Please Help a Student Photog

[<Student-Photog>]

I am looking for some help I am a High School student in Miami Florida and I am working on a research paper on TV news. My topic is "What is the Difference Between a Photojournalist and a Cameraman?".

Know I know many people say nothing, while many say it is apples and oranges. I would just like to hear it from the people who do it every day.

Let me know as much as possible... please.


Thank you in advance for all your help,

 

[<Russ>]

You're Funny. That whole "I'm a high school student." "Please help a student . . . " A real knee slapper I gotta tell ya.

Use better bait next time. In the mean time try the search thing-a-majig. You'll get some tasty threads on this very subject.

Later

 

[<miami boy>]

give the guy a chance...is'nt that what this website is all about?.....if he's full of **** it'll all come out.....

 

[<miami boy>]

having said that, I'll bite....what school and give me an email address so I can respond...I'm currently in the market, so I can help

 

[<Jeez>]

Originally posted by <Russ>:
You're Funny. That whole "I'm a high school student." "Please help a student . . . " A real knee slapper I gotta tell ya.

Use better bait next time. In the mean time try the search thing-a-majig. You'll get some tasty threads on this very subject.

Later

...said the drunk.

 

[Some Guy in LA]

If you are indeed a student, then you will be attending the FSPA convention in Deerfield Beach Oct. 2...true?

See ya there!

 

[<Shooter>]

There is no difference and there is a world of difference. It depends on location and context.

For some, Photojournalist is only print
Cameraman is TV.

or Photojournalist is news(TV or print)
Cameraman is production

or Photojournalist is creative
Cameraman takes direction.

or Photojounalist is a overblown title
to make low paid shooters
feel better.
Cameraman is a union job title.

and a hundred other different job discriptions.
Here, our checks say "Photographer", but our different business cards include...

Photographer
News Photographer
Videographer
News Videographer
Television Photojournalist
Photographer/Editor
Reporter/Photographer
Journalist
Television News Photographer

Photojournalist, Photographer, Cameraman or Videographer can all be the same job or different jobs.

 

[<Terry on a new computer>]

A cameraman can be someone who knows how to turn on and use a camera to capture video. A journalist specializes in telling stories with moving pictures (or stills).

As a journalist, we strive to give a true representation as to what the event looked like and exactly went on. A cameraman who is shooting a commercial or industrial video could change things around or set up shots to make images look the way he wants for his project.

I think the basic difference is that a journalist is responsible for reporting the truth because his work is for news. A cameramen is a photographer creating images for what ever project he is working on.

Hope that helps. If you have more questions you can email me at videovenger@ netzero.net

 

[<AZStringer>]

The cameraman is the big fat guy standing behind the yellow tape with a Hi8 in his hand. He really has nothing better to do with his time. He's babbling on about some "huge flames" he got earlier that night.

The Photojournalist is sitting in the live truck editing down the shots he already got before the yellow tape went up. After slamming the 3rd 99cent cheeseburger of the night and a quick smoke, the phojo will go back out and get sound. Then he will set up for the 5AM liveshot and the reporter will show up with a cup of coffee in her hand, flawless hair and makeup and sleepily ask the phojo what happened. She'll do her 20 second stand up and go back to her Audi to sip her latte while the phojo packs it all up and prepares to go visit the Insert Shameless Plug Here restaurant of the day for his live with the weatherman at 5:10. Once there he will shoot the weather live shot (gawd, that weather guy is a tool), slam some free breakfast, head back to the desk and change batteries and tapes to go drive around until 11:00 with the investigative reporter who will shock the community as he reveals that the parking meters are rigged to expire 2 minutes early. Then he'll go back to the station once again where the desk will ask him to edit the Hi8 guy's "huge flames" which, as it turns out, was a couch on fire and "try to make it look better than festering dog vomit". He will bang out a quick 30 second package out of it - no small trick as there is maybe only about 6 seconds of usable video in all 30 minutes of footage. By now he's been on the clock 13 and a half hours but he's instructed to only mark down 8 hours and add the other 5.5 to his 413 hours of unusable comp time. After that, he picks up his $237.50 weekly paycheck, pays $421.35 worth of bills and heads home where a bottle of tylenol and a cold six pack await. He sets the alarm clock for 6PM and drifts off to sleep... knowing that his pager will go off at 4:30 again, just like last night.

