Complaint Review: Phoenix Studios - Ocala Florida

For your info, Criminal charges have been filed in this case.

The reason Miss Easterly did not file suit or criminal  charges in the beginning was because she tried to give these people a chance to do the right thing out of compassion for Joe Rothenberger's health problems. As for the phone recordings, The professional videographer / editor  grew tired of their ranting and name calling and recorded the last two harassing phone call's made to him by the Rothenberger's before finally being forced to change his phone number. In response to their last post, A person needs not have proper grammar nor a college degree to stand up for another person of whom is being wronged and ridiculed. And once again the Rothenberger's show their ignorance and unprofessionalism by resorting to ridicule and name calling rather than face the truth. As for the music video, If a person tried to submit that type of garbage to a country music, television network, They would be laughed right out of Nashville. I quote this was suppose to be a professional country music video. Not an outdated terribly produced sci-fi flick. Come on people. Really?

As much as we enjoy a good mud slinging session of he said she said we would like to make the following suggestions to Lynn Easterly.

1. First, and possibly most importantly, when having someone post a comment on your behalf on a website where you are seeking to be taken seriously, make sure that they are fluent in the english language and are aware of proper spelling and grammar. The above post is so riddled with mistakes it is making you look like an uneducated, low-class hillbilly, and surely you don't want that.

2. When posting on a public website it is not typically a good idea to admit to such a severe crime as recording a conversation without the knowlege and consent of the person you are recording.

3.Check your facts. You are claiming your video is completely unusable because it is not in high definition...the good news is that from a technical stand point standard definition video is still a broadcastable product, as it was 7 years ago when it was made. In fact the term "standard definition" is used, because when your video was made it was the standard broadcast signal for the industry, as high definition was just beginning to come out. As for the content of the video being ridiculous, that is on you. The nature of the video was your concept and you approved of the storyboard long before production had taken place.

4. Finally, you suggested that we save our defensive remarks for a judge, which is interesting, because as of yet you have made no formal lawsuits against the company you had your contract with

  The Rothenbergers are incapable of telling the truth on this subject.
   Miss Easterly has a 5,000 dollar contract signed and notorized by Kathleen Rothenberger. What they fail to mention is the fact they agreed to film a paranormal reality series though was unable to get there own cohort /star under control and knowing they had already spent the 5,000 dollars to pay their household bills, To avoid prosecution they agreed to put the amount toward the country music video though claimed it would cost the extra 2,000 dollars for the editing ,camera crew, ect. 
   She also has receipts for the extra 2,000 not to mention the receits for cost of the actors of which was suppose to be included in the extra 2,000 given for the video. Miss Easterly also has a recorded conversation between the professional  videographer / Editor of whom tried to salvage the video to no avail . In which the Rothenbergers were calling her derogatory names after being informed that Miss Easterly refused to except the video in it's unacceptable format.  This person along with numerous other witnesses are willing to testify to this in a court of law.  The Rothenbergers can lie all they want but the truth will prevail . I speak as a representative for Miss Easterly of whom was not the person to file the original report on this subject . 

While looking for the original storyboard that Mrs. Easterly approved, we came across another discrepency in her claim. In the title of her claim she says Stargazer Productions stole $7,000, in the body of her claim she says the amount is $5,000. Well according to her contract the amount due for the music video was only $2,000.

The content of "garbage" in her video, was decided by Mrs Easterly, who did not listen to our suggestions that a "Twilight theme" was not a good idea. When she did not listen to the producers protest, she was asked to sign off on the storyboard to indicate her approval. The videos content is garbage, because Mrs. Easterly did not listen to the professionals she had hired. Neither BET nor MTV had any complaints about the quality of a previous video we had produced for clients who respected Mr. Rothenberger's 40 years of experience.

Joe Rothenberger does not need permission to use the video on Youtube, or anywhere else, as the creator off the video, he owns the copyright. At no point did he release his rights to our video work, which as a creative medium is the copyright of it's creator despite whether or not a client paid for it (much like studio photographs from Sears, Olan Mills, etc.).  Mrs. Easterly hates the video work so much, yet uses our copywritten shots in a promo for her remake of the video.

In closing, not only did Mrs. Easterly receive 2 copies of her product, (one a shot for shot representation of the storyboard that she approved, and the other a re-edited version based on changes she requested), but a refund of $7,000 is most certainly out of the question as the video only cost her $2,000.

 Once again the Rothenbergers along with Dave Letellier are clearly liars and thieves.
 Miss Easterly was very patient and trusting of these people they did nothing without asking for more funds. Easterly has numerous witnesses to the unethical conduct of these people while shooting this very unprofessional music video of which they also posted on youtube without permission.  Here is a link to this so called professional video they produced http://youtu.be/JugaKv73-Bg  Any reputable production company would agree this garbage was not what any professional music artist would envision as their first  music video.. Once again Easterly trusted these scam artist's to produce a professional music video and to this day has not received product nor a refund of the 7,000 dollars spent. 

In addition, anyone who is unsure of the commitment to quality, professionalism, skill, or business ethics of the people this claim is against, you are welcome to call or e-mail for a list of HUNDREDS of satisfied clients (local and national) from both Phoenix Studios and Stargazer Productions. For a list of dissatisfied clients include your mailing address, so we can mail you a post-it note with Lynn Easterly's name on it.

There are many inaccurate statements made by Mrs. Easterly. First, Mr. Rothenberger never claimed to be a Grammy winner, as Grammy awards are received for musical excellence. Mr. Rothenberger and his father won Emmy awards, they are similar, but quite different. That being said, Mr. and Mrs. Rothenberger never claimed they would be producing anything (neither her music video or her paranormal investigation pilot) in High Definition. Mrs. Easterly was well aware of this fact as she had us do previous work for her including a TV show pilot and taping a concert performance.

It is true however that Dave Letellier is an unlicensed videographer, but only because no such title exists. It is also true that he is blind in one eye, though in the past this has never hindered his ability to produce high quality videos, as only one eye is used to operate the camera.

An important thing that Mrs. Easterly failed to mention is the amount of work we had done for her for no charge which included multiple re-shoots/re-edits of her TV show pilot (due to poor investigation) as well as a photo shoot outside of a local mall for the cover of her CD.

Also her claims that Stargazer Productions was dissolved and became Phoenix Studios is also inaccurate. Phoenix Studios Unlimited, Inc. is owned by David and Leslie Letellier, whereas Stargazer Productions of Central Florida, Inc. was owned by Joe and Kathy Rothenberger. Mr. Rothenberger has since retired and volunteers as a consultant at Phoenix Studios.

Mrs. Easterly, is merely a disgruntled customer, who was beyond satisfaction.