Videographer

"Videographer" - wots one of them then?

I've always had problems with this term. Firstly that it's just plain ugly ugly ugly. It doesn't smell, but it sounds bad. To make it work you have to change the 'o' from 'owe' to, er, however you phonetically spell the short /o/ and then put the stress there, just to emphasise the difficulty. Another is status. It's not 'director', 'producer' or even 'editor' or 'script-writer'.

Next it's confusing. The Wikipedia entry was written by someone who confuses 'Videographer' with 'Cinematographer' or with 'DoP/DP', ie. the one who actually touches the camera and only touches the camera. Wrong.

It points to the key aspect of videography - it's misunderstood because people don't know where to place it. It's not part of the film industry (whether Hollywood, left-field, low-budget or whatever) and it's not part of the broadcast industry. And, typically, your videographer is not even part of a team.

In terms of sector - the videographer creates and delivers video product direct to the client. That could be community, event, wedding, corporate, in-house, or whatever.

In terms of mode of operation, typically the videographer works alone or in a small group, perhaps of cascading freelancers who have a similar 'videography' background. The key difference here is that the videographer deals with the whole process themselves. They are not a small cog in a big system (like with the film world or broadcast) typically they work on the whole process from getting the client in the first place, working out the brief, writing the script (if there is one), organising pre-production, filming (rarely as part of a 'film crew'), editing, working on drafts with clients, then purposing in whatever way is required.

When you are dealing with 'the big boys' (yes, usually men) they tend to denigrate this sector - with their 'you don't wanna do it like that' attitudes and more expensive toys. What they miss is the strength and interest of the videography sector. This is not a set of people who are specialist in one tiny aspect of production. This lot do the whole process, and often to a economical budget.

There's got to be some status or class in that. Surely. Which would you prefer - control of the whole process, or to be one small part in a juggernaut? I know what I've chosen. I'm even coming to terms with the term... until someone comes along with something better, that is.

For more of us, see the IOV - there's even a 'find a videographer' function.