How To Make A Great Travel Video
If you are going on holiday to Los Angeles and Southern California and you want to make a great travel, here are some tips to help you stand out from the crowd.
In an age full of influencers people want to show off their lives and therefore their travels in the hope of creating something that is interesting and unique and therefore marketable. Your viewers can see what other parts of the world are like before deciding if it is right for them, and crucially what you have to say is important because you are not being paid to make this video.
So if you want to make your own travel videos and become an influencer? Do you need any equipment? For this article we spoke to film director Lawrence Jacomelli, who has directed over 500 TV adverts during his career so far, to see how he would make a great travel video. “Today on Instagram and YouTube you will see a lot of travel videos from people’s holidays. In recent years becoming an influencer has become a popular endeavour, but how can you make a really great travel video? The answer is to be unique and interesting. If you can do this you will have the attention of your audience. Then there’s the technical side. This can be daunting, but really the main thing to focus on is keeping it real and simple.”
So let’s say you are going on holiday to Los Angeles, what sort of equipment would you need for filming in Los Angeles and Southern California?
What equipment should I have to make a great Los Angeles travel video?
Not everyone has professional-grade equipment and that’s fine, with the advancements made in technology in the past few years smartphones are now capable of filming footage at a professional standard which means creating professional content is now accessible to everyone. If you are using a phone to create your travel videos there are a couple of additional items you can pick up. One must have item would be a small tripod. A tripod would help steady your travel footage and create some great standstill shots which are essential for self-tap interview shots. But what tripod do you choose? We would recommend the gorilla pod, however, this may be a bit pricey for some people, so we have got a few alternatives that are more affordable. We found a tripod sold by Muyos UK on Amazon that will set you back £9.99, this is a much more affordable alternative to a gorilla pod, with a five-star overall review it seems to be a good option, one reviewer had this to say.
‘Portable tripod is a nice tripod for travel blogging. Because of small dimensions, it can be used in any conditions. You can pack and take it anywhere. Made by using good quality materials. On the legs are rubber caps. It can be used for a smartphone or an action camera. The supplied adapter is very good, it holds my mobile phone very securely.’
Another piece of equipment that you could use is a Gimbal/Stabilizer. There are plenty of options out there. The most established brand is without doubt the DJI Osmo Gimbal, available on Amazon for around 100$. We have used the Zhiyun Smooth Axis Gimbal whilst filming a documentary for Apple iPhone XR. Another great option and the highest rated one on Amazon right now is the Moza-s Gimbal, sold by Mars-UK and currently have a star rating of four and a half stars. One reviewer had this to say about the product
‘Got one of these to try out on my iPhone XS. Wasn’t sure what to expect from these in regards to how much they would change the video experience. It does totally transform the shot especially when doing long takes, for example following someone.’
‘This did not fall short. The build quality is immediately recognizable. It feels solid and nice to hold. Heavy enough to be sturdy.’
‘The instructions are simple enough and the app for it is actually pretty good with loads of features not available on the iPhone camera app. Once connected it balances out and gets into position. Whilst I’m new to this it was simple enough to figure out how to connect it and get it up and running.’
One final bit of equipment that while not entirely necessary is a GoPro or any alternative action camera. As GoPro is widely trusted for travel footage we would recommend you buy one of these. When you are filming the most important thing to consider is the safety of your footage. Since we are talking about ‘action footage’, then we can assume that these cameras will get knocked around a bit. For this reason alone we would say don’t go for the discount option, get the best out there which is the latest GoPro Hero 8. But if that is out of your price range, we’ve found the highest-rated cheaper alternative on Amazon. The Dragon Touch 4k action camera has a current rating of 4.5 stars with one reviewer saying this about the camera
‘As with the previous model, the Touch Vision 4 Lite is excellent value for money. This version has an extensive array of video and still photo controls, including adjustments for exposure, white balance, and ISO. There are also three options for setting the focal length, Wide, Medium and Narrow. Electronic image stabilization is also included, although this suits some shooting scenarios better than others.’
Aerial Drone Footage Filming in Southern California
If you want to add production to your filming then the big investment would be in a Drone camera. If you think that 15 years ago in TV commercials you would have to rent a helicopter with a Wescam and operator. The minimum cost for 1 hour of filming would be around 10,000$. Today you can buy a drone for around 1000$ and shoot everything yourself once you plug your phone into the controller. This is truly amazing and revolutionary. We would recommend the DJI Mavic Pro 2, the image quality is amazing and it folds up so that you can fit it into your backpack with ease. Whenever we have a video production we always have one of these on standby. If you want to make a great travel video, this is one way you can elevate your footage above the competition. What better way to show your viewers some unique and special than from the skies above?
Interesting camera shots for my next travel video
Once you have all your equipment sorted out your next step would be to see what shots you should get once on your holiday, the shots choices are really down to you and whatever location you’re in, but we like how these types of shots fit into travel videos.
One of the best ways to start off a travel video would be an establishing shot. So in our example perhaps a shot of the Hollywood sign or another famous Los Angeles landmarks that shows where you are. This shot does what it says on the tin, it will establish where your video takes place if you pair it with a nice title sequence it’s a great start for your video. Once you’ve got your establishing, it’s really down to you what else you add to your video. The few tips we would recommend is that you make sure you can actually take pictures and videos wherever you are, as some countries have laws that mean you can’t and breaking the law in a country you don’t live in probably isn’t the best thing to do.
Video editing software for my next travel video
Once you’ve created your great travel videos, it’s time to edit your video footage, you can either edit the video on your phone or on a computer. If you are editing on a phone, you can use IMovie on iPhone for basic editing. But this blog is about how to make a great travel video, so we would suggest that working on a laptop or desktop is a must. We use Adobe Premiere Pro from the app store (premiere pro is also available on android devices.) these apps are also available on Mac and PC, if you do choose to use these apps on a computer you will definitely have more options than you would on a phone. When you do start editing play around with some colour correction, this will make your travel footage look nicer in the final output, also it will be worthwhile adding some fancy transitions, you can make these yourself or download some lut packs off of YouTube, a great place to find some on YouTube would be the channel Justin Odisho, his channel is full of tips and tricks to help your make great videos.
So once you follow all of these tips you should have a finished travel video that is in perfect quality and a great watch.