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.

You’ve heard the old saying a million times: the three keys to success are “location, location, location!” Your Florida video production is no exception to that rule. Location and scenery can make or break your project, whether you’re producing a big-budget, feature-length film or a 30-second commercial. Whether you’re a longtime local or an out-of-towner bringing your project to the Sunshine State, Digital Video Arts can help you pinpoint and secure the perfect location for your Florida video production.

From sprawling coastal homes to quaint country shacks to sleek downtown flats, DVA can help secure the perfect location for your Florida video production.

DVA’s producers have years of experience in the art of location scouting for films, videos, television commercials and Internet video productions throughout Florida. Many don’t know that 100 years ago, Florida’s Jacksonville area (where DVA is located) was known as the “Winter Film Capital of the World” and is widely considered the first site for on-location filming. A century later, film and video producers still come to Florida for the same reasons that attracted filmmaking’s earliest pioneers, including the state’s year-round mild climate and exterior location options that include “everything except mountains – and we can green screen those,” as the saying goes.

Sandy beaches; modern downtown skylines; quaint, rural towns; ornate, century-old mansions and gardens; Anywhere,  USA suburbia homes; and wooded swamplands that double for faraway jungles are just a few of the Florida video production location options available for both exterior and interior shooting. DVA’s production team has a knack for finding just the right locations that help communicate your project’s feel and message. And, we can help you sure permission to use chosen locations, including negotiating city permits and location fees.

To find and secure the ideal location for your Florida video production, contact DVA today.

Several Florida film production legends were honored tonight by Film Florida, a nonprofit organization that provides a leadership role in Florida’s film and entertainment industries by representing a coalition of interests, including private industry, local film commissions, industry associations and labor organizations. The organization’s annual Film Florida Legends Awards honors those who have been key in building the Florida film production industry. This year’s honorees, all from the Jacksonville area, are late silent filmmaker Richard E. Norman, film and TV producer Jerry Smith and film distributor Belton Clark.

Poster advertising "The Flying Ace" by filmmaker Richard E. Norman, one of three honored at the recent Film Florida Legend Awards Gala. Film and TV producer Jerry Smith and distributor Belton Clark also were honored.

Richard Norman was among the earliest Florida Film production professionals. He produced what at the time were called “race films” during the 1910s and 1920s. Race films were the first to feature African American actors playing positive, non-stereotypical roles. Norman produced a string of successful race films starring some of the top black entertainers of the day including Bill Pickett, known as America’s first black rodeo star. His only known surviving film, The Flying Ace, is said to have inspired many of the earliest black aviators including a number of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. Norman’s five-building studio complex still stands in Jacksonville’s Old Arlington district and efforts are under way by the City of Jacksonville and the Norman Studios Silent Film Museum to restore and reopen the property as a museum and film learning center.

Jerry Smith, founder and CEO of PineRidge Film & Television, is an internationally recognized writer, producer, and director of lifestyle television programs, TV commercials, corporate communications and online content. Over his 35-year career, he created and directed promotional campaigns for nearly every major television ownership group in America, including Post-Newsweek, Hearst-Argyle Television, Scripps Networks, PBS, Discovery Networks, CBN, Home and Garden Network (HGTV), Fine Living, Food Network plus ABC, NBC and CBS-Owned Television Stations. PineRidge is best known over the past decade for its travel series projects including Great Hotels, Passport to Europe, Passport to Latin America, Girl Meets Hawaii, and Great Vacation Homes. Pine Ridge has landed six national Emmy awards and 11 nominations.

Belton Clark’s career as a prolific film distributor spans 40 years. He founded Clark Film Co. after he and his brother Harry acquired the rights to Allied Artists Films during the late 1960s and the company remains strong today. Clark has handled releases including Pulp Fiction, Shakespeare in Love, Kill Bill, Good Will Hunting, The English Patient, Sling Blade, Bridget Jones Diary, My Left Foot, Stanley and more. Up next: the release of this summer’s Piranha 3D.

Digital Video Arts congratulates all the winners of the Film Florida Legends Awards.

Good news for Florida film production companies and professionals – new financial incentives for shooting in the Sunshine State begin today. Florida’s new Film and Entertainment Incentive Program offers tax relief incentives for both major film/TV productions and low-budget indies choosing a Florida production locale. It’s all part of the $175 million “Jobs for Florida” bill recently signed into law by Governor Charlie Crist.

The new law allows major Florida film productions and Florida TV productions that employ at least 50% of their production cast and below-the-line crew from Florida tax breaks of up to $8 million. Films and video games with family-friendly content may qualify for an added 5% tax break. Small independent, digital media productions and emerging media productions can apply for up to $125,000 in tax incentives.

Senator Don Gaetz (R-Destin) sponsored a new bill that allows tax breaks of up to $8 million for filmmakers shooting in Florida.

“With an unemployment rate worse than 12 percent, Florida families and Florida businesses are hurting,” said Republican Senator Don Gaetz of Destin. ‘This package of incentives actually loosens government’s grip on the private sector and gives companies solid reasons to stay in Florida, expand in Florida and come to Florida.”

