Difference between Cinematographer and Videographer

So there are a many titles in the industry that are thrown around alot that in most cases mean the same thing. But with advances in today's technology and market those titles typically mean the same thing. For example, camcorders or video cameras were considered low quality consumer items that were used for your typical events and parties. While cinematographers worked with film and super 35 sensors. Now years later you see a lot of camera have integrated full frame or super 35 sensors giving most camera a filmic look and feel.

So what is the difference? Is it just the tools? While in most cases there really isn't any but for conversation sake let's take a look at the workflow of each title to see how they differ from one another.

First lets look at the workflow of a videographer. When I first started out behind the camera I was recording weddings and acting as a one man band. Which meant a lot of hats to wear with a very quick turn around time from preproduction to revealing the final project to the clients. As a videographer your acting alone most of the time, looking for clients to bid to and basically promoting your brand by word of mouth or paid click bait .

A cinematographer's client base is typically directors and producers and generally hired by a production company. A DP is an independent contractor who is hired by said employers to do a job, thus the work that he produces, the imagery, the final product, is not owned by him/her. Also another slight difference and I suppose it would depend on circumstances, the tools that a industry DP would use may differ. While there's pre-production tools like CineDesign and others, a videographer wouldn't necessarily need to use this tool for an event. A DP also has, sometimes, the luxury of using more expensive cameras vs using a DSLR.

That's pretty much the difference in nut shell between the titles. I'm sure there are more differences that at this time I can't think of. But if you can think of any leave a comment below.