Oh and the couch fire video got bumped because the President fell off of his mountain bike that day.

Or something to that effect....
-AZ

 

[Lenslinger]

Terry answered the question with his usual aplomb but AZStringer gets my vote for most colorful photog rant! Wouldn't want to bump that guy's shot in a gang-bang...

 

[Baltimore Shooter]

Originally posted by AZStringer
The cameraman is the big fat guy standing behind the yellow tape with a Hi8 in his hand. He really has nothing better to do with his time. He's babbling on about some "huge flames" he got earlier that night.

I thought that was a videographer.

Warren

 

[cameragod]

Depends on what country you are in too. Just don’t call me a camera operator or I’ll get grumpy.

 

[<WHIZkid>]

Yep,,, Terry's right,,, I think his first paragraph sums it up nicely

 

[<JeffSpicoli>]

We're Cameramen/camerawomen!

I've been shooting & editing for 24 years. I frequently do my own interviews...and even write anchor-track pkg's. I can edit on 4 different NLE's.

But when someone on the street asks what I do for a living, I tell them "I'm a TV news cameraman." Joe Schmoe can't tell the difference/couldn't care less about the "photojournalist" or "videographer" label. All he or she knows is that I work for some local TV station and that I have a camera. I've won awards for shooting, editing...and even writing (a feature pkg that I shot & edited.) So I know what I'm talking about.

And...I don't have any delusions about who I am or what I do.

Photojournalist/videographer/video journalist sounds like a bunch of snobbery to me. It sounds like what guys tell the chicks at bars or parties to impress them...or, as in the original poster's case, what one of us would tell a class full of impressionable young kids. It's kinda like the interns at our station who go out on stories with us to hold the mic and ask a question or two at pressers: When asked what or who they are they always reply, "I'm a field producer." Naaah...you're just an intern!

Outside of our profession, NOBODY knows what a photojournalist/photog/videographer is. Tell them you're a photojournalist or news photog, and they'll ask you "What paper do you work for?" Tell them you're a videographer, and they ask you "Do you do weddings or Bar Mitzvahs?"

I tell people I'm a TV news cameraman. It is THE BEST, most descriptive description of what we do. Tell them this, and Joe/Suzy Public automatically know what it is we do for a living.

Save all that photojournalist/videographer/news photog garbage for the NPPA Seminars/Unity Convention and other professional get-togethers that we as TV NEWS CAMERAMEN/WOMEN attend...for these are the only places where the people will "buy" what we tell them.

 

[(Sin)ical]

So what does everyone put on their tax form under job title? The IRS should get a copy of these descriptions, because I'm one of these but for some reason I keep changing it.
To Student: ride with some of the stations in your market, and the paper will write itself. You might take a voice tape recorder to help you remember the wild memories of each day. Like the curse of hate that follows a 2-way Nextel statement from the desk like "can you swing by---location that is completely out of your way to anywhere---to spray a scene."

[ July 28, 2004, 07:58 AM: Message edited by: (Sin)ical ]

 

[<smashed crab face>]

Cameragod,
What do u like to be called?

 

[Terry E. Toller]

Lenslinger:
You made me rush to the dictionary! Showoff!! Thanks...

I think AZ was talking about Bill Conduit...

[ July 28, 2004, 06:07 PM: Message edited by: Terry E. Toller ]

 

[RichVid]

Bill Conduit! Now there's a name I haven't heard in a few years....Is Mr. Conduit still around? I loved reading his posts in the Newsgroups...boy people used to get riled up reading his stuff!

 

[cameragod]

No he's dead.

Well in New Zealand and the UK ENG and EFG crews are Cameramen. So I’m used to that. A camera operator over here is a studio only job. Not me at all.
Lately I’ve been called a DOP which in nice but at really I guess I’ll always be just a cameragod… I mean man.

[ July 29, 2004, 11:43 PM: Message edited by: cameragod ]

 

[Terry E. Toller]

He surely knew how to stirr it up! Sorry to say, I was told by the assignment desk at KTVU that bill died. I had a very bad connection and didn't call back so I don't know how it happened. My guess is a heart attack, he was a very big man... Or, he pissed off the wrong Oakland cop...