Gaetz sponsored the bipartisan bill, CS/SB 1752. Democratic Sen. Jeremy Ring of Margate co-sponsored. In the House, primary sponsors were Rep. Will Weatherford of Chapel and Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff of Fort Lauderdale. The bill passed unanimously in both houses.

To qualify, your production must have a start date July 1 or later. Apply online to the Office of Film and Entertainment beginning today, June 9 at noon EST. And if you need help with any portion of your Florida film production, from concepting to post-production and packaging, contact Digital Video Arts at 888-340-1010. Good luck!

Being in the business of Florida video production, we at Digital Video Arts are watching with great interest (and amusement/ire) the $1 billion court fight between media giant Viacom and Google-owned YouTube. The profanity-soaked battle playing out in a federal courtroom in New York could be one of epic proportions when it comes to changes in the way that digital video sharing happens on the Internet. And that doesn’t apply only to high-dollar productions coming out of Hollywood. Your Florida video production will be affected too.

In March 2007, Viacom filed suit against Google and YouTube for copyright infringement, seeking more than $1 billion in damages. Viacom claimed YouTube was committing “massive intentional copyright infringement” for allowing some 160,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom-owned programming. Google and YouTube argued, in short, that the onus was on individual YouTube posters – not YouTube itself – to know whether a video upload violated someone else’s copyright, and that because a copyright infringement that happened on their service was never intentional, YouTube was protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The judge in the case ruled that under the DMCA, which does limit the liability of online service providers for copyright infringement by users, Viacom could not seek punitive damages against YouTube. But massive statutory damages remain on the table, and the outcome of this case could greatly affect how your Florida video production’s copyright is protected.

At the heart of the case is the question of whose job it is to police the Internet for copyright violations – the website operators or individual content owners. A Google/YouTube win means that for Viacom and other content creators such as filmmakers, digital video producers, songwriters and authors, copyright as it exists today would be rendered unenforceable. Constantly patrolling the Web for pirated material and sending take-down notices would require time and financial resources that most content producers can ill afford. A Viacom win would mean that website operators would have to review every user’s every post before allowing it to be published. Again, this would place a paralyzing financial and human resources strain on website operators, including those operating sites like eBay Craigslist.

In response to the original case, Google and YouTube in 2008 installed Video ID, a copyright identification system that tracks unauthorized videos and enables copyright owners to choose whether to block the clip, allow it to remain online without compensation, or enable YouTube to sell advertisements that play prior to each clip. Upwards of 90% of copyright owners are choosing the latter option.

To protect your Florida video production’s copyright, it’s advisable that you register your project with the U.S. Copyright Office within three months of its first publication. This will qualify you for collection of attorney’s fees should you ever file and win a copyright infringement claim against an authorized user of your material under the federal Copyright Act. Note that you must have already registered your copyright before filing a claim against a suspected infringer – you cannot register a copyright and sue an infringer simultaneously. If you do find that someone is posting your Florida video production, either in full or via clips, you or your attorney must send the website operator a take-down notice under the DMCA. If the operator refuses, you may be entitled to actual (punitive) or statutory damages under the federal Copyright Act. If the infringement threatens immediate harm for which money damages awarded would not adequately compensate, you may also be able to land a temporary restraining order against the infringer.

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.

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.

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.

A film production or commercial production is a lot like a spoken story. Ask 10 different people to relay all the same the facts of a story and still, you’ll get 10 unique versions of that story. The same goes for film, television and commercial directors. So when you choose a production company, you’ll want to make sure that it can deliver a director who will not only share your vision for your project, but help you improve it.

Digital Video Arts offers much more than production studios and post production suites and services. Our Directors Resource program matches you and your project with the right director chosen from dozens of highly skilled and talented film production and commercial production professionals and production companies nationwide. Over the years, DVA has established strong working relationships with top film, television and commercial directors throughout the Southeast and in major markets across the country. Tell us what you’re imagining for your project and we’ll connect you with a director whose style and creative abilities perfectly complement that vision, whether it’s a feature length documentary or film production, commercial production or Internet production.

Choosing the right director is key to your film production or commercial production’s success because he or she is the primary influencer of the project’s look, pacing and feel. The director sets the tone for the entire project via his or her selection of on-camera or voice talent, digital video equipment specifications, post production applications and more. But directors are a dime a dozen. Yours should be chosen as carefully as you would choose an on-camera spokesperson. DVA can help. We’ve created hundreds of film productions and commercial productions and spent thousands of hours in production studios with scores of talented production professionals. We’ve got a real knack for matching the right project with the right professionals.

Besides directors, DVA has access to a broad range of talent including actors, voice over artists, producers, cinematographers, casting directors, musicians, etc. Our in-house production professionals are top-notch. But if your project calls for a unique style or skill set not represented at DVA, chances are we know the right outside professional.

Don’t leave your project’s success to chance by hiring the boss’ fresh-out-of-film-school nephew or friend of a friend. Take advantage of DVA’s years of success as a top Florida production company and let us help you choose all the best players for your film or commercial production. Contact us today at 888-340-1010 or via our online email form. We’re looking forward to working with you on your next film production or commercial production project.

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.