Introduction:
Ever thought of exploring your video-making skills by making exotic travel videos – learn everything about How to Make Engaging Travel Videos the process here!
Have you ever watched travel videos for reference before planning a vacation? Are you captivated by the beauty and fascination of engaging travel videos that are created by professionals?
You, too, can make such videos and post them on multiple channels to grow your audience and give a glimpse of your experience to the world. Making travel videos may seem like an easy task, but there are several minute details to consider before you turn that camera on.
Whether using professional gear or just your smartphone to capture the beauty of a unique location, making professional travel videos without any film or video editing experience is possible. Simply follow the tips and techniques given here, and you can create a rage in your digital circles with your travel videos.
Importance of Creating Travel Videos:
Instantly capture the unforgettable moments of your travel by harnessing the power of easy-to-carry and simple-to-use software and gadgets. The value of travel videos is immense as this type of content is considered the most appealing.
You can become a famous vlogger and publish your videos on digital channels like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and other web portals to monetize your content or to help other travelers explore different locations, cultures, and people.
With tourism returning to many parts of the world, it’s a great time to document your travels. It is also a great way to preserve your cherished memories and incredible experiences. Developing a successful video requires having the right footage and online video editor, understanding the needs of your audience, and delivering a high-quality final product. But how do you create a travel video that allows others to see the beauty of your travels? Keep going, and you’ll find more!
Basic Pre-requisites Before You Start Creating Travel Videos:
If you have made up your mind to curate and publish professional travel videos of your travel experience, follow these fundamental pre-requisites and then look at some of the most practical tips that can help you make your travel videos viral:
Step 1 – What kind of travel videos will you make?
Travel videos come in many formats, from the usual walk-and-talk vlog style to street-run gun shoot style. You can choose to be more cinematic and indulge in making quick-cut, inspirational videos with a fascinating story and little narration.
Before deciding on the kind of travel video, you want to make; you must figure out the following:
- What is the purpose of your travel?
- Are you traveling solo or with family and friends?
- Who is the video for?
- How do you want the viewer to feel at the end?
Even if you are busy with your loved ones, you can still create mesmerizing travel videos to inspire people to visit a country by showcasing spectacular images, beautiful visuals, authentic interactions, extraordinary energy drawn from a location, culture, heritage, local food, and language.
You can edit your videos using a video editor to make them look more professional. Remember, these videos are not instructional or educational but are more entertaining and informative videos, so focus on the key purpose of the travel video before you pick your camera to take those shots!
Step 2 – What hardware should you use?
Always prefer a compact and light setup as you don’t want to pay extra bucks for overloaded luggage. You can either carry a high-end camera of your choice or just use your smartphone, which will help you automate most processes and give you the option to work manually whenever you need to.
Stick to more advanced and lighter gear and capture sharp footage. Make sure you use a wide lens for landscapes and zooming in just enough for close-ups. You should be particular about carrying the right equipment for sound (a high-end mic is required if you make narrative videos), perfect lighting, and a tripod to avoid shakiness in your videos.
Step 3 – What software or tool should you use?
Capturing videos using the above-mentioned equipment will deliver a raw version of your travel video. You need to brush and polish it to deliver it to the audience. This is where you need a movie creator.
Make a movie online using the best software or tool to create your videos, stitch the shots together, and edit the clips. You don’t need to be a professional to operate a video editor; you can simply follow basic instructions and convert your captured clips into professional shots. It’s an investment that will finally deliver the video that inspires others.
20 Tips and Techniques to Make Engaging, Interactive, Informative, and Excellent Travel Videos:
You don’t want to end up creating a boring travel video that no one would like to watch. With a little creativity, you can elevate travel video-making by following the below-mentioned tips. There is no magic formula because every experience is different, but you can use some techniques to make enticing travel videos.
