If your Florida video production involves still or moving images of food, you’ve got a tough project on your hands. Photographing or filming food is a specialty unto itself and takes a true talent to create images that make your viewers’ or customers’ mouths water.

Have you ever gone to a small, family-owned restaurant and looked over a menu of dishes obviously photographed by the cook’s nephew? The difference between an amateur and a professional photo or video shoot can mean the difference in a restaurant’s success. That’s why you’ll never see an unappetizing image of a food item in a highly successful eatery’s media and advertising materials.

If you are tasked with a project that involves still or moving images of food, Digital Video Arts can help create a look that’ll leave you thrilled with your work and hungry for dinner. Our in-house food stylists and other film/video professionals are specially trained in the art and science (believe us – it takes both) of food styling and related set design, lighting, photography and videography. We create beautiful culinary images for print, television and online media for restaurants, grocery stores, chefs, cook book publishers food packaging companies and others.

Florida video productions involving food are right at home in our 15,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility in Jacksonville. Our studio includes a full prep kitchen and our primary food stylist Gloria Norton is not only a longtime Florida video production professional, she’s an award-winning cook as well.

For a look at our food styling experience visit DVA’s online portfolio. If it leaves you hungry for more information on our food styling and Florida video production services, contact us online or toll free at 888-340-1010.

All the benefits of the Florida video production industry have helped lure a major television boon to the Sunshine State. Starting in July, the iconic television game show “Family Feud” will be taped at Universal Studios Florida in Orlando. Industry journal Variety reports that “Family Feud” producer FreemantleMedia, Universal Orlando, the City of Orlando and the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau inked a deal that calls for 165 episodes of the syndicated game show to be taped right here in Florida.

Comedian Steve Harvey with wife Marjorie attend a fundraising gala for the Steve Harvey Foundation in New York May 2010.

Video production and film production projects including feature films, TV shows and music videos are eligible for cash rebates of between 15% and 22% of budgets or in-state shooting. Such benefits have lured multiple game show productions to Florida in the past. TV gamers shot here include “Fear Factor,” “Wheel of Fortune,” “Beat the Clock” and “My Family’s Got Guts.”

Besides new digs, the Florida video production of “Family Feud” also will feature a new host. Famed comedian, actor, author and syndicated radio show host Steve Harvey will become the new face of the show this season. Harvey began his entertainment career as a standup comedian in the mid-1980s before a hosting gig with “It’s Showtime at the Apollo” and numerous TV sitcoms including ABC’s “Me and the Boys” and The WB’s “The Steve Harvey Show” and “Steve Harvey Big Time Challenge.” He is perhaps best known for his comedy DVDs including “Don’t Trip … He Ain’t Through With me Yet” and “Still Trippin,” as well as for the 1997 “Kings of Comedy” Tour with fellow comedians Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley and the late Bernie Mac. His current stint as host of the 64-market syndicated radio show “Steve Harvey Morning Show” led to his surprisingly successful stint as one of America’s favorite relationship advisors and author of the #1 New York Times Best Seller Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man.

Harvey is no stranger to Florida video production, having taped an episode of “The Steve Harvey Show” here. His new gig as host of “Family Feud,” which pits two families against each other in a contest to correctly guess the most popular responses to survey questions, will make him a regular in Florida video production industry circles.

Want to know how bringing your film or video production to Florida can reap benefits? Call Digital Video Arts in Jacksonville toll-free at 888-340-1010.

It’s an often misunderstood concept, but art direction can make or break your Florida video production or Florida film production. What exactly is art direction, you ask? Easy. Well, easily said, anyway. A film or video production’s art direction involves developing and meticulously maintaining the project’s look. Need to turn your girlfriend’s spotless apartment into a grungy frat house for a day-long indie film shoot? Have access to a bare office space that you transform into a bustling storefront for a TV commercial? Or are you looking to recreate a historic scene for a documentary project?

Talented art direction professionals can transform any space into a scene that perfectly communicates your vision for your Florida video production or Florida film production. Art direction for a film or video project involves designing, building and dressing sets including choosing furniture, wall and floor coverings, artwork, plants, dishes and a million other items that might appear in a believable scene. Wardrobe choices also are a determination of the art department or art direction professionals.

