A Cut Above The Rest Productions

Lewis, the owner is a great guy. What I like, first, is that the person I talked to (Lewis) is the person that showed up to do the job. He did not sub-​contract. Technically, the video was well-​edited with smooth, effective transitions. Clearly, he put some thought into it after he went into the editing room. Lewis was also available for consult before the event, which resulted in effective microphone placement for good sound. The informal footage in the front of the video added a real nice touch, and the camera work was good throughout.
Bravo to Lewis!

They did screw up the editing on our recital video but once I made contact they said they would send out one with the editing errors corrected, and they did. They did a good job

This company was hired as part of a dance competition. We didn’t order any pictures or videos at the competition because it was late when we finished and we were tired. So I went to their website after the fact and went ahead and ordered both pictures and a video.
I received the DVD of the pictures within the promised time frame (which is like 4 – 6 weeks — far too long in my opinion, but ok). Didn’t get the video and called the company and left a message, no response so I decided to file a dispute with PayPal.
About a week after that, I got something in the mail and I thought — yea! Got the video. Nope, another copy of the pictures. So I called again and left another message (and updated the paypal dispute).
Finally, someone from the company (Noreen) called me back. She told me first that she couldn’t understand my voice message because their system does some kind of translation to a document and it didn’t translate right. Seriously, how do you operate your business?
Well, after the phone call, I thought it was going to be resolved because Noreen told me she would email me the video. Nope, no video. Instead a couple three days later another voice message from her asking for more information. Not quite sure what else you need. I provided the event, the location and the dance number when we talked and it is also recorded as part of the paypal dispute.
Ok, I left another vm. But, doubt they can understand it — remember translation problem with their messaging system. I uUpdated the ticket again in paypal and I’ll give it a couple more days before escalating the dispute. One of the few times, I’m glad I used PayPal. Hopefully, they’ll get it resolved.
May even send a note to the company who hired them for the dance competition. Who knows, maybe others are also experiencing problems and I want them to know so they won’t hire these guys again.
No good.

Lewis is awesome and so professional. He was on point with all my photos and got them to me in the rush time that I needed them for my daughters birthday party! I’ll be using him next year!

If I could give NEGATIVE stars, I would.
The service of this production team was so horrible that I felt compelled to write my very first review on Unilocal so that I could spare someone else the agony of working with this group.
Don’t get me wrong, Lewis and his team (ACATRP) are nice people — very friendly. I am a Choir teacher and wanted video of our concerts. I got in touch with the company and they offered to send Warton down to my classroom to talk to me about their service — to videotape and edit a concert video for free, in exchange for promoting their service. Also, bonus, we would receive 10% of their sales profits! Win win, right?
The first time I worked with them, I completed the contract with the dates, times and locations of the concerts for the rest of the school year, along with an agreed amount of what we would charge for the dvds. I never got word back from the company, so I assumed that it was too late and that they would no longer be videotaping for us. Because of the lack of contact, I did not promote the videography to my parents.
The day of our concert, Lewis and his helpers showed up, ready to videotape. I was surprised, to say the least, but rolled with it, and quickly accomodated their needs for a table and chairs, and access to the sound board.
The first event ended fine. The video was fine for our needs. ACATRP actually charged more than we agreed to on the contract — I knew my students would not be able to afford their usual prices, and Warton had assured me that I could charge what I thought was reasonable. I believe this is a big reason why more people did not purchase the video.
Our next big concert was on 5÷23÷14. I received an email from ACATRP on 5÷9÷14 with the order form and a request to please start promoting sales of the video so that we could maximize our sales. I sent the order form out to the parents, and told them that videotaping would be prohibited because we had a professional videographer. Pre-​orders began to arrive.
A week before the concert, a woman from ACATRP contacted me to confirm the correct date and time of the performance. I confirmed that she was correct. The day of the show, the company was nowhere to be seen. I was so swamped that I wasn’t able to make a phone call to see where their team was. No one showed up. Parents did not bring video cameras as asked, and some came up to me and asked if they could turn in their orders. I was very embarrassed and told them that the company did not show up, and that I was very sorry, but they would not have a video of their child performing.
The next day, Saturday, May 24, I received an email from Nicole Taylor at 5:59 pm:
«Hi, I’m with A Cut Above. Is your concert still happening tonight or was it cancelled. We’re at the schools and no one is there.» I told her that the show was the night before. She sent the following: «Hi, there must have been some confusion. Your event was on our schedule for tonight. We sincerely apologize for the mix up.» I never received a formal apology from the company. The next week I began sending pre-​orders back to parents through their students apologizing for the error.
I received a message from yet another employee of ACATRP calling to confirm the show for Friday. She didn’t mention a date, so I assumed I was getting a late transfer of a phone call from the front office, since I had already talked to Nicole about how they had missed the correct date of the show.
After the following weekend, my colleague and Band Director of our school asked me about a strange videography team that showed up to his concert, was filming his kids backstage, and was hooking up sound equipment to the sound board. I told him the whole story about what happened, and he asked me what the name of the company was, and I told him «A Cut Above The Rest» and he said, yes, that was them.
I wrote a letter to the company which I both emailed in pdf form and mailed to them letting them know about their «Comedy of Errors», yet never received any word back. Until yesterday. Yesterday I received a box full of DVDs with our high school name and «Spring Choir Concert 2014». When you view it, the first thing you see is the Band that they mistakenly videotaped one full week after our concert.
They didn’t contact us back to confirm for the first concert. They didn’t charge what we asked for the concert. They confirmed the correct date for the second concert, but they didn’t show up and showed up the very next day instead. They didn’t apologize formally for missing the concert — which NO ONE filmed, so we have no record whatsoever. They confirm again for another concert that does not exist. They show up to the BAND concert and film that one instead. And then, after my long letter, to add insult to injury, they send me a box full of dvds for a concert that they MISSED of someone else’s concert! Honestly, it’s like no one in that company talks to one another! SKIP THIS COMPANY!

