here’s what our clients are saying

If you are hesitant about hiring a videographer – don’t be!

“Do you really want your Uncle Fred’s poorly lit shaky camera phone video as your only record of the day’s events?  My wife and I didn’t originally budget for a videographer, because we thought we could get away with having just a photographer (we ended up having both).   Pictures are nice to frame, but they don’t completely capture the magic of video – the speeches, the dances, your guests’ reactions, the music.   The day goes by so quickly, you’ll want to capture everything – trust me.

We ended up making the right decision choosing Shawn of Pivotal Video Productions to shoot our wedding video at Cimarron Golf Resort in Cathedral City, as well as our Rehearsal Dinner in Palm Springs.   Shawn is a complete professional.  He used multiple cameras in order to get the best shots at different angles and he edited them together flawlessly (we’ll get back to more of that later).   He’s also a machine – he shot the entire wedding day from when we were getting ready until the last song the DJ played at midnight.   He hopped in a golf cart in the 90 degree sun and followed us around while we took our wedding party photos on the golf course.  I was dancing with my wife and guests at the end of the night and I look over and Shawn is in the middle of the dance floor with us shooting everything – moving around and catching every dance for what must have been around 3 hours straight.

Now back to the editing – WOW!   Shawn gave us the raw footage right away and then took some time to edit the footage together into a full wedding video, a highlight real, and the Rehearsal Dinner with speeches.  We gave him a few songs to set different scenes to, which he integrated seamlessly into the narrative.  Shawn really did capture the magic I felt on my wedding day – and the editing told our story so well.   He even had some fun with it and gave us a few surprises matching the music we chose to our guests’ dance moves.   The end of our video was so fun – it looked like a music video.   What an amazing job he did with it – I couldn’t have asked for a better job, seriously.

THANK YOU THANK YOU SHAWN for such a wonderful and amazing wedding video!   I’m recommending you to everyone I know!”   Kenny Y.


I was blown away!

Shawn did a promotional video for a client of mine. I was doing her hair and makeup for the video. Normally, I wouldn’t have any reason to review someone’s work if I didn’t hire him but I was so impressed with his attention to detail and his calm demeanor while he was shooting but then to actually see the finished product! I was blown away!   Betsy D.


He captured the most special moments

Shawn shot our wedding in Palm Springs at the Galvan Estate in November. I can’t say enough about how happy we are with our video. He captured the most special moments and we didn’t feel like he was an obstruction at the wedding. He was very discreet. He was professional throughout the whole process and a pleasure to work with! I cant thank him enough for making our special day something we are excited to watch on all our anniversaries! I would highly recommend Shawn and Pivotal Video Productions for your videographer needs. His price was the best I found also. Thanks again Shawn!    Melissa F.


I wish we had hired someone like him to film our wedding

We are so impressed and appreciative of Shawn’s work at Pivotal Video Productions. We had a really difficult situation. Years ago my relative had filmed our wedding with multiple HD cameras, but never put the actual video together for us! We had trouble getting anyone to edit the footage. People kept bailing on us. We were so discouraged. Shawn took our project on. He was professional, easy to work with, and incorporated my format ideas. His editing was great. The music worked beautifully with the footage. He gave us a finished project in a timely fashion despite him being in the process of relocating his business to Westlake Village, and it being the busy business time of graduation. I also want to add that he gave me a fair price for the initial estimate of this work, footage unseen I might add, and after the work was done, charged me less. He worked with my difficult schedule and always returned my emails and calls promptly. I don’t have a single complaint. I wish we had hired someone like him to film our wedding in the first place. Definitely hire a professional like Shawn from the get go!  Aurora B. 


Pivotal Video Productions is great!

We had Shawn put together a montage (with very short notice) for my Grandma’s “Going Away Party” and not only was he able to get it done a day early, but also he made us a truly wonderful montage of my grandmas life. We must have dumped about 100 hundred pictures on him (usually most montages can only have up to 50) and he was able to fit in everything we wanted and have it done the way we wanted.

With something as special as this, you want it to be done right and look great and Shawn did just that for us. He not only beat our deadline but delivered an awesome montage and my family and I can’t thank him enough. He’s a hard worker and does great stuff — I highly recommend!   Lily F.


…the end product is something that you will love

Shawn did a great job on our wedding video!  He made sure it was done exactly how we wanted and added several of our personalized touches such as song choices and DVD photo.  He really listens and makes sure that the end product is something that you will love.   Alison C. 


Shawn is awesome, fun and discrete!

I have performed at several high profile events that Shawn and his crew were working.  Shawn is awesome, fun and discrete!  The footage I have seen of the events he has recorded are great the editing is top of the heap!  And he’s a really nice guy who wants to make sure the client gets what they want.   Philip B.


It was so incredibly done and a beautiful piece that we will treasure forever.

We used Shawn and Pivotal Video Productions for my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah montage.  It was so incredibly done and a beautiful piece that we will treasure forever.  Shawn made what could be a very stressful experience very calm, and walked me thru everything I needed to do so that he could take all my pictures and music and make a magical masterpiece.  There is no way, with every other detail that needs to be attended to with a Bat Mitzvah, that I could have had such a fabulous and entertaining video to show my guests had I done this myself and not used Shawn.  I thought I could do this myself, but as I got deeper into the process I quickly realized I needed a professional.  His layouts are incredible and the finished product exceeded every expectation we had.  I have already let Shawn know that we will be using his services again for my other daughter’s Bat Mitzvah which is in 2016!  Look no further if you want a beautiful, meaningful, fun and entertaining montage for any event or party that you are planning.   Alex W.