A Wikipedia entry describes the work of an art director or production designer as “in charge of the overall visual appearance and how it communicates visually, stimulates moods, contrasts features, and psychologically appeals to a target audience. The art director makes decisions about visual elements used, what artistic style to use, and when to use motion.”

Originally called “art directors,” these professionals have increasingly been called “production designers” since 1939, when famed film producer David O. Selznick decided that the term “art director” failed to lend due credit to William Cameron Menzies for his work on “Gone with the Wind” and created the “production designer” title.

In advertising, art direction takes a similar purpose in that it involves creating the most effective visual approach for your advertising, marketing and promotional materials including television commercials and print collateral. This involves creating and choosing just the right color, typeface, logo design, graphics and photographs that successfully relay your message to your target audience.

At DVA, our team of art direction professionals boasts decades of experience in all related aspects including set design, construction and dressing, props, costume design, etc. Our advertising art directors are experts in visual communication. No matter the message, DVA has the expertise and experience to create the perfect look for your Florida video production, Florida film production or advertising collateral. Contact us toll free at 888-340-1010.

Financial incentives for Florida video production and Florida film production can help slash your production budget if you know where to look for assistance. Cash rebates, tax advantages and exemptions, travel and lodging discounts and more are available to both Florida-based video production and film production companies as well as projects and companies coming to the Sunshine State from elsewhere.

Existing Florida video production and Florida film production incentives include:

• 15-22% cash rebate for films, TV commercials and music videos with qualified expenditures of $625,000 or more;
• 15-20% cash rebate for multiple commercials and music videos with $500,000 or more in combined qualified expenditures and with a minimum of $100,000 in qualified expenditures per production;
• 15-17% cash rebate for indie Florida feature films or documentaries 70 minutes or longer with qualified expenditures of $100,000 up to $625,000;
• 10% cash rebate for interactive entertainment projects with qualified expenditures of $300,000 or more;
• Various sales and use tax exemptions on Florida film production and television production equipment and real property;
• Discounts on hotel and resort stays, truck rentals, location fees and other items offered through the Florida Discounts & Deals program.

At Digital Video Arts, we keep up to date on all of the Florida video production and Florida film production incentives offered to both in-state projects and to producers of projects coming to Florida from out-of-state. Currently, state legislation sets aside $10.8 million in annual incentives for Florida video production and Florida film production projects, but industry lobbyists are continually working to land higher amounts.

To see if your Florida video production or Florida film production project qualifies for any of these incentives, visit the Film in Florida website, operated by the Governor’s Office of Film & Entertainment. Then, call DVA. We are a full-service Florida video production and film production company that takes the “concept to completion” tagline to a whole new level, offering all the core pre-production, production and post-production video and film services, plus related extras including logo and brand image design, print advertisements and collateral, and Internet and interactive experiences.

There are lots of great reasons to plan your next video or film project in Florida. Jacksonville-based and familiar with all things Florida when it comes to video and film production, DVA can help you take advantage of all of them. Browse our website for a look at our capabilities, then call toll free: 888-340-1010.

At Digital Video Arts, we do much more than video production, Jacksonville. Besides our core business of offering top quality, concept-to-completion digital video production services in Jacksonville and beyond, DVA also offers design services for your brand image, logo, print advertisements and collateral as well as Internet and interactive experiences. Each of these provides an additional layer of your full brand development, helping to build and solidify your company’s name and image recognition with your targeted audience of current and prospective customers.

A great logo can be described as a “silent sales force” for your company. It literally provides a mental image with which clients and prospective clients associate your services, products and their experiences with you. An effective logo is simple and clearly communicates your company’s image and visual message. Think of McDonald’s “golden arches,” the Nike swish or the Mac apple. Even without words, these images are immediately recognizable. That kind of recognition breeds public trust in a company’s ability to produce superior products and services. And that trust translates to dollars.

A well designed and executed print campaign can help boost the potential success of a promotional video production. Jacksonville’s DVA provides design of print advertisements and collateral as a stand-alone project or in conjunction with the production of your commercial, PSA or promotional video. And you can take your campaign a step further with a digital interface. DVA can create an accompanying CD, DVD or Internet presence, including interactive features like games, demos, simulations and eLearning courses that help round out your full promotional campaign and brand development. We use industry standard tools such as Adobe Flash, Dreamweaver, Director and Photoshop to create campaign elements that capture your targeted audience’s attention and move them to act. We also offer digital still photography.

