This was the title for a report published in AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER magazine in October, 1972. This report was later proven, in Los Angeles Superior Court, to be the first documented use of the word "videography".
Bob Kiger knows this because he wrote the report and "dreamed up" the word videography. Here's how the story began. You can see a PDF of the entire article if you click on it.
"This is not an article about television. It's not about film either. It's about a newly emerging production medium which draws from film aesthetic and television technology. It has no official name but it might be defined as 'film type productions using electronic image recording and electronic post-production techniques.' For our purposes we'll call it VIDEOGRAPHY."
Kiger was uncertain, from his very first design of the word videography, as to it's meaning and scope. Note that the original subtitle, "What Does It All Mean?" is an ambiguous question. Research from 1971-1972 for the original report had already shown the power of digital technology and solid state or bubble memory.
Kiger tried not to limit the definition of videography because he foresaw, with it's solid pedigree and the lightning pace of technology . . . videography was destined to become a very important word.
Videography was quickly adopted by television production people around the world, who began to call themselves "videographers" and their craft "videography". It was clearly a word for the times.
Even before the article was published, Bob Kiger copyrighted, trademarked and formed The Videography Company, a California Corporation. The company grew rapidly and Kiger was asked to lecture on videography at USC Film School, UCLA School of Communications, Brooks Institute of Photography, as well as film trade unions around Hollywood.
In 1974 the magazine, INDUSTRIAL PHOTOGRAPHY, began publishing a column in their magazine entitled Videography. Kiger immediately wrote their publisher, James S. Watkins, CEO of United Business Publications, demanding that they cease and desist from using "my word". They countered by publishing VIDEOGRAPHY magazine!
In 1976 The Videography Company Inc. filed a lawsuit, in Los Angeles Superior Court, requesting a restraining order to stop the publication and for damages resulting from their unauthorized usage of videography.
The Honorable Judge Andrew Hauk. presided over the trial. Judge Hauk requested that United Business Publications produce any printed use of the word "videography" prior to my original article. They could not!
What they did discover was a letter, written by Kiger, to the Hollywood Reporter stating that "videography was an important generic term". With that letter, Kiger had unwittingly compromised his word. United Business Publications was ordered to pay my court costs and give The Videography Company thousands of dollars worth of advertising in VIDEOGRAPHY magazine. They were allowed to continue publishing and The Videography retained all rights to the name videography for production.
The Videography Company thrived through the 1970s producing several thousand TV commercials and supervising production and special effects on a variety of TV shows, political documenataries. By 1978 Videography Studios, a complete production facility, opened in Culver City, CA. The Videography Company & Studios won several Clio and Monitor awards during those years. In spite of these successes the company did not have a business model that could survive the incredible growth in competition from up and coming "videographers".
In August, 1982 Bob Kiger gave the keys to the studio to his staff and backers and went to Maui to rent bicycles. He continued to produce and write about videography during his 13 years on Maui. It was on that lovely island that he had an epiphany about the meaning of videography.
While Kiger was on Maui, Videography Magazine became a star property for United Business Publications, which began parlaying its assets and building a larger media empire. In 1998, while they were owned by Miller-Freeman, they published a book entitled "The Age of Videography".
Up until recently Videography Magazine is just one of a number of videography publications owned by CMP United Business Media
It was now evident to Kiger that Videography Magazine had carefully planned a strategy to violate the terms of their 1976 legal settlement and that their strategy was to use their publishing might to revise the record to "include me out" of videography history.
Now 6 years into the new millenium, and we are all enveloped in "The Age of Videography". At the 2006 NAB conference Kiger made it clear to a number of executives of CMP United Business Media, who owned Videography Magazine (and other videography publications), that he was going to make sure that their deceiptful conduct would be exposed.
Suddenly they did the corporate shuffle and packaged up all their videography assets, selling them on September 9, 2006 to a group of NY investment bankers.
So what's this got to do with the meaning of the word videography? Using the power of their media CMP has segmented videography into a slew of profitable cottage industries. Some examples are wedding videography, event videography, government videography, and so forth. The videography publications have always had a myopic view of videography because that helps them garner advertising for the niche audiences. Over the years they have done nothing to help the world understand the powerful implications of a free and generic videography as a model for how to live, learn and work in "The Age of Videography".