Director of Photography + Cameraman = Cinematographer?

D

DDirector

Veteran
What is a Cinematographer really?

What I heard from people and online sources is that a cinematographer is basically a director of photography who is also a cinematographer.

Is that right?
Or is it just another word for a cameraman?
 
Oh, makes sense now. Thanks!
So, I have been using the wrong terms then :S lol

Is there a preference to using the term DP vs Cinematographer although they are the same?Like on bigger movies, which would they use then?
 
You might sometimes hear the term Cameraperson to describe a DP who is also camera operator but hands the direction of lighting down to another person. This is a deprecated term because it sometimes applied to film or tape-based media but doesn't really apply today.

But to reiterate, Cinematographer and Director of Photography are identical positions. Cinematographer was the original term developed after the Lumiere brothers invented the motion picture film camera. If you shot film stills, you were a Photographer; if you shot film in motion, you were a Cinematographer. Most Cinematographers were Photographers before, so they transitioned well into the technical and aesthetic elements of motion film. When the movie industry took off, the term Director of Photography was coined. Today, Cinematographer is used as a more romanticized term - like at the Oscars - whereas DP, DoP, and Director of Photography are more common on set or in the office.
 
Yay! Another history lesson! lmao.
Just finished one in college a week ago and now using it in real life. Huh, well what do you know!?!? :P
 
In modern conversation a cameraman would be the operator, however, in the old days, a DP could be called a cameraman. It's a vintage use today if calling a DP a 'cameraman'.

IE... Billy Bitzer was a cameraman.
 
Ryan Patrick O'Hara said:
It's a vintage use today if calling a DP a 'cameraman'.
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This. For me, cinematographer and DP have always been interchangeable and for the most part, that's how it is nowadays. Some oldschool DPs, like Blain Brown, will still insist that a cinematographer and a DP are different though. I forgot what justification he gave me.
 
hmmm...wait a minute. 'cinematography' is actually kind of a bastardized word made up after the advent of cinema. if the act of putting images onto moving film is cinematography, wouldlnt the person resopnsible for directing that activity be called the Director of Cinematography? kind of ridiculous, i know, but just sayin'.
 
zaarc said:
hmmm...wait a minute. 'cinematography' is actually kind of a bastardized word made up after the advent of cinema. if the act of putting images onto moving film is cinematography, wouldlnt the person resopnsible for directing that activity be called the Director of Cinematography? kind of ridiculous, i know, but just sayin'.
Click to expand...

The act of exposing a single frame of light sensitive film is called photography not cinematography. Since a DP's primary job is to tell the story through lighting, the term is director of photography - although cinematographer is interchangeable.
 
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