The word video is Latin and means: I see. Until the turn of the millennium, it was commonplace to refer to high quality movies as “movies” and simpler movies as “videos.” What is a video? The distinction once originated in technology. It’s different today.
The English word film dates back to the early years of cinema, when film negatives made of nitrocellulose could be coated for the first time with a photosensitive photo-emulsion.
With the invention of video for the first time when film making was a technical alternative to recording moving images on negative material, the development of latent negatives in the laboratory became superfluous. But that was just the beginning:
Videos Stink. Movies Are Cool!
In the feature film, video quickly took its place due to comparatively lower film production costs. The video was therefore synonymous quickly synonymous for commissioned films.
Different, however, with the image film
There, the question of “what is a video?” established a dichotomy. High quality promotional video production Toronto films continued to be labeled as an image film and produced at the same level and with comparable resources as feature films and commercials, while simpler works with deeper technical and content aspirations were called image video. Other genres, such as testimonial or CEO videos, are still only video today.
In between, there are still conceptual head births such as video films. Making the process easier do not make them understand what a video is.
First the Technical Quality…
Until late in the late nineties the question was about: who can afford, who shoots with real film and produces no inferior video.
Video cameras delivered up to a factor of 40 (!) Smaller contrast range compared to recordings shot on coated film material until the mid-90s.
The Difference in Quality was Immediately Recognizable
Therefore, the video producers were awarded a deeper value than the film producer in the pecking order of the film industry. With the change from analog video to digital video, this perception changed.
Films Have a History. Videos Have a Future
On the one hand, the physical film definitely disappeared from the manufacturing process. Until less than 10 years ago, it was customary to turn films that had to meet the highest standards to film (see above, note on the contrast range) and then, after development, to digitize for further processing. For the projection in the cinemas (which, unlike today, was still done classically via a film projector), the videotape in the laboratory was then re-exposed to physical film.
What is a Video? What is a Movie?
On the other hand, ever more powerful chips in video cameras forced even established manufacturers of cameras like ARRI to completely switch to the new, better technologies. This, together with new players in the field of camera hardware, for example RED films, could now be produced completely digitally.