Lewis did the video for our wedding in December 2013. It took him six months to finally produce a completed video. He rates poor with communication. We would ask him for updates, he wouldn’t respond. It was only when we threatened legal action six months after the wedding did he finally respond to our emails, and even then, no apologies. We asked him specifically for video of my husband’s side of the family, interviews, etc, when we met w/​him, along with our wedding coordinator and DJ. We showed him photos of importance people. He never clarified that day, or had any questions for us (which would have shown some type of interest or confirming exactly what we needed). In the end, he has the video of my family being interviewed, with almost nothing on my husband’s side (no interviews, not even from his mother, although they interviewed mine, and my father, brother, sister-​in-​law, etc., all in the video).
The final video (sadly missing important people) seemed good, for what he had though, it put a bad bad taste in our mouth, as he provided poor customer service, poor communication, never returned emails. We would not recommended.

Lewis did my headshots and I couldn’t be happier!
Here’s why I liked Lewis and A Cut Above the Rest.
The service:
–Making an appointment — he was extremely flexible and accommodating to my schedule
–When I arrived, everything was set up and ready to go (lights, backdrop, camera, etc.)
–My pictures were emailed to me within hours of the shoot
–Lewis himself was very friendly and professional
The actual pictures:
–Pictures looked great!
–Lots of pictures to choose from, with many good options
–He edited them on the spot — which meant I could give input into things I liked or didn’t like
Overall, great service and speed. Glad I opted for a professional. Would recommend!

I used A Cut Above for my son’s engagement party. Lewis, the owner, was in charge of getting the rentals, setting up the lighting and the photography. The evening was perfect. Everything looked great! The pictures are fabulous. I would definitely use them again!

I had to rent chairs for my wife’s birthday party this weekend, and I wanted to see if they could price match some wooden chairs I found online here:
First of all, don’t believe that they’re able beat any price you find elsewhere– all they’re able to do is price match. They will just claim that they’re not able to beat the price because their product is «better quality,» which is impossible to know because the other company I referenced didn’t even mention what kind of wood their chairs are made out of.
I’ve been emailing Lewis the past two days to get a final quote and it’s very difficult to communicate through email because he only responds with one sentence answers. Finally, this morning he gives me a quote and I respond in two hours from receipt of that email that I would like to schedule a rental.
Six hours go by without any answer, and so I decide to call them to see if it’ll be faster to book the rental over the phone. When I call, I tell the girl on the line that I need 26 chairs. After a brief hold she comes back and tells me that Lewis says that all the chairs are fully booked for the weekend! She tells me, «Thanks,» and hangs up.
I’m still puzzled why he never told me that these chairs were already booked after I first contacted him, or why he would book these chairs the same day he told me they were available. These were the only two possibilities of why the chairs were booked.
My only other conclusion is that I didn’t rent enough chairs to make it worth Lewis’ time and effort. Either way, the more reasonable thing to do would be to check if I responded to the offer before giving it to someone else, or at least email me to let me know that the chairs aren’t available. The fact that I had to call to figure this out myself is very upsetting.
A Cut Above The Rest is definitely a far cry of what this company is about. Don’t waste your time.
Feel free to contact me and I’ll happily forward you the email exchange I had with Lewis.

