More upset couples have come forward to detail their lengthy battles trying to get their wedding footage from videographer James Connell.
The Newcastle Herald reported on November 8 that Newcastle couple Harriet and Jimmy Leayr are thousands of dollars out of pocket and without the videos they paid Anchored Cinema for from their wedding in December 2022.
Mr Connell has declared bankruptcy, leaving a long list of couples as creditors without footage from their special day. He has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
Another Newcastle couple Kate and Mark Dawson are still waiting on videos they paid thousands of dollars for from their wedding in October 2022.
To make matters worse, they also had to find a new venue three months before their big day after Marina Views Function Centre went into receivership in May 2022.
"It was really stressful," Ms Dawson said. "But then later on to find out we probably won't get a video either, it's pretty heartbreaking."
Ms Dawson said she liked Anchored Cinema's style of filming, so picked them after looking at a few different options. A few days before the wedding, Mr Connell informed them that a local videographer would be there to film.
Mr Connell was previously based in Shoal Bay, but had relocated to Queensland.
"That was all fine," Ms Dawson said. "It wasn't until a couple of months after the wedding the videographer contacted my husband.
"He wanted to know if we'd had any correspondence from Anchored and he said 'no we haven't actually'. We had been really busy, so we kind of hadn't thought about it.
"[The videographer] said 'there's a page about them and people are not getting their videos'. He said 'I've got your footage, don't worry about that. I haven't given them your footage, I haven't been paid'.
"But he said 'I want you guys to know I've got it'.
"We were more concerned about getting him paid. We knew he had our footage. We were happy with that.
"So then we reached out to Anchored and they kind of ghosted us. We got the generic emails 'your video is in production, we can't wait to show you' when they didn't even have the footage and it just never turned up."
That was until about a month ago, when Anchored sent the couple one short video they had paid for.
"We did eventually receive that after a lot of persistence," Ms Dawson said. "But other than that, we've received nothing from them. We haven't received our package that we paid for, which was the premium package."
Ms Dawson said she would ideally like the final product, but would be happy with the raw videos.
"It would be great for them to produce for us because I did like their work. I can't see us getting our money back so obviously the footage would be great.
"There may be some other companies out there that may be able to cut a film for us if we at least have the footage."
Hamish Clarke has been in an ongoing dispute with Anchored Cinema since he married his wife Maddi in 2017. He did receive his videos, but had numerous issues.
"It was six to nine months waiting to get our footage," he said.
"We received the video and we were not happy with the quality. I looked like a zombie, really washed out.
"And yet the photos that we had done by our photographer, who's also a Gold Coast guy, were brilliant and we got them back within a month.
"So we asked them to have a crack at it, we got it back again and then all the links were corrupted, so now we can't watch it."
After asking for the raw footage for years, Mr Clarke said Anchored came back to them in 2021 offering to sell the raw footage for $250, which they paid.
"It was the fact that finally after all these years, we had a chance to get that footage that we wanted," Mr Clarke said. "We effectively paid them thousands and we paid for their accommodation and travel.
"We've been on a three-year journey battling with them and they've given us every excuse under the sun."
The pair went to Fair Trading and the ACCC, but have had no success with either.
"It's taken an emotional toll, particularly on my wife," Mr Clarke said. "She wants to see the wedding. She wants the footage. She wants to play it to our kids.
"We've had three kids since this all started. The oldest is about to start school.
"I'm not lacking compassion. I used to run a small business. I know how hard it can be and I've had some really tough times. But I started to lose patience when they were just flat out lying to us. That's when I get frustrated."
