The University of Maryland has deployed Sony FX30 cameras as part of a wider effort to reinvent video journalism and help their students tell more immersive stories, drawing on traditional broadcast journalism, documentary filmmaking and the new techniques and styles of creator journalism.
One example of the how this works comes from Josh Davidsburg, a documentary filmmaker and principal lecturer at the school’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
He says that his early career aspirations leaned more toward the evening news or Hollywood, not PBS. Now, with the help of Sony’s FX30 cinema cameras, he’s firmly rooted in all three communities and he’s helping his journalism students at the University of Maryland (UMD) learn new ways to tell a story.
“Growing up, I was deciding between being a TV journalist like my dad or a movie director because I had a passion for film and cinema,” said Davidsburg. He chose the former, which led to a journalism degree and eventually a teaching position at UMD.
He finds the Sony FX30 is the right camera for the evolving field of “creator” journalism, a unique blend of feature- and documentary-style filmmaking suited for social media and digital platforms from YouTube to streaming services. The camera’s mix of price, functionality and performance made it an ideal fit for UMD’s journalism program.
Davidsburg describes modern-era documentaries as a convergence of journalism and cinema, likening them to the pioneering work of 1970s “new journalism” writers like Hunter S. Thompson or Tom Wolfe, who injected literary techniques into their reporting. Newer camera technologies have also dramatically democratized filmmaking. Field cameras once cost $40,000 to $60,000 and required operation by dedicated photographers, not reporters: “I would go on assignment with a photographer and, as the reporter, I couldn’t touch their camera!”
Now cameras with high-end capabilities cost a fraction of these early prices with corresponding drops in size and learning curves, putting them easily in reach of students and reporters at any level.
UMD is expanding its curriculum with a documentary master’s program, a cinematography class, and an upcoming editing class. It’s all part of UMD’s plan to teach students how to combine the traditional “wide, medium, tight” approach to TV news shooting with cinematic techniques that immerse viewers in a story.
“We blend extensive practical lab work with classroom theory,” Davidsburg said. “Students enjoy the mix because it gets them out of their seats and into the world, actively using cameras rather than just sitting and listening to lectures.”camera screen with content
Currently, UMD has six FX30 cameras and about 40 Sony ENG-style cameras – a mix of the HXR-NX800, HXR-NX5U, and HXR-NX3 models. Journalism students start with the ENG cameras in their first video production course and then “graduate” to the FX30s in cinematography and documentary producing courses.
The balance of field and lab work varies by the course. For example, cinematography classes are roughly half lecture and half shooting exercises. “One day we’re lecturing and the next we’ll send them out on a cinematography scavenger hunt where they have to get shots with shallow or wide depths of field or do a rack focus,” he said.
Right Fit for a Lab
Davidsburg’s personal filmmaking projects were also responsible for bringing the FX30 to the UMD students. He shot his latest documentary, “A Banner Year” – about local, nonprofit newspaper The Baltimore Banner – with Sony’s FX3 cinema camera, which he described as a perfect run‑and‑gun camera with the ergonomics and video‑focused controls to match his shooting requirements.
“When you’re following newspaper reporters who are often dealing with sensitive topics and confidential sources, you don’t want something big and imposing,” Davidsburg said. “I was often filming at night and with the FX3’s low light capabilities, the camera can almost see in the dark.”
Production for “A Banner Year” is complete and plans include submitting the film to festivals. His experience with the FX3 led him to choose the FX30 for his coursework. The FX30 offers many of the FX3’s capabilities but at a lower price and with enough features to give students an entry into the cinematic world.
“The FX30’s ergonomics are great,” he said. “Students aren’t complaining about lugging giant cameras everywhere. The leap in quality from the cameras we were using to the FX30s is incredible. They can go out and come back with a beautiful image that inspires them and gets them excited about this type of work.”
Students find the FX30’s autofocus valuable when dealing with the shallow depth of field of cinema shooting. The camera’s color science with the S-Cinetone picture profile combined with its dynamic range “elevates everybody’s shooting,” Davidsburg said. The UMD program is also pairing the FX30s with Sony wireless audio, and the camera-to-editing workflow is straightforward and compatible with UMD’s editing software.
Most importantly, UMD students are getting a head start on their future careers, gaining valuable hands-on experience that they will eventually apply on a set or in a newsroom.
He added, “If you’re doing documentaries right, you’re taking cinematic techniques and journalistic techniques and combining them to do journalistic storytelling. With these cameras, we’re on that track.”
