The question we were asked recently was…
What is the difference in a Videographer and a Filmmaker?

There is a significant difference in what a videographer does and what a filmmaker does.  AND, an even larger difference in who SHOULD be calling themselves a Filmmaker verses a videographer. 

There are many videographers today calling them filmmakers who should not.

VIDEOGRAPHER

A videographer is anyone who can record video to a camera or digital device. This may be a secured digital memory card,  hard disk, streaming media platform, and so on.  Not much talent is required to be a videographer.

FILMMAKER

The term “filmmaker” typically refers to the director or producer of videos that tell a story.  Technically, a filmmaker captures content to film instead of to a digital recorder.  This means they know more about shooting videos and more than just the camera settings and how a camera works.  Filmmakers create stories from the video they produce.

StoryMaker or StoryTeller

Videographers shoot videos but not necessarily for telling a story.

Filmmakers telling a story so maybe it would be better to say they are Storyographers!?

But let’s get back to why people are asking what the differences are for videographers and filmmakers.  

Mistake In Identifying 

There are many people..mostly photographers…who accidentally found the Record Button on their camera and now feel because of that discovery they are a videographer which actually would be true.  

However, many of today’s videographers are not filmmakers…or storyograhers.  There is a lot of experience and technical know-how a videographer has to have to be called a filmmaker.  Most videographers just are not Filmmakers. First, because they have never recorded a video to film or run a cinematography camera that records to film…and secondly, do not know how to put a video together to tell a story.

So Why Do Videographers Want to Be Known as Filmmakers?

Photographers who calling themselves Filmmakers do so for marketing purposes.  Consumers, who are not familiar with the video production industry, are given a perception that someone calling themselves a Filmmaker is more knowledgable of video production than a videographer.  So, consumers, wanting professionally produced videos, gravitate to someone calling themselves a Filmmaker.

Unfortunately, it is the photographers turned videographers calling themselves Filmmakers who cause the Video Production industry huge concerns, especially when it comes to them producing a poor quality video then attempting to tell a story from the footage. 

There is a huge difference it telling a story using photos and telling a story using video.

What happens?

The photographers turned videographers and calling themselves Filmmakers will more than likely produce a poor quality product.  Their clients will naturally get upset not only at the videographer calling themselves a filmmaker, but get upset at the entire video production industry thinking that all people who charge to produce a video will produce them like a videographer.

This is WHY, consumers now are asking someone in video marketing…or in our case, video-centric digital marketing… if they are a videographer or a filmmaker.  Someone who can take quality video and put it together to tell a story is who consumers prefer more than a videographer.  

So someone calling themselves a “Filmmaker” and who actually has not produced anything to “Film”,  would probably be better off calling themselves a Videographer and just live with it.

So we at SyncLab Media can safely say we are Filmmakers but more importantly, we are experts in telling your story.

Let me know how I can help.