When I was starting out in film, I always heard the head of the camera department being referred to as either “DoP” (pronounced dee-oh-pea) or “DP” (pronounced dee-pea), both of which are short for director of photography. As I met more filmmakers, I learned that the same role is often called the cinematographer (pronounced… well, the way it’s written).
Today, I thought I’d take a look at these two job titles and try to make sense of where each is used.
