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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Instead of "filming", what word to use ?

Filming. Always filming.

Checking the gate.

Roll numbers - not card numbers.

Mags - not cards, drives or chips.

Footage - not byteage, bits, or Gigs.

Why throw away 100 years of history and tradition just because the technologies change? (And you're going to sound like a dork calling yourself a byteographer, photosite acquisition facilitator, or sensor exposer.)
 
Taping makes less sense.
Shooting means a firearm is involved.
Capturing is for wildlife.

I say filming... because that's the correct word and anachronisms fill our vocabulary anyway. I "call" people on the phone. I leave a voicemail even though there is no postage. My car has a dashboard even though it stops no mud from my horses. My car isn't pulled by a steam engine. Fuck it even "Camera" means a vaulted building. Welcome to the evolution of language. Deal with it. :P
 
Brent J. Craig said:
Filming. Always filming.

Checking the gate.

Roll numbers - not card numbers.

Mags - not cards, drives or chips.

Footage - not byteage, bits, or Gigs.

Why throw away 100 years of history and tradition just because the technologies change? (And you're going to sound like a dork calling yourself a byteographer, photosite acquisition facilitator, or sensor exposer.)
Click to expand...

+ 1
 
The trades were into saying so and so was 'lensing' for a while there to describe what the person making camera decisions (DOP) was doing.
 
I just say filming. Maybe a new term will come into use over time, but I haven't seen anyone come up with anything yet that doesn't sound awkward and/or silly.
 
To me, capturing and processing images is Photography. (That BTW is why the Cinematographer needs to be involved in post processing, but that is another discussion.) It doesn't matter if I create one image, 24 or 60 a second. It doesn't matter if I use silver or silicon.

Making images for the cinema with it's moving camera is significantly different from still photography so I'm open to the term Cinematographer. I understand Director of Photography, but I don't like directing another photographer and reducing him to the title of Operator. I call bullshit on Camera Operator. He is a Photographer too, damn it! The moment that someone composes the shot they become the Photographer IMO. If you are not directing others to do the photography for you then you are not a D.O.P.. I believe the Cinematographer should be hands on with the camera and not have an operator. I prefer to be hands on. I prefer to be the Cinematographer. (Further, I think video cameras are generally inadequate for cinema, so a video cameraman can not be a Cinematographer. Red cameras are not video cameras. That again is another discussion.)

Videographer is bullshit. Taping is bullshit. I tape shit that needs to be fixed. I used to fix images to films and photographic paper and never called it "taping" so why start with videotape? Tape is a film. The term "filming" transcended the use of silver hallide film when it was used with videotape. In doing so it took a more general meaning, but it has always meant imaging. Imaging is the common denominator.

Filming, shooting, imaging as appropriate are all fine with me.
 
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I might say, "I'm making a movie", but that phrase includes all the POST and Production chores as well. At the specific time when I am actually "shooting" or "capturing" a scene via digital video, maybe "shooting a scene" is accurate but a former film club I belonged to referred to the Cinematographers as "Shooters", which I felt was condescending. They would ask, "Who wants to be "shooter" on this? I always felt like saying, "Fuck off".
 
I have a question for the TV folks.

Do all television crews all consist of a DP and an Operator in the U.S. Or do some light and operate? I understand that in the U.K. They differentiate between a Cameraman and a Lighting Cameraman. Do those seem like more accurate terms for the industry than Cinematographer, Camera Operator and Director of Photography?
 
Brent J. Craig said:
Filming. Always filming.

Checking the gate.

Roll numbers - not card numbers.

Mags - not cards, drives or chips.

Footage - not byteage, bits, or Gigs.

Why throw away 100 years of history and tradition just because the technologies change? (And you're going to sound like a dork calling yourself a byteographer, photosite acquisition facilitator, or sensor exposer.)
Click to expand...


About a year ago I was on a RED shoot, every time the camera team will stop and reset for whatever reason, the AD would say on the radio that they were "checking the gate". Made me smile every time I heard her say that. :)
 
Craig Parkes said:
The trades were into saying so and so was 'lensing' for a while there to describe what the person making camera decisions (DOP) was doing.
Click to expand...

I hate that one more than anything else. Anyone who uses lens as a verb is nothing more than a huge tool in my mind after saying that. Seems to always be super pretentious hack directors who say "lensing".
 
I have a similar question: what about "shooting a movie" and "shooting a picture" ? I've noticed the word "picture" as referred to "motion picture" used to be more common but it seems people don't use it very often anymore. I've seen countless interviews with John Ford, Hitchcock, Peter Bogdanovich, etc where they always used the term "picture" instead of movie.

"I'm making a picture" or ... "picture maker" as John Ford once said to Spielberg.
 
The word "Filming" is good because there are many types of film, as in, magnetic film.
Heck, even soap bubbles can leave behind a film.

Also, since anything shot digitally can eventually have a FILM OUT.....you can keep on saying you are filming.

;)
 
Ben Coleman said:
Whenever I think of saying that I am shooting I think of this:

"Are we shooting"
"What?"
"Are we shooting people or what?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baFi5NVslIE

Now I say I'm filming and that I am the Cinematographer. I can't stand the negative connotations that "Videographer" puts out.
Click to expand...

"Shooting a feature", "Shooting a Festival Short", "Shooting a commercial", Shooting a TV/web series". A few qualifiers will avoid the bad (for some) connotation of firing a gun or cross-bow or vicariously killing via a video game.

I agree with the negative connotation for videographer, that's why I choose Omniographer when shooting with an Epic because the camera encompasses all types of digital camera work.
 
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