Videography and Cinematography: Are They Any Different?

Scientists and researchers all over the world have been in constant debate whether all living beings are capable of retaining and accessing their memories of the past events that happened in their lifetime. Keeping this debate aside, we the human beings can confirm the above actions of having and sharing our memories. 

While having and experiencing the memories is entirely dependent on the brain, sharing them can be done via both the brain (reviving and telling stories) and machines.

Memory Savers

If we retrace our path, back to some decades ago, the major form of retrieving memories and sharing them were photo albums and video clips. The modern concept of sharing itsy-bitsy details on social media via photographs or video clips was an alien back then. 

Moreover, the evolution of digital cameras or video cameras was at a nascent stage back then, hence the ready availability of photo editing apps or online video editors was next to none during those eras.

As we gained momentum in the technological and digital advancements so did the equipment for photos and videos as well. Today, a legible photo or video clip is within the palms of practically everyone from eight to eighty in the form of smartphones. While photos have been easily accessible and editable for some time now, the rise of videography and its subsequent editing have been reaching new heights in the modern-day.

Videography and Cinematography

These two terms have often been interchanged without giving a thought about the things that these two do. Despite having similar objectives of capturing motion pictures thereby making them memorable these two differ widely from one another. The one major similarity is that both of these need a commercial video recorder.

Some of the major differences include:

• Nature: Cinematography deals primarily with film and movie stock where the camera captures the moments that are scripted in a creative way to make the content visually more appealing. Videography on the other hand is like keeping a document of any event like a wedding, business meeting, press conferences, etc., and does not need to be visually appealing.
• Team: The other major difference between these two is the number of people involved. Cinematography is always handled by a specific team consisting of more than one individual, whereas videography is usually a one-man show.
• Scope: Cinematography’s scope is not specifically defined but the field is bounded and vice versa for videography. For example, making any content interesting that is relevant to the plot or storyline of the cinema in whatever ways possible constitutes the foundation of cinematography. Videography can be done on any aspect deemed fit to the videographer which necessarily need not follow a defined story.
• Style and creativity: Continuing to the above point on scope creativity is a must for any cinematographer but a videographer does not need any special creativity skills for documenting an event. A cinematographer always has to put a closure to their work of completing the story whereas a videographer can complete their task only by capturing the important moments of the events they are capturing.