East Bay Media Center - Berkeley, California

Alexis H.

I am not someone who generally bothers to write negative reviews, especially about local businesses. But I feel the need to warn fellow filmmakers about this place. Do NOT use East Bay Media Center as your fiscal sponsor. They will ignore their own agreement to disburse funds within 10 days. In fact, they will ghost you and you will struggle to recoup your funds for months.

Want to raise money for your film through small community donations? Good luck. Their donation system is terribly outdated (a paypal link that only points donations to their own general fund which means that donors must proactively write in what the donation is intended for). They also will not tell you when donations come in. The final straw was catching them in the act of actually concealing a donation from our project.

Avoid this place at all costs.

Jackie C.

Of all the wonderful businesses who need your money right now, dont waste it here! Mel is one of the rudest people I have ever encountered in my life. I originally came in to get files from 8 DVDs transferred to a thumb drive, and working with EBMC was a terrible, exasperating experience. I wish SO BADLY I would have read their reviews here and on YELP before working with them, but I was in a hurry to get the work done for family gifts.

Firstly, I wasn't even told that my original job was ready the first time - I had to follow up 3 weeks later and was then told it was ready. Secondly, the files weren't checked to be sure everything made it to the thumb drive and were in working order - which forced me to spend a lot of time that I don't have at the moment figuring out what and bringing them back in - Out of the 8 DVDs on the thumb drive I received from EBMC, 1 showed as "incompatible", 1 should have been over an hour but just 58 seconds made it to the thumb drive(strangely enough, 58 seconds from the middle of the DVD), and 1 DVD was missing from the thumb drive completely. Before bringing them back, I asked explicitly if I would be charged more, and Mel let me know he would need to look at the thumb drive and DVDs to figure out what the issue was before he could tell me either way.

Before I left their offices, I confirmed once again that he would call when he found out what the problem had been, and his exact words were, "Yes.. I'll probably email." However, to my surprise, I received an email a few days later letting me know the work was completed, and advising me on the additional money I owed. When I asked why he hadnt called when he figured out the issue like we had agreed upon, he tried to lie and say they had - but they hadn't. They called me AFTER I sent the email asking why I hadnt been called explaining the issue - which is obviously no help if I have no way to then "okay" the additional work or not. Mel let me know that the drive I provided, 32GB, wasnt large enough for all of the files, which was the reason some were missing. However, If my drive wasn't large enough to fit the files, why wasn't this brought to my attention when I picked up and paid for the job the first time? At the very least, why wasnt I told about this as we had agreed so that I could confirm I wanted to buy another thumb-drive from them and pay for the additional work that, according to my and Mel's knowledge when I picked up my job the first time, had already been paid for? He then tried to blame it on the "bad quality" of my videos, but once again, why wasnt this brought to my attention if it was an issue? (The DVDs themselves are in perfect shape by the way, but the videos were copied to the DVDs from old home movie VHS tapes which are of seemingly poor quality as they're from the late 80s and early 90s.) This issue could have very easily been expressed to me as the reason the mistakes were made - but it was not.

I explained to Mel why I needed the home videos copied to thumb drives - the reasons being that 4 of my family members who are on the home videos, are very sick right now, one of them currently in the hospital and likely wont live much longer. I was trying to get these videos out to my/their families before anyone passed. I told Mel that I did not want the work for one of the DVDs as i'm currently unemployed and dont have the extra money, but asked if he could please confirm that the the other videos that were very important were in fact loaded to the thumb drive and in working order. Mel's answer to all of this was telling me to pick up my job at 5:45pm that day(Nothing else). When I got to EBMC, Mel gave me my DVDs and thumb drive through the closed bars without saying a single word to me.

THE WORST PART? The file that was just 58 seconds long WAS STILL JUST 58 SECONDS LONG! After explicitly asking him to confirm, the work still wasnt complete! I will be sending this thumb drive to family as im now basically out of time to get it to them - and I will have to find somewhere else to get the complete DVD transferred.

Zack K.

Mel and Paul are the best! I've been coming to Mel for the last 17+ years for help with my little projects and couldn't be happier. They are truly a wonderful resource!

Sam J.

Mel is the best guy you can ever met. he has always helped me on last minute things. he has great ideas and he advised me many things that's been successful in my life. Big Thanks to him

Armando E.

This business is a joke. All of their equipment is outdated and the staff is very rude and unethical. They do not follow through with commitments or agreements they make, just see some of their responses to customers on Yelp. Very unprofessional. Also, I do not recommend this summer camp either. Paul and Mel have anger problems and are borderline abusive to the children. The films they produce, if you can even call them that are at best boring. Like watching a bad YouTube video. You can see the parents cringe and wonder why they ever considered sending their children to the media center when they watch what has been produced. All I can say is avoid them at all costs. The poor graphic design on their advertising, posters and website should be enough to send you elsewhere.

Susie W.

Wish I had not spent $25 per tape to digitize them. When the guy said do you want these on DVD I automatically said yes, not thinking it would literally be a DVD format. Like how many people actually want DVDs these days) it’s not like they added nice titles as Legacybox did when I sent them home movie reels to digitize.

After someone I called later (when realizing I couldn’t share the files without converting them to a shareable format) the person said they could make a shareable video format for me. So I go back and am told I’d be charged for that.

Instead I am left feeling gyped and insulted.

How I know I am not at fault as a customer is the fact that I was then urged to upload the files to Youtube instead of sharing with my family on thumb drives. He instead could have suggested sharing on Dropbox or Google Drive which are also free and achieve my goal of sharing the master files. Just this interaction shows how un-customer friendly they are.

What a bummer to have this experience after trying to patronize a local nonprofit.

Greg T.

The East Bay Media Center has been a cultural fountain for the people of Berkeley and the wider creative world for decades. Sometimes working in the shadows, sometimes in the sun, Mel & Paul and friends seem to know, the sweetest stream flows from the human spirit.

Many Thanks,
Greg and Angela

zxinf V.

One of the best Man you can find in whole country. he is so helpful and kind to all. his business is great. love this place. been doing business with this place for last 10 yrs. never have any complains. always did great. 5/5