" As Night Falls" Takes Home Best Feature At The FMPTA Crystal Reel Awards !

Dwight Cenac and Grace Chapman

-More than two hundred industry related professionals celebrated with the sixty nominees and Crystal Reel Award recipients at the Gala held at the lovely Hilton-Orlando/Altamonte Springs hotel, hosted by FMPTA's Metro Orlando Chapter. The evening was highlighted by the announcing of the coveted "Judge's Selection" award... the 'best of the best', which was presented to Florida Film & Tape's Brad Fuller for their 'Honda Loudmouth Splash' commercial.


The last award  of the night was presented by Florida Film Commissioner Lucia Fishburne for "Best Feature."  Dwight Cenac, of Crown Films, took home " Best Feature" for his film " As Night Falls," and his co-star, Grace Chapman took home " Best Adolescent Actress."

Arriving guests were honored by being photographed during their famed Red Carpet entrance, then relaxed to the smooth jazz guitar of Robert Harris during the Lifetime Achievement Reception, honoring this year's Lifetime Achievement recipient Ms. Audrey Landers.

The Crystal Reel Awards Gala is held annually to honor and highlight outstanding achievements in motion picture, television, audio recording and digital media productions created in Florida over the past year. The Official Judges of the CRA were Emmy, Grammy, and/or Oscar recipients from across the country with no affiliation to FMPTA.

Click here to view the trailer for "As Night Falls"

'Americans Most Wanted" Films In The River City

The blood was fake, but the story was real.

So while Baptist Medical Center nurses Wanda Williams and LaVeda Carter didn’t perform their usual work duties, they still felt they were helping people Sunday night.

A crew from “America’s Most Wanted” filmed inside the downtown Jacksonville facility’s Heart Hospital, with the two nurses volunteering as extras.

Actors from the TV show aimed at catching fugitives re-enacted part of a Chicago homicide story, taking over a part of the hospital where patients get pre-op and post-op care on weekdays. 

As the action unfolded, the Baptist nurses got a reminder that while they weren’t bandaging real wounds and hooking up real IV drips, the goal was to help a family find justice.“I’m really proud to be doing it for that reason,” Carter said, after sneaking off the set for a few seconds.Her job was to write notes on a fake patient chart in the opening shot. Williams, the unit’s real-life nurse manager, had the job of walking by as the camera showed the organ donor official entering the scene. And after just a handful of takes, both nurses nailed their roles.

Klein said the show will be in town a couple more days to continue filming. While the stories they’re working on aren’t related to Jacksonville crimes, he said the show found locations that looked like areas where the incidents happened.

Read the rest of this article and see more photos from filming at : Jacksonville.com

'America's Most Wanted,' Mercedes-Benz filming in city

A Mercedes-Benz commercial and an episode of “America’s Most Wanted” will be filmed in Jacksonville over the weekend.The “America’s Most Wanted” episode is a re-enactment of a crime that did not happen in Jacksonville, said Todd Roobin, director of the film and TV office for the city.The crimes that will be re-enacted in the episode occurred in Chicago and Texas.

Filming will take place Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Jacksonville Beach and San Marco areas. More than 50 local production professionals have been hired, and hotels and caterers are among the businesses that will benefit from the production.

The total economic impact of the “America’s Most Wanted” episode will be $150,000, Roobin said.
“A lot of people have no idea when they see a small production like this on TV that they leave behind this kind of money,” Roobin said. The “America’s Most Wanted” episode will air at 9 p.m. Dec. 2 on Lifetime. The show has been filmed in Jacksonville 40 to 50 times over the past 25 seasons, said Greg Klein, supervising producer.

“Jacksonville is incredibly film-friendly — it’s a strong film commission that will make everything work for you,” Klein said. “There’s never been any issue here in terms of permitting and wanting to be able to shoot where we want.” The Mercedes-Benz commercial will be filmed Downtown, Roobin said, and have an economic impact of $50,000.

“They want to tape the vehicle with the beautiful skyline in the background,” Roobin said, “and give it to dealerships across the country, so they don’t have to pay an ad agency.”The commercial will be shot on the Main Street and Acosta bridges.“It will be recognizable for those of us who live in this area,” Roobin said.

**The above article came from the Jacksonville Business Journal.

The Florida Film and Entertainment Advisory Welcomes Mike Ossi



Mike Ossi



Mike Ossi, the Jacksonville attorney who has represented John Travolta, was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott Wednesday to the Florida Film & Entertainment Advisory Council, a 17-member group. He said he’ll push for more state and federal incentives for film and TV production in the state.



“I give you my word, this is just the beginning,” Ossi said. “We will have film after film here if we can just get a couple of things changed. And we’ll get them changed.”

Ossi was instrumental in bringing the film crew for Travolta's "Lonely Hearts" to Jacksonville, and was a producer of the Jimmy Fallon-Sharon Stone-Tom Arnold-Lucy Liu film, "The Year of Getting to Know Us." it too was shot in Ossi's hometown.

He said he misses those days when Hollywood stars visited the city to make movies, but that Florida can't currently compete with other states because of a lack of incentives for film crews.

To view this article please or stay update on the lates Jacksonville news please visit: Jacksonville.com

" Truly Everlasting" Hits the Big Screen

-If you are fan of romance novels, then you may have seen Brenda Jackson's books on shelves.

But what you may not know is that the author is a Jacksonville native who has written books such as "The Proposal," "Inseparable" and "Hidden Pleasures."

Many of them have made the New York Times bestseller list, and now one of Jackson's books can be seen on the big screen."Truly Everlasting" isn't the first book written by Jackson to be made into a movie. In the 1990s, the television network BET turned one of her novels into a made-for-TV movie. But this time, the homegrown author wanted complete autonomy.

"We took a chance. I didn't want any investors because if something screwed up, I wanted it to be our money, our loss," Jackson said.She and her husband invested $500,000 of their retirement money in this independent film."I knew then that I had to be on top of this movie every step of the way," Jackson said.

She bought two homes in historic Springfield, one for the crew and another to serve as a production house. Fortunately, she didn't have to look far for a director. Her son has a film degree from Columbia University in New York.

"It is a beautiful Christmas story, so I knew that that would be the story that I would want to show."

To read the rest of this article or view the video please visit : News4Jax.com