Make sure your company gets the maximum benefit from your next promotional video production. Jacksonville-based DVA has a top-notch team of creative production, advertising, PR and marketing veterans with the knowledge and know-how to help you get the most traction from your brand and campaign. To discuss your next branding and promotional initiative, call 904-281-1001.

To assure the highest possible quality video production in Jacksonville, you’ll want to make sure your footage is shot in high resolution, preferably in HD (High Definition) digital format. Not only will your images turn out far crisper and cleaner, but you’ll have a much easier time managing your footage.

The move from analog to digital format videotape began in the 1980s with the introduction of Sony’s D-1 format, the first major professional digital video format. Its standard definition (SD) images were of higher quality than anything on the broadcast market at the time. It stored uncompressed digitized component video, audio tracks and timecode on a ¾-inch cassette tape and used a tremendous amount of bandwidth for its time. But the machinery was monstrous, taking up full rooms and forcing television stations and companies offering video production in Jacksonville to make heavy investments in not just the camera and editing equipment but in the facilities infrastructure to house the systems.

Fast forward to present day and we’ve seen multiple advancements in digital video production cameras and equipment for the professional market, consumer market and prosumer market. Today’s digital video can be stored on digital tape or directly to memory sticks and cards, allowing for completely tapeless editing. Tapeless storage and editing means you won’t lose a generation (quality level) when transferring or dubbing your footage. And it means your footage will be easily accessible for later projects.

For top-quality film and video production, Jacksonville’s DVA does all of its digital film acquisition on high resolution formats, including SONY HDCAM, Panasonic VariCam, RED HD and other digital film format cameras. We were among the first companies offering video production in Jacksonville to use the RED HD camera, which offers a resolution several times that of traditional HD film or video, yet is more cost effective than expensive 35 mm digital film acquisition. And we’ve redesigned our postproduction workflow procedures and facilities to accommodate tapeless editing.

For your next video production, Jacksonville’s DVA has all you need in the way of broadcast quality shooting and editing capabilities. Take a look at our online portfolio for a sampling of our work, then call us toll free at 888-340-1010.

They say everyone’s got a movie in them. Digital Video Arts, a Florida video production company with a top-notch staff of film professionals, offers script-to-screen services to help you launch or further your filmmaking career. Our Florida video production, film production and recording studio specialists boast decades of experience in all aspects of film and video production, from shooting to scripting to musical scoring and even food styling.

Our portfolio features multiple types of film and video productions including local PSAs and political messages, high-end commercials for top national and international companies, sports and feature programs and segments for national television networks, corporate and promotional videos and feature-length documentaries. Each of our highly specialized staff brings years of experience in film production and video production in Florida and across the nation.

Once you’ve got the idea for your film, you’ll want to get it onto paper in script form. If you’re new to film production, you might be surprised at the sheer number of elements that go into drafting a professional script. Our experienced and highly creative scriptwriters know just how to craft a script in a way that effectively tells your story or conveys your message and meets all the industry expectations. They’ve penned scripts for commercials and PSAs for television and radio, corporate and promotional videos, long-form videos and documentaries. Our team of incredible storytellers will collaborate with you fully research your subject matter and collaborate with you to create a script that exceeds your expectations.

Along with your script, our Florida film production specialists also can create accompanying materials including story boards and other illustrations and musical scores and soundtracks. And when you’re ready to get the cameras rolling, we can take your project all the way through production to post-production to packaging for distribution. Each staff member at DVA’s Jacksonville video production studios is an artistic storyteller with a specialized technical ability.

If you’ve got a film or documentary film idea in mind, call DVA today and let us help you get on your way to filmmaking success. Our Florida video production facility has all you’ll need for a top-notch project. Contact us at 888-340-1010 or via our online email form.

Jacksonville film production buffs, look out for the launch of Jacksonville.com’s Cinemania, a community-based group of amateur and professional Florida videographers and filmmakers working to hone their skills. Led by longtime screenwriter Sharon Cobb, the group is designed to help amateur Florida filmmakers and videographers launch their careers and make the jump from part-time purveyors of short films to full time Florida film production professionals.

