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This year’s National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) meeting in Las Vegas featured some major announcements, including new cameras at both the high end and lower end of the spectrum, a plethora of 3D choices, and a variety of storage solutions for field recording.

However, what really caught my eye this year was Apple’s long-awaited announcement of Final Cut Pro X. The software has been completely re-worked with more robust media management, higher resolution (up to 4K) capabilities, no more waiting for renders, and new color correction.  For just $299, it sounds like Final Cut Pro will included with most new Macs that are sold and can be added to existing machines.  Here’s a description of its new capabilities:

As widely rumored, Apple’s Peter Steinauer took the stage at the SuperMeet during NAB in Las Vegas to introduce the latest version of Final Cut, Final Cut Pro X. The new video editing app (last revised in July of 2009) adds full 64-bit compatibility with a full rewrite of the platform. Final Cut Pro X will be shipping in June. You can download it via the Mac App Store! And the price? US$299 — that’s truly astonishing. (We don’t yet know if that’s just the editor itself, or also includes the capabilities of Motion and Color… but we’re inclined to believe the former.)

The new version includes improved media management and improved image quality built on “modern foundations,” with top-to-bottom color management and a new look. FCP X features resolution-independent playback all the way from SD up to 2K and 4K formats. It now leverages Grand Central Dispatch to take advantage of all cores on the Mac plus the GPU. The crowd goes wild, especially as Steinauer suggests that the ever-popular render bar will now be a thing of the past.

Other new features (via @fcpsupermeet and Photography Bay)…

I returned to the Central Valley recently for a two day shoot at several dairy farms near Tulare and Hanford.  The weather cooperated and we were able to shoot interviews outdoors.  Since there was no AC power nearby, we used reflectors during interviews to help reduce the shadows from the sun on people’s faces.

It always amazes me how much noise there is outdoors, even though we weren’t close to a major city, an airport or freeway.  Small planes flew overhead during the interviews, plus a helicopter and a few trucks.  The sound person and I developed a signal system where he raised his hand to let me know that the audio is compromised during a sound bite as we’re recording. Luckily there weren’t too many major disruptions, and the interviewees didn’t become flustered when they had to do a few re-takes.

It’s exciting to see a dairy operation first-hand—the cows in the barn, the milking parlor, the trucks picking up the milk and driving it to the milk plant.  It provides great visuals for us as we’re videotaping.  Some of the farmers, including the one pictured below, also grow a variety of crops such as alfalfa and almonds.  Even though some of the dairy farms we’ve seen are pretty large, they’re still family-owned and treat their animals and employees well.

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I was excited to learn that one of my favorite freelance cameramen purchased the brand new Panasonic AF 100 camera in time for a shoot I had in Portland, OR.   Scott Nelson lives in Bend and has been on my short list of people to call in Oregon when I have projects there.  This video involved capturing interviews and footage at a pharmacy in downtown Portland.  My client was looking for a camera with a small footprint so we wouldn’t disturb the pharmacy customers and avoid intimidating our interview subjects.

The AF 100 has a number of compelling features:  it uses off the shelf SD cards that you can buy anywhere; if you use a 32 Gig card it records about 3 hours of footage at 1080 HD, which makes the SD cards very economical. The camera uses still photo lenses, so you can purchase a variety of wide angle or zoom lenses.  It’s very compact, has a built-in monitor, and is capable of a shallow depth of field so you can throw backgrounds out of focus easily.

The images we captured with the camera look great.  Skin tones are smooth, colors are vivid, and we were able to shoot under existing lighting without any problem.  I can see this camera being a mainstay for small projects, especially when you take it on the road.

At the end of the shoot I was able to transfer all the footage from the SD card to my computer in about 15 minutes, which isn’t possible with P2 cards.  The trade off is that the image is more compressed, but I didn’t see the amount of artifact that’s present in cameras such as the Canon 5D.  I’m looking forward to the next shoot with the AF 100.

February 7 will mark the one-year anniversary of the passing of my father, Jerry Gordon. He founded Gordon Productions in 1959 and led an amazing life. He lived for 100 years, which alone is truly amazing. He was born in 1909 in West Virginia. He found his passion as a writer, working on newspapers such as the Atlanta Constitution. As World War II approached, he became a White House correspondent. He had a chance to meet FDR while covering the White House. Jerry decided to enlist with the Marine Corps, and when he gave FDR the news, Roosevelt said, “good luck son, you’re going to need it!”

Jerry fought in some of the toughest battles in the Pacific in WWII. During that time he was a newspaper correspondent, writing stories for U.S. newspapers about the battles, and the heroism of soldiers. After the War ended, he moved to New York, where he started working in radio and eventually in television. He worked as a producer on the Today Show in the early days with Dave Garroway. He had a chance to meet some of the legends of TV news, such as Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and Eric Sevareid.

He decided to move west and became the evening news producer at KNBC in Los Angeles. At that time the newscast was only 15 minutes long, with an anchor reading the news but very little B-roll. It was then that Jerry came up with the idea of “newsfilms”, later known as video news releases. He soon moved to San Francisco and founded Gordon Newsfilms (later Gordon Productions), one of the first companies in the country that focused on broadcast public relations. Jerry approached companies with the idea of creating short, newsworthy stories on subjects ranging from geothermal energy for PG&E to surfing competitions for Smirnoff Vodka.

