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5 minute read
B-LOG
OJANS
EVER WONDERED WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO?
Videography vs Cinematography
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Cinematography vs VideographyBojan Cosic
00:00 / 04:56
Well, firstly one sounds cooler than the other. You like making films, but have a video camera in hand. You've got your family films from the seventies on a projector, but would not call your dad a cinematographer, right?
You might be tempted to apply one label to your skillset, but these terms are just blurred. Both of these practices have valid uses and many filmmakers acquire both. For capturing motion with the use of light, many of the tools are similar.
But, what defines which?
If you happen to shoot on film, then the Cinematographer badge might be the one to stick. Not for the obvious reasons, though. Obviously, in this day and age, we mostly shoot video and that has nothing to do with naming conventions, anymore. While cinema has been birthed in the medium of film, today it's to the most part shot on video, yet it might not be right to call it Videography either.
Confused even more? Don't worry. I've gotcha.
The difference between cinematography and videography is in the method, techniques and approach to motion picture capture. The cinematographer influences the subjects and circumstances, while the videographer documents events as they are presented to them. A team is involved with the final image in Cinematography, while in videography it is most commonly created by a single individual.
Let's say an idea strikes. You write it down to a script and make a plan. Get your friends together to coordinate its execution. You find a location, gather objects, and actors, position the camera, bring in the lights, aaaand Boom! You are engaged in cinematography.
As you put your thought into angles, you were also at liberty to move the subjects as you find them appropriate, light them more or less, all in a bid to fulfill a pre-determined vision, idea that sat with you throughout the night. By creating images through orchestrated circumstances, they are earning the label of Cinematic. Cinematography is largely controlled, balanced, and composed in such a way that every subtle decision (light, contrast, color, movement, ratio, composition, focal length, focus, etc) has been made to benefit the sequence of moving images that it is nestled with, directed to serve the purpose of the scene as it plays it's role in the whole story.
With cinematography, everything in the frame is deliberate. The freedom to influence the circumstance allows cinematography to achieve a highly artistic effect that is congruent to the idea that the film is aiming to communicate.
Now, let's say you've received a call from a couple of friends that want to get married. Of course, I can shoot your wedding, you say. It's time for you to put your videographer hat on. In this situation you will be running in front of the bride and groom, trying not to trip with all your gear on. You will have to compromise with all the conditions that come your way. Or, that is to say, use them to your advantage. Capture when there is an opening, rather than when conditions are ideal. While changing locations a lot, you seek to use every location to its fullest.
With Videography, we are capturing unrehearsed and unrepeatable events on our own, on the go, in any and all circumstances, that are more in line with documenting than fiction.
This requires quick thinking, visualizing, and swift execution. A wedding certainly can entail both Videography and Cinematography as some shots get rehearsed, performed with multiple takes, and positioned for ideal lighting.
Something that is purely videography, would be Electronic News Gathering, where arrival on the scene is ideally uncompromised with the presence of the camera, and nothing, to very little is altered for appearance. As a videographer, you would focus on the key moments without which the story would not communicate. Making use of every location, every angle you happen to be stationed at for the moment, and maximizing gathered materials, in the interest of time, the goal is making sure gathered footage has variety for a good edit. Simultaneously, a videographer constructs the narrative, visualized in their mind, as the event unfolds before them, which is something a cinematographer would already have in a script.
Purely Cinematography would be, well... cinema. The movies coming out in theaters are pre-planed to every detail in order to produce the desired result. Angle, framing, lighting, makeup, costume, etc., are carefully considered. Cinematographer works with all the departments and manages their own team. In many productions, the Director of Photography does not even touch the camera, as they are managing camera operators, grips, gaffers, and have authority to alter things like the set, makeup, wardrobe. All in the interest of making the preconceived image, making it technically correct, and palatable for the end of the line in post-production. In instances of a green screen, CGI, VFX, and alike, the Cinematographer must deliver footage that will accommodate, technically and artistically, the required parameters in order to make it compatible with the rest of production down the line.
It is fair to recognize that the gear for cinematography and videography differs. Starting with the cinema camera, which will have the ability to produce high bitrate and large frame sizes. These are simply parameters of the quantity of information that the camera captures within every frame. This amplifies the file size and is something quite relevant for post-processing and successfully finishing the project. In particular VFX and color grading. Being that we live in an age where cameras are quite affordable and advanced, this holds true to many consumer cameras today also used in videography, making the next piece of gear more distinguished.
Lenses. A very analog device that is subject to the laws of physics. Manufacturers of glass are at a constant battle in providing, clarity, sensitivity, precision, compatibility while fighting aberration, light pollution, and instability within lenses. These challenges in manufacturing are more easily met with prime lenses, where the focal length is set to a single distance, than with zoom lenses where focal distance is easily alterable on the spot.
Everyone is in search of the best images and so primes are the best choice, but for videographers, most often this is not enough as their circumstances do not allow for the time to change lenses. It is why almost exclusively primes are used in cinematography and zoom lenses in videography, although it is more of a common practice than a rule.
Cinematographers also devote effort to controlling the light to a great extent, with artificial lighting and screens, while measuring with different tools like light meters, histograms, calibrated monitors, and alike instruments that throw this art into a scientific sphere along the way.
But, another time on that.
In conclusion.
Perspective, approach, and circumstances are what differentiate between videography and cinematography. While they both certainly intersect with the requirement of camera skills, the end product of each differentiates significantly. As we are involved in artistic creation, nuance will be present, therefore surely there are many shoots out there that have elements of both. It matters not how you make your images, as long as they inspire yourself and others along the way.
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