The City of Palm Coast has received five national video awards for videos about public safety, recreation programs and economic development. The awards were presented to Video Production Coordinator Tom Hanson and Digital Communications Coordinator Jason Giraulo at the Palm Coast City Council meeting on Tuesday.

The three award-winning videos were produced in-house by the City's municipal access television station, PCTV, with scripting, storyboarding, filming and editing done by Hanson and Giraulo. The PCTV team is part of Palm Coast's Communications & Marketing Division. Many of the actors in all three videos were City employees.

PCTV won a Communicator Award of Excellence, in the Public Relations category, for "Walk Through Life," a high-energy video profiling the Palm Coast Parks & Recreation Department using a montage of photos and video combined with an inspirational music track. The video can be viewed on Palm Coast's YouTube Channel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwgpGjQ_3TQ.

The City also won a Communicator Award of Distinction, in the Public Safety category, for "Change Your Batteries," a very funny video with a serious message. The Communications & Marketing Division and the Palm Coast Fire Department collaborated on the writing, and the actors were mostly firefighters. This video succeeds on a high level by attracting and keeping the viewer's attention through light spirited vignettes, only to turn serious toward the end and underscore a very important message for residents - the importance of changing the batteries in smoke detectors. The video can be viewed athttp://youtu.be/qXq_fkKwrSw.

The Communicator Awards program is the leading international awards program honoring creative excellence for communications professionals. The annual Communicator Awards, in their 21st year, are governed by The International Academy of Visual Arts (IAVA).

The Parks & Recreation "Walk Through Life" video also won a first-place award in the National Association of Telecommunication Officers and Advisors (NATOA) Annual Government Programming Awards. The City won in the category of Profile of a City/County Department. In that same competition, the "Walk Through Life" video was recognized with an Honorable Mention for Innovative Use of Video. The Government Programming Awards honor excellence in broadcast, cable, multimedia and electronic programming produced by local government agencies across the United States and Canada.

Rounding out this year's awards was a Bronze Award in the Government Relations category at the 36th annual Telly Awards - for the City's "Are You In?" economic development video. the video was the most ambitious project of the past year, with leadership from the video production team and the Palm Coast Business Assistance Center and contributions from the Palm Coast business community, Flagler County Schools and Daytona State College. The video comprehensively packages all of the best elements Palm Coast has to offer, inviting the audience to Find Their Florida in Palm Coast where we're Making Our Future Together. It can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBZalf91mIg.

"The City strives each year to reach citizens through a variety of communications methods, and we have found that our high-quality videos have become very popular with the public," said Cindi Lane, Communications & Marketing Manager. "We show the videos on social media, through our television station, on our website and on our YouTube Channel. For videos such as 'Change Your Batteries,' we also share them with other local governments in the region so they can reach a broader audience."

"We are honored to receive each of these important awards, and I congratulate Tom Hanson, Jason Giraulo and the many other City employees and community members who contributed to their success. We look forward to producing even more great video in 2016!"

Videos produced by PCTV can be viewed on the city's YouTube channel at http://youtube.palmcoastgov.com and on the channel's Video on Demand Service available via the city channel website at www.palmcoastgov.com/tv. The station airs on Bright House Networks Channel 495 and on AT&T's U-verse Channel 99. 

For more information, please visit the City of Palm Coast.