In the 1970s the company flourished, with clients ranging from the New Zealand Tourist Commission to the Alaska Pipeline. Jerry had a staff of 7 people, several film cameras, and 2 Moviola film editing machines. Cameramen would capture footage on 16mm film, splice together the stories on the Moviola, and make film prints at the lab. The news segments were sent by mail to TV newsrooms with a reply card (there were no monitoring services back then). The newsrooms actually took the time to fill out the cards with the dates and times they aired the stories and would reply back, asking for more stories.

I joined the company in the 1980s when we had just migrated from film to video. My father was still at the helm in those days, and I learned a lot from him. It’s been a fascinating and exciting ride as the technology changes have revolutionized how we tell stories with video. My father was always interested in the evolution of the industry and kept encouraging me to stay in the forefront. He also emphasized how important it is to treat both clients and suppliers fairly. “Always pay the little guy (freelancers) first” was his advice to me, and it’s stuck with me ever since.

In his later days he managed to play the piano, drive a car until he was 99, and stay on e-mail until his 100th birthday. He had a devotion to fitness that helped keep him healthy for so long, but he wasn’t afraid to enjoy a glass of wine in the evening. Even though I miss him, I smile when I think back on all he accomplished in life and how happy he was for most of his journey. We should all try to live so well.

When I describe to colleagues and friends some of the procedures I’ve videotaped in operating rooms, some are surprised to hear how much I enjoy the environment of the OR.  First, I should say how thankful I am at the end of every shoot at hospitals when I walk out the door still feeling healthy.  There are a lot of acutely ill patients in our hospitals, and my heart goes out to them, especially when a patient agrees to be filmed during a time of duress.

It can be an intense setting at times.  Hospitals run tight schedules and try their best to keep up with their caseloads.  We often wait for hours when they run behind, then we need to jump quickly to do final set up and shoot the procedure.

Most surgeons are pretty relaxed and are proud to show us how they work as we videotape, demonstrate to us the new technology they use, and describe the procedure as it progresses.  Once the procedure starts, time seems to fly by in the OR as everyone is completely focused on their respective tasks to help assure a successful outcome for the patient.  Our job is usually to capture on video the key moments of the surgery—finding the right camera angles that allow the viewer to see the procedure while not disrupting the work flow of the surgical team in the room.

It’s always a pleasure to follow a patient’s progress following surgery and see them doing well.  That may be above all else why I enjoy videotaping in the OR.

Sony introduced a new $1500 consumer 3D camera at the Consumer Electronics Show this week.  It sounds promising, but are consumers ready for home movies in 3D? For those that can’t hold a camera steady in 2D it just gets worse when you try to capture images in 3D.  The camera needs to be stable for it to work well:

Model Highlights: 3D in Double Full HD, 3D viewing directly on 3.5″ LCD—no need for 3D glasses, Full HD 2D playback from 3D recordings, 1920×1080 Full HD 60p/24p recording, 10x optical zoom in 3D

San Francisco supervisor Eric Mar may have gotten in over his head when he agreed to an interview with The Daily Show regarding the City’s ban of Happy Meals.  This is a good lesson on preparing for TV interviews.  It’s hard to look good when you’re going up against a comedian, but he was definitely not well prepared or media trained. Here’s the link to the segment:

The evolution of video gear has always fascinated me over the years. We’re finally seeing good quality cameras that are small and don’t require a second mortgage!  Canon introduced a game changer with the 5D, basically a still camera that also records HD movies.  The 5D captures some nice images, but has a few “gotchas” that include audio issues and video noise patterns when you shoot in certain environments.

This year, Panasonic is introducing the AF 100, which costs about $5,000 for the camera body, and is positioned to record similar-style images as the 5D, but with more professional broadcast features.  I’m excited to put the camera through the paces and see how it does on a rigorous shoot in different lighting environments. Panasonic and Sony are both in a tough position when they include too many of their best features on a low end camera, after many videographers spent as much as six figures for a fully configured high end professional rig.  So, there will be trade-offs and we’ll see if the gotchas are too extreme for broadcast and corporate shoots.

Happy new year to everyone and welcome to the Gordon Productions blog. The goal of this blog will be to provide information about my experiences as a video producer who travels around the country, meeting fascinating people who have stories to tell. Whether it’s a doctor, patient or corporate executive, it’s always rewarding for me to help people feel comfortable in front of the camera.  I would like to share some of my experiences and offer insights into the ever-evolving way that companies utilize video to tell their stories.

Since I’m also keenly interested in new technology that benefits my industry, I’ll be writing about new cameras, editing software, and other developments that make shooting and editing easier. With my background in journalism, I also keep abreast of developments in politics and how government decisions affect our lives, so I may drop in an occasional comment about the wild and wacky world of Washington and Sacramento.

I look forward to hearing your feedback and I wish you all a prosperous 2011!