Few things are immortal. They last forever. Your smartphone will slow down, your car will break down, and your clothes will get torn out eventually someday. What remains are your memories with them. Your memories are the only gifts that you will carry forever. That’s why they say to travel as much as possible because the more you travel, the more experiences you get and the more memories you carry.
But how will we keep these memories alive even after us? Well, there’s something that lasts even longer than your memories. These are the stories you have around your memories in a video uploaded on the internet. They will be forever available for generations to come.
But does one need to be a certified cinematographer to create videos?
Filmmaking is a very subjective topic. Here, nothing is black and white, it’s all grey. You try, make mistakes, learn and move on. This trial and error method and the curiosity to keep on experimenting with new stuff is what makes a perfect filmmaker. At the end of the day, all that matters is your skills, and you can learn them even without attending a formal course. Remember though, there is so much help out there now, thanks to advanced technology.
AI is one for example, in which AI can help you create superb videos, without the need to edit at all! We personally love AI Online Video Editor FlexClip, which is a free simple yet powerful web-based ai video maker that creates videos in minutes. From text-to-video and blog-to-video, to name just a couple, it’s a handy tool for those strapped for time yet want to create quality videos.
Is editing the video important?
Well, this is a pretty mixed answer. It’s both a yes and a no. Even if you don’t heavily edit the video, at least trim the unwanted clips with an online video editor. Editing the video will not do any harm, but indeed it’s time-consuming. Try to make the video fit the appropriate story, you want to depict and keep it clean and concise. So the answer to the question is it doesn’t matter if you edit the video or not, but you must trim the clips clean at least.
So, enough knowledge about filmmaking and its behind stories. Now let’s have a look at what steps we need to take or what rules we need to follow to shoot the best travel videos.
- The Rule of Thirds: The rule of thirds is a composition guideline that suggests placing your subject in either the left or right third of an image, leaving the other two-thirds more open. Before you start recording, take a moment to identify where your object is and where you want to place it. If you are using a professional camera or a DSLR, they have the grids inbuilt in the view finder but if you are using a mobile, you need to turn it on after going to your camera settings. Now, after you have aligned your main subject with the grids, check on the background or if anything else that you want to bring into the frame. The rule of thirds helps you get a better composition to your overall shot.
- Watch tons of travel videos: The best way to learn is to observe. Watch as many travel videos as possible and try to get inspired from them. Get inspired by other filmmakers and try to replicate their shot in your twist and create something even crazier out of it. Creativity has no limits in filmmaking. Observe how travel videos work, how they are shot, what their sequence is, and pay great attention to every minute aspect of the videos. The more clarity you get from others’ videos, the more clear you become while creating your own piece of content.
- Pay attention to the lighting: Lighting plays a very important role in filmmaking. Your lighting condition determines the whole mood of the video. But unfortunately, you always don’t have the luxury to carry external light rigs with you while you are travelling. Now, how are we supposed to get the required light while shooting the video? The answer is directly from the main source of natural light, the sun! We will be using the sunlight strategically. One can make use of the golden hour to shoot aesthetic and impressive shots of any location. The golden hour only comes twice a day, the time just before the sunrise and the time after the sunset, so one needs to have properly planned the shoot to take full advantage of the golden hour.
- Be ready with a plan: Has it ever happened to you that you went to the supermarket to buy something and ended up buying something else and regretted it after returning home? Well, the same thing happens in filmmaking. You check in for your return flight, and suddenly you remember those few shots that you forgot to shoot, but you wanted badly. Make a list of all the shots you would like to get before your trip begins. This list will not only act as a reminder, but also help you envision the result of the video.
- Make your shots more diverse: Travel videos don’t have the luxury to go exactly according to the script; they are random. Anything can happen anytime, it might be very interesting or it might be dull. We can’t predict the upcoming situations. So we need to diversify our shots to keep the viewer savouring every moment of the video till the very end! Motion shots, panning shots, B-rolls, stop-motion animations, time lapses, and lots more, try adding a bit of everything into your video so that it feels interesting.
- Create motion: Motion adds thrill and excitement to the whole video. A travel photograph is all about depicting nature, stillness, and architecture but when it comes to a video, without motion shots it looks dull. You need to create motion and there are several ways to do that. You can try out different panning shots, and time-lapse around a still object like a building or a tree. Motion adds a different perspective to the whole shot making it more aesthetic and interesting.
Wrapping up!
All your shots are ready now! In the post-production, just trim the unwanted segments out and add the clips in a proper sequence. Creating a great travel video is a mixture of both creativity and techniques of know-how. Now all you need to do is pack up your bags, book the tickets and get-set go to shoot a new travel video at a new location.
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