Videography vs Cinematography

Cinematic Candle Lighting

A Cinematography vs Videography perspective by an Arizona Videographer. Cinematography is the authorship of an original work of art rather than the simple recording of a physical event.  In other words, cinematic videography is the art of turning ordinary video footage into a movie like experience.  A videographer can capture a moment but a cinematographer can capture a feeling.  The way the situation is filmed is the difference in what makes it a video or a cinematic experience.  Most often this is achieved in movie making (Hollywood).  In the case of special events where most things are not scripted and you only have one shot to get it right, making things look cinematic becomes a lot more challenging.  To pull this off it is much easier when there are lots of different camera angles and/or movements.  These camera angles should vary from close-ups to wide shots and low to high angled shots.  Add a little cinematic effects via editing and BAM!  You have a movie as opposed to a home video.  By applying these cinematic elements, you can turn an ordinary wedding video into a cinematic movie-like experience.

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-Eric Ludwig

3 thoughts on “Videography vs Cinematography

    1. Am I a cinematographer? I like to think that I am both cinematographer and videographer. Some of my clients are not interested in a cinema-like experience and only want their special event to be documented in a basic way. Those same clients are therefore not interested in paying much for their event to be preserved and so I go into videographer mode. The clients who better appreciate what I can do are willing to allow multiple cameras and mics at their event and are willing to pay more for a cinema-like experience. Their video would not only involve cinematic camera angles but also love-story chapters (for wedding couples) that tell their story from how they met all the way to the days following the wedding.

      Wedding trailer (coming soon) videos are another way to usher in the cinematic style videos. These trailer videos emulate the professional movie trailers you would see in the theater before your movie starts. With the clients permission I would post these trailer videos on facebook or the social network of their choice so they could share it with their friends and members of their family.

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