Shawn is great!

We hired Shawn for our November 2012 wedding and are very happy with the video he created. Shawn is great! Our wedding was an all day event at two locations and Shawn worked with us and filmed the entire day. He was punctual, communicated regularly and a lot of fun to work with. I would highly recommend Shawn and Pivotal Video Productions!   Karina W.


I know that this was money well spent.

I’m not going to lie, when I first started planning our wedding I didn’t plan on having a videographer. I figured I had a photographer, and didn’t feel like it was necessary to spend the extra money on a videographer.

Then my mother insisted that I get a videographer, citing her own regret from not having one at her wedding. So I caved and started looking for a videographer. I searched all over and was constantly disappointed in one way or another… then one day I checked the mail and I had a postcard from Pivotal Video Productions and decided to check to out….

I am so glad that I did. Shawn was very easy to work with, and his crew arrived on time and was very professional… I actually forgot they were even there. Also, very important to me, they had a video package for every budget… including my budget :)

Sooo about the finished product…. I can home last night to find my DVDs waiting for me on the doorstep. I immediately ripped open the package (not able to contain myself until my husband came home) and popped a DVD into the player. I watched my DVD not once, but twice, and I would be watching it right now if I wasn’t stuck at work. I LOVE my DVD. I love how it really captures not only the big events of the wedding, but the overall ambiance of the entire event.

I am so happy I have this day captured on video. After watching and re-watching I know that this was money well spent.

Overall, I highly recommend Pivotal Video Productions for wedding videography.   Daniel C.   


He made brilliant decisions about the order

Originally, we had a bigger company take care of our wedding DVD, and it was a disaster! It seemed like they just found the relevant sections of the wedding and just put them altogether, without really doing any fine-tuned editing. Things like a glass dropping and dead time were still included. The music was also this awful electronic cheesy piano/saxophone background that I just couldn’t imagine listening to over and over throughout the years.

We contacted Shawn about editing since I liked one of his sample videos on his website and he had very reasonable prices. I sent him detailed notes about what we would love included, what we didn’t want in the video, and favorite songs that we thought would work with the video.

Shawn did a fantastic job incorporating my notes in his fine-tuned editing and used our musical choices too. He made brilliant decisions about the order in which to present reception events that didn’t necessarily go in chronological order. He also did a recap of the day, set to our song. We had funny interviews at the end of the night from our guests and he clearly had watched them all and made them even funnier than the original copy since he included some different parts. The editing came with several copies that we are now proudly sending out to family members. We could not be happier with our wedding DVD that we will now watch over and over throughout the years. Thank you, Shawn!   Jackie M. 


Shawn didn’t let our limited resources interfere with his huge amount of work

We are a nonprofit program in Van Nuys and we held our 25th Anniversary Gala dinner in November of last year.  Shawn was tremendous.  He spent so much time making sure that all elements of our event were properly covered and the DVD we now have is wonderful!  in fact we have two now.  He made a brief video with photographs that we had taken with a music backdrop that is terrific.  It’s a short video giving a real feel of what the evening was like.  And the longer DVD is so great for us to have to remember all of the speeches (some by politicians) and acknowledgments of our staff, the men and women that we work with and their families.  Shawn didn’t let our limited resources interfere with his huge amount of work making it possible for us to have something so wonderful to remember an amazing evening for our program.  Organizations like ours depend on support from the community.  Having these videos on our website and available to send to others is huge when it comes to getting that support.  I strongly recommend that companies memorialize their events in this way; And Shawn is the perfect person to make that happen.  Ken L. 


Shawn…is absolutely wonderful to work with!

Shawn, the owner of Pivotal Media, is absolutely wonderful to work with! I felt very strongly that when my family was planning a reunion and celebration for several family events, that we should have a videographer document us as a family; talking and sharing and asking my parents questions about their lives. I just knew that we would be so grateful to have this recorded. I asked Shawn to do the job and he was just amazing! This was a personal and intimate project, and he treated us with the utmost  respect. On top of that, he went above and beyond on the editing and all the magic that makes the finished product, which is fantastic! I recently had the great pleasure of watching it with my parents and it was just priceless. Now, thanks to Shawn, we have this record to enjoy and share with future generations to come. I am VERY grateful to Shawn and wanted to tell the world how truly professional, caring, and excellent he is! He asks questions and then listens with care every step of the way so that the entire process from start to finish is a complete joy! I would call him again and again for future projects and I trust him completely. He is awesome!   Kelly H. 


Shawn was able to capture the event vividly – emotions and all!

We hired Shawn for our daughter’s Quinceanera in November 2012.   He was amazing!!  Not only was he punctual, easy to work with and very accommodating to all the requests we made, he did it all with a smile and great attitude.  In the months that followed we had constant communication, always knowing what stage we were in.  We received the video a couple of weeks ago and WOW!!! So impressed!  Shawn was able to capture the event vividly – emotions and all!  The finish product was high quality, everything we expected and delivered within the time promised.  I would highly recommend Shawn and Pivotal Video Productions!   Lidia P.