A naval journalist and Emmy-winning cameraman, Jason Zuidema now teaches Broadcast Journalism and Video Production in the F building. He is excited to share his professional experience with SJHHS students. 

His passion for filming began at a young age. 

“I feel like I’ve always had a video camera in my hand. My dad bought me an old VHS camcorder at the swap meet…Going around my house, trying to get video of my family, no one wanted to be on camera. So it made it difficult to film things, I didn’t have anything to film because no one wanted to be on camera,” said Zuidema.

Zuidema’s creativity with the lens has taken him many places. While his professional career consisted of an Emmy winning career and appearances on set in Hollywood, Zuidema’s professional journey did not start off in a studio, but overseas in uniform.

“My sister was in the Navy. And she told me I can have a career holding a camera…Because I can be a journalist in the Navy. Never really thought of the Navy. Never really wanted to go into the Navy. No desire, but I did want to hold a camera,” said Zuidema.

The next stage of Zuidema’s journey was different. Instead of a naval base, his new audience was an entire city.  

“From the Navy it was an easy transition to Fox 5 [San Diego] because it’s the same work. Except I didn’t have to be on camera and I didn’t have to write the stories…I got to do it professionally with a professional reporter and go out in the live truck and cover breaking news,” said Zuidema.

Zuidema’s work as a cameraman took him to different heights. One of those heights involved bringing home the gold.

“I won the Emmys for two different stories. One was we went to the Mexico border just to see what was going on. Wait for someone to try to smuggle drugs across the border…Half hour we got there, they found a truck with marijuna in it. They arrested the guy, I got the footage. Then there was…[someone] smuggling cocaine through the gas tank…So just kinda right place, right time…the story came together pretty nice,” said Zuidema.

Eventually, Zuidema departed from the news studio, and a new chapter appeared. It didn’t exactly involve holding a camera, but it did allow him to instruct new photographers on his learnings from his Emmy-winning career. 

“I thought it was a great opportunity to come full circle because I was in Video Production in high school. I was like, hey, I can do better than the teacher that I had. It made me want to do better than him because I just remember the first day he was there, it went from us hands on with all the equipment to now we’re sitting down at desks and reading the manuals…I don’t learn like that…I’ve always wanted to do better than the teacher that I had and just to be able to take my eight years of experience in the news, then hand it down to people who want to do that same thing…it can be really cool,” said Zuidema.

Zuidema has implemented a new form of learning into the classroom,providing abundant tools for individuals to master the art of film.

One student in particular plans to take  Zuidema’s lessons from the F building to university halls.

“My dream is to become a filmmaker someday and work in the industry as a cinematographer and right now I’m working on my application film for Chapman [University]…I want to someday make it big or at least make some sort of impact i’ve already worked on two commercial sets and intermed at a production office…I hope to make a career out of this,” said senior Thomas Porchas. 

Zuidema’s Broadcast Journalism class is in the works of mastering skills of shooting, producing, editing, and anchoring to release The Mane Event newscast at the start of second semester. During periods four and six, Video Production students can be found taping film sequences around campus.