How to Make Captivating Travel Videos

If you love to travel, you’re not alone. It’s something that practically everyone enjoys! It lets you experience new food, culture, and, in some cases, weather. But, not everyone enjoys planning every bit of it. Traveling is one thing, but planning everything from scratch like booking the best hotel on a budget to exploring what not to miss in a particular place, can bring a lot of stress.

Thankfully, those who don’t have much time to sort all of these can rely on a luxury travel expert, who can make their vacay a dream trip. When trips are managed by an agent, the travelers can enjoy every moment of their vacation and capture all the memories and moments during the trip.

That being said, for most people, photos, snaps, stories and travel blogs are sufficient to create memories of their adventures. However, for others, the best way to capture the magic is through video.

In this post, we take a look at how to make awesome videos that the people around you will love. Check out our tips below!

Set up your camera before your trip

Instead of playing around with settings once you arrive, set up your camera for your trip at home. Begin by resetting the camera to default mode. Then start playing around with the type of settings recommended for your destination. If your camera has a memory feature for setting profiles, save your settings.

Think carefully about whether you want to shoot in 25 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps. Shooting at the lower end will make your creations look more like movie scenes while opting for a higher refresh rate will feel more true to life. You’ll also want to think about whether 4K is the best option for your scenes, or if regular HD would serve you better.

Get up early

Taking great travel videos isn’t just about the technology: it’s also about finding opportunities to capture incredible images.

If you’re going to a popular destination, avoid the crowds. Get up early – before daybreak – so that you can set up your camera and capture videos of destinations before anyone else intrudes upon the scene.

If you happen to be shooting early in the morning or later on in the evening, make sure that you select the correct exposure. You don’t want your videos to look like you’re shooting them in the middle of the night.

Develop a story

While shooting raw videos of your destinations can work, you want to come up with some sort of story for them. A narrative helps to explain why you’re shooting the video in the first place and is great for drawing in audiences. If you’ve got a travel blog, try to contact a professional for social media video service so that you can make your videos more insightful and interesting as well as gain more traction.

You don’t need an epic plot like something out of Lord of the Rings. But you do need to introduce a problem and then video the solution. So, for instance, if you’re struggling to get somewhere, you can introduce the video by stating the issue that you have and then trying various forms of transport to overcome it.

Edit out stuff that doesn’t work

Taking lots of video footage is a great idea because it allows you to capture all the best moments. Even so, you’ll still need to edit it down.

If you don’t know how to edit videos on your iPhone, make sure that you learn before you go on your trip. The more you can chop your videos into sections that your audience will enjoy, the better.

Focus on the country, not yourself

While you might want to make videos about yourself, there’s plenty of time for that elsewhere. When you travel, your audience most likely wants to see where you’re going, not what you’re wearing.

Interact with the locals as much as you can and get lost in local culture. Don’t be afraid to explore places off the beaten track or go to back-alley restaurants. These are where you usually find all the hidden gems.

Generate diversity

Next, don’t shoot all your videos in the same way. Instead, switch up the angles, focus, and messages from time to time.

For instance, you might have some videos where you pan over scenes, moving the camera from left to right. Others you might shoot from the floor or take while spinning around in a circle. You might also want to include videos where you appear in the shot describing something. The more diversity you can add to your videos, the more interesting people will find them, and the more likely you are to stand out.

Incorporate motion

While filming stunning buildings and beautiful architecture works well, you also want your travel videos to have a bit of life about them. When everything is static, it can make things feel stodgy.

Keep your eyes peeled for energetic situations. Look for street dancers, children running or vehicles passing by. If you can film somebody cooking or taking part in a sport, capture it.

You can also create your own motion. For instance, filming a scene as you walk along or take a ride in a bus helps your audience feel like they are really there with you!

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