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.

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.

Got a big corporate meeting, presentation or other event coming up soon? DVA’s Jacksonville video production studio facility has you covered. Completed in 2008, our 15,000-square-foot facility has everything you’ll need to pull off a seamless event including plenty of wired workspace, a 24-seat HD theatre and a bistro-style bar and lounge.

Start the day off with breakfast in our large dining café, complete with a fully equipped kitchen filled with drinks and snacks for breaks throughout the day. When it’s time to get to work, we’ve got a plethora of functional, comfortable workspace. A favorite spot is our 400-square-foot visual design room with large work surfaces. This room lends itself well to meetings and projects that involve open collaboration with many participants. Our video editing, sound editing and video production suites have multiple work surfaces all designed around a central core that makes setup and change out of equipment quick and easy. Comfortable seating and cozy lighting make for a relaxed atmosphere, which helps promote creativity.

Our Jacksonville video production studio facility also is wired for most any electronic need for your business meeting or presentation via more than 10 miles of cable, 2,000 video and audio connectors and top-line digital connectivity. We offer a 400-square-foot private conference area with and HDTV screening room. Telephones, dialup ports and T1 connections keep you connected with the outside world. Internet access is available via dozens of computer terminals located throughout our rental space.

Wind down a productive day with a stroll through our numerous on-site art galleries featuring works from local and regional artists, and a relaxing gathering in our bistro bar and lounge, complete with a scenic outdoor deck that overlooks a private wildlife preserve and pond. And for a creativity-boosting, team building field day, DVA staff can help connect you with dozens of regional options from great hotels and restaurants to golf courses, beaches and theme parks.

Your environmentally conscious participants will appreciate DVA’s efforts to build and maintain an eco-friendly facility. When we set out to build our new 15,000-square-foot Jacksonville video production studio, we chose building materials and techniques that minimized our footprint on the environment. We landscaped with native plants and trees that require much less watering than many popular commercial landscape choices and dedicated a large green space adjacent to the office park’s private wildlife preserve. Inside, we incorporate natural and fluorescent lighting with motion sensors that not only conserve energy, but help reduce our overhead costs, allowing us to offer clients competitive rates on film production, video production, and rental of our production and recording studio, editing suites and corporate meeting space.

Call DVA today at 888-340-1010 to plan a corporate meeting that your employees and colleagues thoroughly enjoy.

Hey, fellow Florida film production pros! Film Florida is searching for nominees for the fifth annual Legends Awards, honoring pioneers of Florida film production and Florida television production. Winners are those who have made significant impact on Florida’s film, television and entertainment industry’s development and ongoing growth, either behind the scenes or in front of the camera.

Past winners and honorees include underwater film and television veteran Ricou Browning, Sr., who played the underwater role of the Gill-Man in Creature from the Black Lagoon; The late Egon Stephan, Sr., an Emmy-winning Florida cinematographer who built the Southeast’s largest film production equipment rental house and founded the Florida Advisory Council, from which the Florida Film Bureau was borne; and Director, writer and producer Bill Grefe.

“The ideal Legend is someone who has worked tirelessly, who has invested in the Florida infrastructure, who has taught and shared their skills with others, who has worked behind the scenes and may not always be recognized for their achievements,” says Richard Seres, Legend Awards founder and committee chair.

Know any Florida film production professionals who fit the bill? Nominate your choice by email his or her name, contact information, bio and a few supporting statements to legends@filmflorida.org by February 15. And plan to attend the Annual Legends Awards right here in Jacksonville, hosted in conjunction with the Jacksonville Film Festival in June.

While you’re in town, drop by Digital Video Arts to check out our beautiful facility including a 24-seat widescreen theatre, production studio and bistro-style café and bar. All are available for rental for your next film production or video production project.

Film Florida is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to promoting Florida film production and Florida video production, including luring Hollywood producers to bring their projects to the Sunshine State. The organization represents a coalition of industry interest including private industry, local film commissions, industry associations and labor organizations.

Sunday, March 8th 2009 marked the one year anniversary of Digital Video Arts’ new facilities… I guess they’re not new anymore. As always, we welcome tours of any size and look forward to showing you around. Just give Clark Fivek a call at 904-281-1001 to schedule a visit.