It was middle of the week and we needed tables and chairs for a birthday party Saturday. I Unilocaled, and wanted something close to the venue and found these guys.
I spoke to Lewis and he quoted out reasonable prices, so decided to go with him. Moments after we spoke the family decided to get a bounce house, so I called back and booked it with them.
Day of the party came, and we didn’t get the spot we wanted which already had picnic tables, so we were going to be short of seating area. I called Lewis back literally minutes before they were scheduled to drop off the tables/​chairs and caught them just in time. He was able to add more tables and chairs and showed up 20 minutes later with everything.
Very courteous, no muss no fuss, plain and simple service. Tables, chairs, and bounce house were extremely clean! I’ve been to some parties where the rented equipment was just filthy to the point I didn’t want to go near them which is why I was pleasantly surprised to see the equipment almost crystal clean.
Reasonable prices, great service! Would definitely do business with again!

Amazing services! Building a website for me and it has been coming out amazing. Taken me so long to gather info and with the business of life I’ve been slow and delivering. The owners have had nothing but patience with me. Not making me feel rushed and producing just what I want. Highly recommend.

After countless searches through google I found «A Cut Above the Rest Productions». The name says it all. I contacted the company via email with my order details and expectations. My email was promptly responded to, with all of my questions and concerns answered in great detail. I placed my order, sent over graphics and I was kept up to date until the very end when the package arrived at my door step! Lewis and his team are the absolute best and as a bar manager/​co-​owner of an establishment, he went above and beyond to meet and exceed my expectations. I will definitely be calling him again with my next order!
2 Thumbs Up Guys!!!

The devil’s in the details.
Interesting how the reviews for A Cut Above The Rest Productions are at two extremes?
At one end of the critique spectrum ACATRP can practically walk on water. There is nothing this organization cant do. Video, photography, event planning and the list goes on. On the other end is the grim reality.
For those of you who take the time to read my reviews… allow me to share with you how it went down from someone who was ACTUALLY on the receiving end of this business and its quality of work.
My children’s dance studio hired ACATRP to handle the photography & video recording for an upcoming dance recital (June 2013). Picture day in the studio was one week and the recital another day. From what I saw everything seemed to be going smoothly on both occasions. On the Studio day, the kids were asked to be situated in different poses for photographs etc. That was that. No problems.
On the day of the show however, things got troublesome. There was a lot of emphasis that absolutely positively no photography (not just flash, but all) would be allowed during the recital since it was being handled by ACATRP. I kinda understand that… since they are the professionals and are there to cover the event. But more to the point ACATRP didn’t want any freebees slipping away from them because some parent wanted to take their own pictures of their kids. Silly parents… dont be selfish!
Then this giant wide-​bodied photographer was obnoxiously going up and down the aisles taking pics of the show and blocking the view of many parents. At one point he got in to it with a dad by saying «Im the photographer… I need to be here» to which the dad dad quickly responded «IM THE PARENT AND THATS MY KID UP THERE, YOU’RE IN THE WAY.». My advice for this situation is to invest in a telephoto lens and shoot the pics from the back homeboy. Or you could hire another person to be positioned up close?
Weeks later, came the day that the pictures arrived to the studio.
The quality was not what I expected. The paper that the pics were printed on was flimsy, cheap plus all the pics had this yellow wash/​varnish over them. Pictures of kids who had brilliant colored costumes and skin tones were busted. Also several ordered were incomplete or had duplicates inside these manilla envelopes. Pictures were just kinda thrown in the envelopes. Also I felt that the some of my pics were not cropped properly. A real bootleg and half-​assed presentation in my opinion. Plus the DVDs were not ready on time either.
When the DVDs finally showed up… Good Lord!!! :(
So much for the final polish. For starters the DVD case insert was a poorly cut down piece of paper spat out of a laser printer where the graphics placed more emphasis on adverting and contact info for ACATRP than something that should have commemorated the recital event. As for the actual content in the DVD… hmmm, Ill pass on judgment on this since Im no videographer… but damn man! I know for the money it could have been better and I have seen better.
Oh well. Maybe this company has gotten its act together since then? Ill never know cause after this debacle I would never use nor recommend them.
One last note… If you take the time to read this company’s positive reviews you’ll notice that some of them originate from the same region in the San Fernando valley and that they never specify what they actually did or the reviewers have no profile pics and this is their 1^st or second review. Finally the pics that have been uploaded are from the owners not clients.
Shady.

