This piece of content provides several tips for making the perfect travel video.
Videography is perfect because it lets the creator tell a story. As there are plenty of stories to be told, videography is a continually expanding passion. Not to mention that creators are even more motivated with the presence of popular websites such as YouTube and Video. People can now shoot videos and share them with millions worldwide for free.
As a high percentage of people love traveling, creating travel videos has become a perfect form to preview of a location, as a tourist can tell a lot from a video. If you belong to the group of people who would like to create astonishing travel videos, there are few things you should keep in mind in order to succeed. Let’s take a look at a couple of tips that will help you make that perfect travel video.
Plan before you get there
Like with many other things in life, planning is crucial to make a great video. Yes, there are always spontaneous moments that bring life into a video, but you cannot hope to record them while you are traveling. There is a lot of planning you should perform.
● Weather – This is the first things you should be thinking about. You want to be there when the weather is flawless. Therefore, it is best to stay in one place for at least a month, as this is going to allow you to make use of all the sunny days. If your traveling arrangements are time sensitive, make sure that you pick a period which is going to be dominantly sunny.
● Sights to visit – Once you are aware of the weather, you can start researching about the sights and planning all of the locations you are going to visit. A good idea is to use Google Maps. They will give you a perfect insight into various locations and which kind of video you could shoot there. Always take this step before you get on the plane, train, or car; you need to know each step of the way. It is the best approach for creating a video that tells a story.
● Storage and power – You will be taking a lot of videos while you are traveling, therefore, remember to bring enough storage with yourself, you are going to need it. The same goes for batteries!
This is actually the longest and most important part of the whole project, therefore, make sure that you take enough time to get well-prepared.
Choose the right gear
When it comes to the gear you should use, remember that some of your shots should be handheld to give life to the video. So, find a way to stabilize your camera without it sitting on an immobile tripod. There are plenty of gimbals that will solve this problem, so explore the market and get a gimbal for those smooth handheld videos. However, bring a mobile tripod with you, it will allow you to take some lovely time lapses which can enrich the video story.
When it comes to optics, you are going to need both wide lenses and narrow ones. A wide lenses is perfect for capturing nature and landscapes, whereas using the narrower one is going to be necessary when you are filming the locals and their facial expressions and behavior. Having this flexibility will have you covered in a majority of filming scenarios.
On the other hand, when it comes to lighting, you can use natural light to tell the story, making it unnecessary to carry all the soft boxes and other artificial lights with you. However, you are also going to face low light conditions, and you should bring fast prime lenses that will capture enough details.
With these three lenses, a tripod and a gimbal, you are going to be prepared to take incredible landscape shots. If you have a higher budget, bringing a drone is going to allow you to take some breathtaking videos from incredible angles.
Also, don’t forget to bring a couple of ND filters with you; it will help you film those landscapes even when the sun is shining bright.
Take your time with post processing
Once you have finished filming and you are back in your studio, it is time to review all of the content and tell a story to your audience. This is a process that can turn bad footage into something good, or take the best footage and turn it into something useless. Therefore, make sure that you take a lot of time and create a plan of scene sequence.
Review each recording and note down the scene sequence that will get you started. Once you have the initial sequence setup, you should start making those fine adjustments to tell the story perfectly.
When it comes to color grading, it should remain consistent throughout the whole video. If you lack the skill to do that, you can always seek the best video editing service provider who can help you out.
Once everything is done, you could showcase the video to people close to you and acquire feedback. This will point you in the right direction about the final changes you should be making. Afterwards, you can publish the video or send it to a client, depending on the circumstances.
Following some of these tips will allow you to move with ease and take amazing handheld shots, bringing the videos of your traveling experiences to life. Remember that these tips are only the foundation; add your style and creativity on top and the result is going to be a flawless travel video.
