Travel videos are a great way to show off your trip, but they can be difficult to make. Fortunately, there are some tried-and-true tips that will help you out. In this article, we'll go over some of them and show you how to put them into action.
Start with the narrative
The most important thing to do first is to figure out what your video is going to say. If you don’t know the story you want to tell, then it will be hard for viewers to engage with your travel video. Before you start shooting, try writing down the narrative in an outline or even just a few bullet points. It doesn’t need to be perfect—just something that helps guide how you plan out your shots and where they go from there.
To help get started on this process, I suggest looking back at some of your favorite movies or TV shows and observing how they move through time in their stories:
● How did they build tension throughout the story?
● What types of scenes did they use at different points in their plotlines?
● How did these scenes interconnect with one another?
Once you have your story, choose your shots
You'll want to choose shots that tell the story of your trip or adventure in an engaging way. If a shot isn't visually interesting, it doesn't matter how good the audio quality is—the viewer will lose interest quickly.
At this point, it's also worth investing in a tripod or other stabilizer (if you don't already have one). This will help keep your camera steady and reduce movement while recording video.
Next, consider choosing different lenses depending on what kind of shot you're trying to capture: wide-angle lenses capture more detail than telephoto lenses at certain distances; zooming all the way in can help bring focus on a specific area; shooting in black and white can make things look more dramatic; etc.
Break up the narrative with a voiceover
One great way to break up the narrative and add context is through voiceover, which you can use to provide information about the location. For example, if you're in a city and have no idea where in particular you are or how long it takes to get anywhere else, then your voiceover could say something like this: "This is Paris. It's home to over 2 million people and has been an important center of culture for centuries." This will let your audience know what they are watching without making them watch three minutes of video footage with no context.
Another possible use for a voiceover would be if there was something unique about the place that makes it stand out from other places in its vicinity: "Here we are at one of France's most beloved landmarks—the Eiffel Tower!" The point here is that by providing information about your surroundings using voiceover rather than showing all those things on-screen (which would probably be distracting), you can keep viewers engaged while simultaneously keeping them entertained enough so that they don't feel bored or lose interest altogether!
Find the right music
You’ll be surprised by how much the right soundtrack can enhance a travel video. It helps to set the mood and connects viewers with your experience. But finding music that meets all these criteria isn’t always easy or cheap: it's best to use royalty-free music, which means you don't have to worry about copyright issues, but this often comes at a cost—finding tracks you like can be expensive.
That said, there are plenty of websites where you can find high-quality music for little money (if any) . Vimeo and InShot are also personal favorites of mine. Additionally, a popular source for buying tracks outright is PremiumBeat; they offer hundreds of tracks starting at $19 each and have a whole section dedicated to travel videos specifically—perfect if you're looking for music for your next trip!
Choose your tools carefully
When it comes to video production, you've got a lot of options. You can do everything yourself with just a few pieces of equipment or enlist the help of a professional team. The right choice depends on what you're trying to achieve and how much work you want to put in.
If you're looking to make an engaging travel video that's as fun to watch as it is informative, we recommend using these tools:
A digital camera (or smartphone). This should be high quality enough that it doesn't look like an amateur produced it—but not so pricey that it makes people think twice about sharing the video on social media or sending an email link around.
Software for editing and posting online. While any software will do the trick, we recommend starting by using something simple so you will have no trouble learning how to use it quickly and effectively.
Conclusion
Making an engaging travel video isn't hard, but it does require a bit of preparation and planning. If you’re looking to start making travel videos, we hope this post has given you some ideas on how to do so! We know that it can be a bit intimidating at first, but practice makes perfect. The most important thing is just to get started and keep trying new things until you find something that works well for your brand and audience.
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