I used A Cut Above the Rest for party rentals this past weekend. I was stressed out because my boss had asked me to come up with a new idea for our Holiday Party this year (we normally rent out a small, private bowling alley) and my budget for this party is teensy-​weeny so I had no clue what to do. I remembered meeting Lewis at a business mixer and I called him up to see what it would cost to rent a tent. He totally worked within my budget and I was able to throw a magical holiday party in our company parking lot by renting a 20′ x 30′ tent, black AstroTurf, tables, chairs, linens, a small sound system, heat lamps, lights, and twinkle lights. Lewis was in touch with me through the process, his crew was there nice and early to set up the tent and everything came together beautifully. Aside from his help I bought some pretty Poinsettias for centerpieces, hired a lovely duo to perform live music, and catered in some food from a local deli, but the space was just perfect and totally transformed our parking lot into the winter wonderland I had hoped for. My boss was totally impressed and loved the party. We’ll definitely be using A Cut Above the Rest again because they were professional, timely, affordable, and I really couldn’t have asked for better service or rentals. A+++

Hate this company. I feel like they have no idea what they’re doing at this business. The sales associates are awful! A female named Lexy answers the phone and doesn’t know anything about what she’s talking about nor how to handle customers. Seems as if the owner is a teenage boy and the sales associates are as well. I DO NOT recommend this company for anything. Bad quality. Bad service and way over priced. The owner is a prick and is money hungry which puts the icing on the cake. A cut above the rest productions had filmed my child’s culmination and I had paid for it via Paypal. After a month of not receiving the DVD I gave them a call a girl (Lexy) had said she would send my DVD again and she verified my information. Her excuse was «it was probably lost in the mail!» Another month had gone by and still nothing. I had called back and asked to speak with Lewis and apparently he wasn’t available and that she would take a message and call me back. That «callback» never happened it had been a total of 3 months before I personally asked Lewis (the owner) to drive to my house and deliver my DVD. I notified the school of the difficulties I had and they had agreed that I was not the only one complaining.

As an independent business owner, I pride myself in efficiency… «A Cut Above The Rest Productions» is just that! I hired Lewis and his team to shoot a commercial for my company. His crew was timely, experienced and super professional. They arrived right at our scheduled time, had top of the line equipment and came well prepared. It was apparent to me that «A Cut Above The Rest» paid close attention to the requests I had made regarding how I envisioned my commercial. They also had a number of great ideas of their own that turned out really well! My crew and I had a truly positive experience with this company and I highly recommend their services to anyone looking to save time and money for a quality production.
~ Kevin Campos, Owner
PestCal Exterminators

I hired ‘A Cut Above’ to do the recital photos for the performing arts studio where I was a teacher, and I have to say that it was THE best decision that we could have made with all of the options we had.
Lewis and PK were on time (it was an early morning!) and they were both chipper and ready to go. If they aren’t morning people, they fooled the heck outta me. The setup was easy and quick and they were ready to go faster than I’d seen from others in times past which meant that we could start sooner… and get done sooner! They’ve created this wonderfully perfect streamline process which helped to move things along rather quickly and efficiently. There were a few last-​minute things that came up and they definitely rolled with the punches. And if you’re worried about your photos looking like low quality pieces of crap… don’t. Their equipment is up-​to-​date and they have the knowledge to get it done and get it done right the first time.
Lewis and his team are amazing. Without hesitation I would hire ‘A Cut…’ again. Friendly and hardworking professionals get the job done, and that’s exactly what they are to the T. Oh, and they do more than dance recitals! :-)

Lewis is amazing! His team worked on a special project for me. They were able to get great shots in less than the time scheduled, and put together a TV worthy final project the same day. Unheard of from any other production company. I would recommend A Cut Above the Rest to anyone who wants professional, creative and timely video productions. Thanks guys for such excellent work. I look forward to working with you again.

We were referred to Lewis first in January because we were hosting a movie screening at our center and were looking to rent the necessary equipment. He was, by far, the most reasonable of all the companies that we talked to, and so very professional, punctual, and helpful. Since then, we have used his services for another screening, as well as in designing and printing postcards for our various events. We can honestly say that A Cut Above The Rest Productions is an all around good company to have by any business’ side. Thank you Lewis.

They did an amazing job for my recital. Their email communication is extremely professional and prompt. Not only were they on time for my company’s dance recital but they were 30 minutes early. They were able to get everything set up with minimal assistance from me and provided easy links and forms to enable easy dvd orders from my clients. The dvds were also beautifully covered with my logo and dvd cover graphics. The show was recorded to my satisfaction, showcasing all the dancers and maintaining a wide shot. The sound was great as well!!! I am looking forward to working with them throughout my yearly dance recitals and would definitely highly recommend them!