The group debuts Monday, Feb. 15 with a screening of the four top winners of the 2010 Doorpost Film Project, an annual short film competition. The event takes place at the Five Points Theatre, 1022 Park Street in the Five Points neighborhood of Jacksonville’s Riverside district. Admission is free, but get there early to make sure you’ve got a seat.

The films showing are:

•    The Butterfly Circus, a touching, Great Depression-era story of a circus showman leading his troupe through the America’s devastated landscape, inspiring and being inspired along the way by a cast of characters including a quadriplegic whom they befriend at a carnival sideshow;
•    La Premiere, the story of the Lumiere Brothers, Auguste and Louis, credited with taking motion pictures from the tiny Kinetiscope to the big screen – the invention of the cinema as we know it today;
•    The Rift, a metaphorical tale about a man who wakes up in a dark, despair-ridden place that he fears is Hell and learns a lesson in how one act of love can change the course of a person’s life;
•    Guest Room, a character-driven drama about a man who finds another beaten and passed out at a remote highway rest stop and decides to help, launching a friendship and a journey that proves the people who have the greatest impact on our lives can be the ones we least expect to matter at all.

Cinemania plans monthly film events including film-related workshops and stage screenplay readings, discount screenings of feature films, independent films and films by Florida film production companies Jacksonville video production professionals.

If you’re inspired to launch your own filmmaking career, Digital Video Arts can help. Our Jacksonville video production company is state-of-the-art and our team are industry veterans with unmatched creative energy. Let us help produce your first or next film and give you the professional edge you’ll need to compete and succeed.

Calling all Florida film production and Florida video production enthusiasts: Get your creative juices flowing! “Digital Grafitti,” the world’s first projection art festival is accepting entries for its third annual festival, June 12 2010 in Alys Beach on Florida’s Emerald Coast. This one-of-a-kind festival uses the latest film and video projection technologies to project original video art onto walls and rooftops all over town. In just two years, Digital Graffiti has become a hit among emerging Florida videographers and other Florida film production pros and graffiti artists, as well as attracting thousands of spectators and competitors from around the world. Projects have come from France, Thailand, Belgium, India, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Germany, Brazil, England, Austria, Ireland, Canada, U.K., China, and all over the U.S.

“Nowhere else does the architecture of an entire community become a canvas for digital art,” Florida Governor Charlie Crist said in a media release announcing Digital Graffiti’s call for entries. “Digital Graffiti embodies the innovation and originality that Florida prides itself on supporting.”

Crist is a big supporter of Florida film and video and has supported much of the Jacksonville film and video industry’s initiatives.

Of course, all the young “starving artist” filmmakers want to know: What’s the prize? In 2009, Digital Graffiti awarded more than $6,000 in cash prizes, including a $2,000 “Best of Show” prize. For 2010, the haul is even bigger. Digital Graffiti will award $10,000 to various category winners with the “Best of Show” winner taking home $5,000. There is no entry fee and artists retain full copyright ownership of their works, though Digital Graffiti , Alys Beach and sponsoring partners do gets unrestricted right to use submissions for promotional purposes. It’s a nice deal for any winning Florida video production pro.

Entry deadline is March 15. Visit www.digitalgraffiti.com for all the info. And of course, if you need help getting your Jacksonville film or video project ready to compete, call Digital Video Arts at 904-281-1001 or 888-340-1010.

Hey Florida film production pros, The annual DocMiami International Film Festival is accepting submissions for its 2010 event May 28-30 at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa. The festival recognizes the best among emerging documentary filmmakers from around the world. The popularity of documentaries is exploding these days, with bigger audience numbers and more theatrical releases than ever before.

Here at Digital Video Arts, we know the allure of the documentary – the most effective medium to tell a story in a visually and audibly moving way. Our expert Florida video production team has produced or co-produced numerous documentaries on subjects ranging from the Suwannee River Music Festival to the life and times of legendary pro golfer Bobby Jones to the true stories of men who fought in the Viet Nam War.

Need help getting your documentary produced, finished or packaged in time to submit to DocMiami? Digital Video Arts is a top-rated Florida video production company and Florida recording studio boasting an expert team of film, video and music recording professionals with decades of experience. We can take your film or video production project from concept to completion or assist with your ala carte video production needs including music recording and DVD packaging.

Visit www.docmiami.org for all the info on the 2010 festival. Then, call Digital Video Arts to help you get your project ready to compete.