If you travel a lot, be sure to try to start your travel blog. You will have enough interesting video content. The main thing is to learn how to make a travel video. Here are some tips for beginner bloggers.
1) What Kind Of Travel Videos Do I Make?
Travel videos come in many forms, from the usual walk and talk vlogging style to a more street run-gun-shoot style and it is important for you to know which kind of travel videos you want to make before you begin shooting. Personally, I prefer a more cinematic, fast-cut, inspirational video with little to no narration.
2) Choose Your Best Camera.
Choosing equipment for shooting is another difficult task. If you ask the opinion of experts, which is the best camera for video, you will get many options.
- A camera of your smartphone. If you plan to blog on social networks, do not want to carry extra equipment, and strive to be in touch with followers constantly, it is a good idea. Although, you have to give up some image quality and impressive angles.
- Action camera. This is a simple video recording equipment that is adapted to complex hikes. You get good video quality, easy uploading of content to cloud storage, resistance to external weather conditions, and mechanical damage. It’s easy to keep a travel blog on the go with cameras like GoPro.
- Drone camera. Travel vlogs can gain insane popularity due to unexpected perspectives. If you want to show the audience your route from a bird’s eye view, then use a drone. This camera can climb to heights that you can not afford. But ask in advance if you need a special permit to use drones in places of your travels.
- DSLR camera. Fans of quality photo and video content for travel blogs choose this option. When preparing such a camera for travel, take care of reliable mounting, accessories, and protection from the surprises of the weather.
- Professional camcorders. Equipment with full functionality to create a quality video will turn your travel blog into popular media. But be prepared to carry heavy equipment and learn the extra profession of the video maker.
What’s in your travel video bag? Camera, GoPro, drone, gimbal, filters, tripod, stabilizer… do you really need that much stuff, especially at the beginning of your adventure into making travel videos? don’t weigh yourself down with lots of useless gear, especially at the beginning. Your phone can do the job – you’ll always have time to upgrade your gear later on!
3) Pick Your Destination
It’s great to go on unplanned trips, but if you’re planning on making a travel video to commemorate your journey, knowing where you’re going ahead of time is a big help! Before you depart, prepare a rough schedule of where you’ll be going and when you’ll be there so that you can plan accordingly.
4) Watch Lot of Travel Videos
I’ve met so many bloggers who said ‘they don’t really read blogs’, and I think that’s really silly – how else are you going to keep yourself up to date to what’s going on in the industry?
Watching travel videos is a really good way to get inspired about new filming and editing styles. ‘Inspired’ should be the operative word here – remember, try not to copy, but to reinterpret what you see according to your own style.
5) Plan Your Videos in Advance
beginner’s mistake when making travel videos is not planning, just filming random stuff – then wishing that inspiration will come to you when editing, and you’ll *magically* find a super cool way to put all that footage together.
Guess what – most of the time, it won’t. You’ll find yourself screaming at your laptop, hoping to find a way out of that pile of footage. The solution? Try to plan your travel video beforehand, thinking about how to open it, how to close it, what kind of shots you need, and where and when you’ll need to be at sunrise, sunset, and so on.
6) Add Narrative to a Travel Film
Include narration in your story if you want to make it more engaging. Narration can be added in two ways: during your journey and after you return home from it. If you’d like your narration to appear in your video, be sure to talk or shoot yourself in the face when you’re recording or shooting. After the trip has concluded, adding a narrative is also an excellent chance to reflect on your vacation experiences. All that is required is the creation of a screenplay and the recording of it.
7) Make It More About The Country, Less About Yourself
Nowadays, too often time, travel videos tend to focus a lot on the filmmakers and how great their lives seems to be which is not what travel videos are about. Travel videos are supposed to tell a story about a location, showcase the sceneries, the locals, and the food etc. not a platform to show off your life.
Shoot fewer videos of all the parties you had in a country and more of the local people, the architecture, the history, and weave them all together to tell a unique and engaging story that will inspire people to follow your footsteps and do the same.
8) Create Motion
One difference between travel photography and videography is that most of the beautiful architecture you find when you are traveling can be beautifully captured with a photo, but when it comes to videos, due to the lack of motion, you will not be able to capture the excitement and the energy of the place like photography does.
You will need to create your own motion and there are several ways you can do that. You can try creating your own motion with a simple camera movement like panning, use time-lapse to bring life into an otherwise static building or landscape, or shoot something that is already moving like kids playing, pigeons flying or people dancing.
9) Get Close-Up Shots Of Locals
Nothing can invoke more human emotion than having a person staring intensely at your camera. We, humans, interact with each other every day. We love, we laugh, we cry because of each other and we can utilize that in our travel videos to bring out a strong emotion from your audience. When you are traveling, if you have a chance to get to know a local, ask to take a video of them for your film and keep the camera rolling even when you say you’ve got the shot. I found that the reaction of relief after the shoot is the most authentic.
10) Editing a video of your trip
When the tour is complete, it’s time to settle down and go over the film you’ve captured. Concentrate on the scenes that stand out and eliminate anything that didn’t turn out as good as you had anticipated. Unless you captured something spectacular, the world doesn’t need to watch your hazy or shaky footage, so don’t bother sharing it. Following your decision on which clips to use.
There are millions of apps out there, ranging from free ones like iMovie (cool, but basic) to paid apps like FinalCut and subscription-based programs like Premiere Pro and After Effects – which are great but can really, really be daunting for beginners wanting to make travel videos.
11) Connect Your Shots In A Meaningful Story
This is probably one of the hardest and most time-consuming parts of editing a travel video. Most travel videos look like a bunch of random clips stitched together with no purpose or story behind it, which is alright but if you want to create a great travel video and stand out from the rest, you need to pay attention to how the clips are connected.
12) Add music to your travel videos
A good video needs sound – whether is it your voice, or music, or a mixture of the two. Finding good music is an essential step in making a good travel video, Choosing the right song for your epic journey montage is essential. Still, if you attempt to share your film on a public platform without first obtaining the necessary permissions, you may find yourself in legal trouble. Look for music free of copyright so that you and your friends can enjoy your video. This is music available for download and usage for free on the internet. Remember to give proper credit to the source!
Conclusion
Travel blogging is a great hobby that can even bring you extra income over time. But this hobby requires some time, effort, and investment. The main thing is that you like to travel, shoot videos and share emotions with the audience. Then you will succeed!
Creating a trip film that captures the viewer’s attention might be difficult. Everybody is different, so you don’t know what the people in the audience like and don’t like. Here are some of the best ideas for creating your next travel video. When watching travel films, you’ll notice a clear arc that leads to a place of mental peace.
