How to Create a Beautiful Travel Video
photo by lisegagne via iStock
While you may not be doing a lot of traveling right now, I know I’m personally planning for all of the traveling I’m going to be doing as soon as it is safe to do so.
This means that I’m also planning on doing a bunch of travel videos as soon as possible. In preparation, I’ve been looking up a ton of videography tips. Creating a travel video is an incredible experience for photographers who simply want to remember a phenomenal trip they took by themselves, but creating a travel video of your next trip can also lead to potential revenue in the future if you decide you want to pursue this route.
However, your travel video will only bring you clients if you create a truly beautiful one.
So, this article will walk you through how to make a travel video, from start to finish, in the hopes that you can get inspired for your next trip.
Get Inspired
photo by martin-dm via iStock
Before I ever created my first travel video, I must have watched hundreds of travel videos of people that inspired me. I also watched travel video tips for some of my favorite videographers.
Just like photography, getting started with videography is less about finding your own specific niche right away and more about finding other videographers who inspire you to develop your own style.
This is especially true the first time you try to make a travel video because most of them follow the same formatting, and you won’t be able to follow this formatting if you haven’t watched enough videos from others.
I personally love watching every travel video Touropia puts out so I’ve included one of them above for you to watch.
Once you think you’ve found the type of style you want to emulate in your travel video, you can get into more specifics.
Develop a Story
Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
The first thing you need to do before even beginning filming for your travel video is to develop a story. What country are you going to be visiting? Why are you going there? What do you hope to do while you are there and who do you hope to meet?
While your storyline is obviously going to change a ton once you start shooting, developing a rough draft for your travel video at this early stage in planning allows you to better plan for your trip itself.
photo by Alina Rosanova via iStock
Then, while you are traveling you can capture as many clips as possible, all the while keeping the main point of your travel video in mind.
But, the real development of your storyline comes once you get home from traveling and can lay out all of your clips in front of you. I typically develop my storyline around the main characters I want to be in my final travel video, because characters are usually much more interesting than inanimate objects like cities.
Editor's Tip: Want an ideal travel camera? Consider the GoPro Hero 8 Black. This action camera can do it all when it comes to video, including shooting 4K at 60fps and 1080 at 240fps! Either way, with HyperSmooth 2.0 image stabilization, your videos will look beautifully smooth as though you were using a high-dollar gimbal. With features like digital lenses to vary the field of view, face detection, smile detection, and blink detection, and waterproofness up to 33 feet, this camera has everything you need to record epic videos of your travels. Learn more about the GoPro Hero 8 Black.
Get Your Camera Ready
Photo by Federico Bottos on Unsplash
If you’ve ever watched even a single videography tutorial, then you know how important consistency is.
In order to be more consistent with your shots, play around with the settings on your camera before you head to your destination so that you can figure out what settings you like the most, set them and then keep them there.
This will prevent you from doing a ton of color-editing in post production.
But, you will also need to make sure that you have all of the proper camera travel gear before you take off because you want to ensure not only that your footage will be consistent, but that your camera is protected.
I use the Hex Black Cinema Backpack when I’m traveling because it helps me to keep my camera gear protected. For starters, it’s completely waterproof (even the zippers), which is something you don’t realize you need until it is way, way too late.
It’s also really large, which means you can fit your large laptop in it alongside all of your camera gear, which is helpful if you’re planning on doing editing while traveling.
It comes with tripod straps and a quick access pocket for all of your memory cards and batteries. It also lets you access your gear from the top and side of the backpack, which is helpful for regular luggage and absolutely necessary for your camera gear.
You can pick up a Hex Black Cinema Backpack for $240.
Learn More:
Get Lots of Different Shots
Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash
Since your storyline is simply not that strong with a travel video, you need to ensure that your audience remains invested in your video by including a ton of different shots.
This can mean that you are using new videography techniques, like pans and tilts, but it also can mean that you are diversifying your angles of your shots and are getting plenty of B-roll.
Thankfully, a lot of tourist destinations are a dream for B-roll. If you’re visiting a market, make sure you’re getting video of people trying interesting foods or chefs making those foods. You want to include the hustle and bustle of a crowd into your shots so that there’s a lot for your viewers to be looking at.
Create a Good Flow From Shot to Shot
photo by MesquitaFMS via iStock
Some travel videos can be sort of jarring when a videographer doesn’t understand how to create a flow in their video.
One of the easiest ways to create this flow is to simply get a lot of shots of motion wherever you are. While you can fake this motion by panning your camera, it’s definitely easier to include people, animals and things moving. Or, conversely, you can shoot some time-lapse videos for your travel video.
Motion in your videos will allow you to also capture the excitement of the countries you are visiting.
If you’re looking to get especially creative with your travel video, then you can try to learn how to do a hyperlapse, which is when you are moving your camera and moving through time at once.
The video by Boone Loves Video above will walk you through how to create a hyperlapse. But remember, the best tip for creating a good flow from shot to shot is to use a good mixture of all of these tips.
