There are many types of videos

- Compared to other art forms, moving images are a very recent development. But the idea of a story is as old as language itself. Whether it was recounting the day's events around a campfire or crafting elaborate tales to explain our place in the world, storytelling has evolved along with us. As our societies and technology evolve, the earliest cave paintings blossomed into beautifully detailed representations of the world in stylized explorations of complex emotional themes. By the early 1800s, paintings had given way to the photograph, and by the late 1870s, the first moving images were being produced. The very earliest films were missing the most important element, though, story. Humans have been creating multi-scene stories in the form of books and plays for thousands of years, but the first films were simple static shots that showed a scene with no transitions or edits. In the late 1800s and early turn of the century, though, filmmakers discovered the process of editing, or combining shots together, and the language of film was born. This language of filmmaking has evolved to meet the needs of storytellers, and we now have a variety of genres. Narrative filmmaking seeks to tell a fictional story or a dramatized version of historical events. Dramas, action-adventure, comedies are crafted to entertain first and foremost. Audience engagement is based around the introduction of characters and events that transport the viewer to somewhere they couldn't, or sometimes shouldn't, go. Documentary filmmaking tells stories rooted in reality, exploring people, places, events, and ideas throughout history and present day. These stories draw in an audience by introducing real, emotional, or socially charged characters and events. Oftentimes, documentaries are designed to sway an audience to a specific point of view. Corporate video involves messages used for communication by companies and organizations. These can range from workplace safety and human resources videos to sales, promotional, and branding campaigns used to position products and build relationships with a customer base. Commercials are designed to sell products and services to a wide audience through broadcast television or a targeted audience through the internet. The language of video is continuously evolving as filmmakers explore new ways to communicate with an audience and new technologies provide them with tools that merge old world storytelling with modern computing power. Whichever genre you might find yourself working in, a solid understanding of the process of creating video will allow you to meet your creative goals.