Poulsbo company brings home Emmy awards.

POULSBO — A video production company with Poulsbo roots nabbed two international media awards earlier this month.

Video M.E. Productions, LLC, a husband-and-wife operation in Poulsbo, earned two Ava Awards after completing a video for the Seattle Bread of Life Mission. The 10-minute program follows the journeys of three men into and out of homelessness, and was made to raise awareness and funds for the Bread of Life organization.

Mark and Debbie Nazarino, the brain duo behind Video M.E., have lived in Poulsbo for 10 years. Mark, a videographer and editor, also works for KOMO TV in Seattle. He’s put in more than 20 years in the television and video industry, and already has an Emmy Award — the highest honor in the TV business — to show for it.

Now the pair have two more sparkly mantlepieces, one in the Ava Award category of Special Events/Non-profit and another in the category of Religious/Fundraiser.

The awards, of Gold Winner honors, are given to recognize outstanding achievement by creative professionals involved in the concept, writing, direction, shooting and editing of audio-visual materials, according to a statement from Video M.E.

Debbie said the two are the first awards the company has received since founding in 2004, and credited much to the stories of the three men depicted.

“Amazing Grace, Unending Love” gives voice to three men and their hardships in homelessness and alcohol and drug abuse.

Video M.E. spent two months capturing the heart of both the mens’ stories and the mission’s affect in their lives; the final product displayed “how they were just normal people with an unfortunate turn of events,” explained Debbie. It is meant to help the mission prepare for a facilities expansion.

“I think it is truly the fact that these stories helped people to understand that they (the men) really are normal, everyday people. I think by and large our society tends to judge the person that’s on the street,” she said. But Video M.E.’s work helped to change that view. “They are just the person next door that bad things happened to.”

Video M.E.’s submission was selected from more than 2,200 international entries, the company’s release states. Entrants included video and film production companies, web developers, advertising agencies, public relation firms, corporate and government communication departments, producers, directors, editors and shooters.

Entries included film, analog and digital productions viewed in a variety of mediums from movie screens to televisions to computers, it adds.

“Of course it’s going to add to our business and people are going to understand that we are a serious, viable video production company,” Debbie said, but on top of that, she’s hoping the Video M.E. name becomes a more commonly heard one this side of Puget Sound. A name more in circulation, specifically, in Kitsap County.

“You don’t necessarily have to go shopping across sound,” Debbie said. “We are here.”

Currently, she added, Video M.E. is working on promotional products for two nationally recognized companies, as well as assisting with a Bellevue company’s software launch.

The Ava Awards are sponsored and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP).

For more information, visit the Ava Awards site at www.avaawards.com or Video M.E. Productions at www.videomeproductions.com.