know where they are. Actually, I’m not sure why we get asked this so much. There are no additional charges to the packages unless you order extra copies of your final dvd or if you hire us for extra hours.
You: Chip, how blazingly cool are you?
Chip: Shake me like a Polaroid picture. You’ve heard of James Dean? Cooler.
You: Can I purchase the raw/master footage?
Chip: You can purchase this footage on DVD. It is a digital copy, so it is identical.
You: Have you ever done an Indian-Orthodox-Christian-Jewish-Armenian-Greek-
Catholic wedding? The guests will be speaking another language and we all worship a god named “Pencil.”
Chip: Yes, we’ve probably done it (except for Pencil). How about this - an Indian bride marries a Columbian groom, more languages at the reception than at the tower of Babel, and the bride/groom leave in a helicopter. Yes, we did one of these.
You: Will you be using digital video cameras?
Chip: Yes.
You: Who will shoot & edit my video?
Chip: All SCG shooters/editors are trained by Ben: Head Video Weirdo. All of the videos go through the same editing process and are approved by Mike: Quality Control Guy. Your video will not go out until it is deemed “excellent,” by Mike's standards.
You: Chip, do you know any cool tricks?
Chip: I can touch my nose with my tongue. Is that cool? Atcaully, I do konw one ticrk. By laevnig the frsit and lsat letetrs of a wrod the smae you can mix the ohter lteters up becuase the biran remebmers wrdos as a whloe.
You: Why did someone I know get their finished video back before me even though my wedding was first?
Chip: We are editing at least 50 videos at any given time. A whole months worth are edited together and some simply pop out sooner than others. Rather than "hold" them 'til the others are finished, we send them out asap. If someone after you got theirs then your video should be coming soon. Patience, grasshopper.
You: There was a moment in your demo where for a split second something (lighting, audio, camera movement) wasn't perfect.
Chip: Yeah, in case nobody mentioned it to you wedding days aren't the ideal situation for a video shoot. Hollywood movies are shot on a closed set under strictly controlled circumstances, and WEDDINGS ARE NOT. We're not complaining, but you need to be aware of what the person (whether us or someone else) who is shooting your video is up against. People will be walking in front of their shots, the facility might have strict rules, photographers are barking orders, people are bumping into shooters, we're in a dark room one second and outside the next, blah blah blah. As much as we'd like to be running the show, there's more going on than just the wedding video.
You: Chip, are you a real person?
Chip: I think I am, but SCG says they made me up to be their spokesperson. But they can’t stop my dream of being human. I’ve been contacting the Lifetime Channel about my script of a fictitious spokesperson who becomes a wood puppet who becomes a real little boy who becomes a vampire. These kinds of “family-gore” stories sell big in Prague.
I’m waiting on a call back.
You: How do I secure my date?
Chip: You can send your deposit check in the mail, or you can call us with a credit card number at 888-762-7299. You can also pay online via PayPal. Just set up an account and send the amount to accountingscgproductions.com. Most of you ebay peeps have used Paypal before.
