The difference between Cinematography and Videography

Hello Everyone, 

I simply want to talk on the difference between Cinematography and Videography .

What is Cinematography?
A cinematographer is the individual in charge of the camera and lighting crews on a movie or other production. It is the responsibility of the cinematographer to realize the vision of the director by making technical and artistic decisions in regards to lens choice, exposure, lighting, composition, filters, camera movement, color-grading and more. To put it simply, the cinematographer is the person accountable for a film’s cinematography, the art and science of motion picture photography. Every decision the cinematographer makes must also service the director and the story. On a large production, it is unlikely that the cinematographer operate the camera. That’s usually the job of the camera operator, who works under the cinematographer.

The Line
The term “videographer” came into common vernacular as a way to describe an individual who works in videography or video production, as opposed to film production. This means that a cinematographer works with film stock and a videographer works with video. However, the line that distinguishes videography from cinematography has blurred with the advent of digital cinema. Since many (possibly most) major motion picture cinematographers have made the transition to digital cameras, does that make them videographers? Not exactly.

What is Videography?
Drawing a line between film production and video production isn’t the best way to distinguish between cinematographers and a videographers. What typically distinguishes videographers from cinematographers is that videographers operate with much smaller crew sizes, often working solo. Unlike a cinematographer, a videographer operates the camera. Commonly, the term videographer is akin with cameraman or camera operator. Videographers are often associated with event videography, live TV, small commercials, corporate videos and weddings. Since videographers often work solo, they commonly handle other elements of production, including editing, sound, lighting and more.

As stated above, a cinematographer works with a large crew, and is responsible for artistic and technical decisions regarding the photography of a motion picture in accordance with a director’s vision. A videographer, by contrast, works with a much smaller level of production, is usually the camera operator and probably works solo; overseeing a project from start to finish.

In conclusion, lets take note of the vocabulary and what our profession is properly, so you wont mix things up when you are on an international platform.

Regards

Akinpelu Maxwell