Watch Lots of Travel Videos
You need the right knowledge, expertise, and experience in creating travel videos before you get into the function. It’s highly recommended that you watch what other professionals have done. Pick the most popular travel videos on the web and watch them closely. Study the shots and focus on the experience that has been captured. Watch tons of travel videos each week and learn how travel videos work, what formats they use, how they shoot certain images, etc.
Keep It Short
No one is interested in watching long travel videos. It’s better to stick to travel videos under 3 minutes. You can showcase a lot in this time range and even title it with a capturing ‘Explore the Taj Mahal in a Minute’ phrase.
Prepare Your Camera Settings Before Traveling
Changing camera image profiles on the go is one of the last things you want to do. Before you travel, try which setting works best for you and set it to the default setting for all modes to ensure consistency in the recordings. Avoid changing settings that affect recordings, and take the time to experiment with your camera and stick with it throughout your journey.
Select a Topic
Your travel videos cannot be random – they need a title or a topic. Is it an adventure, a romantic place, or a quiet place that you are visiting? Find the crux of the story and then make a video on the framework of your story.
Shoot Smarter
There is a difference between shooting your travel video professionally and overdoing it. Don’t forget; you are on vacation yourself. If you don’t enjoy the place or appreciate your surroundings, you won’t be able to highlight the same in your videos. You don’t need to shoot 24 by 7 but just focus on capturing video when the light is at its best and when you have something worthwhile to capture.
Plan the Right Intro and Outro
Don’t forget; it just takes the first 5 seconds for a viewer to decide whether he wants to watch the video or swipe up. You need to make engaging, thrilling, and enticing intros that can keep your audience hooked. Similarly, a professionally curated outro suggests the next step of action to your audience. Concentrate on the point of why you want your audience to watch your video; give them a good reason and see how the numbers increase.
Create a Story
Travel is spontaneous, and you must showcase it by telling a story to your audience. Direct the actors around you and capture the spontaneity that travel brings. Making a story means connecting the dots and portraying the ideal beginning, middle, and end. Find common threads to weave into the story that fit your shots and the location well. This will keep your viewers engaged and build a relationship between your experience and their desires.
Express Yourself Using Music
Using the right music in the background can evoke the right emotions and feelings in your audience. Well-chosen music can spice up your travel movie if it is relevant to the location you are visiting. You can be more musically adventurous, but don’t forget to include only royalty-free music on sites.
Capture the Beauty of the Country
Think of the place, location, heritage, people, food, and culture of the place before yourself. Don’t focus on clips that revolve around you, but make them more about the scenery, local people, food, and more of the location you are at.
Join it all together to deliver a compelling story that your audience can relate to. You must include yourself in the video, as your travel video is about your experience, but don’t focus on self-footage – concentrate on the location.
Diversify Your Shots
Travel videos are not professionally scripted or directed videos. All they need is a well-structured and compelling story to keep your audience engaged. Therefore, you must experiment with how you shoot your videos to keep your audience engaged. Try capturing time lapses and moving vehicles and shooting from different angles. This is a great way to try variations in your video.
Use Reaction Shots
You don’t need actors or characters to play in your movie. The more natural your travel video is, the more it will be appreciated and loved by your audience. Whatever activity you plan to capture – adventurous, patriotic, cultural, anything – don’t forget to capture the natural reactions of people and make them a part of your final product.
Shoot with a Wide-Angle Lens
It may not be possible for you to carry your tall and heavy tripod everywhere. So, prepare for smooth stabilization with a wide-angle lens – preferably a 24mm or 35mm range lens to reduce blur and capture more location and wide-angle shots.
Create Movement
Instead of capturing stills, go for motion. You have to create your movement using simple camera movements like panning or time-lapse to bring static buildings and landscapes to life. Capture shots of children playing, people walking, birds flying, gushing waters, people dancing, and more to capture things that are already in motion. Then assemble the clips and use your editor to brush up on the movements.
Take Close-Up Photos of Locals
Capturing the natural expressions of people has a universal appeal and evokes human emotion. Capturing a close-up of a beautiful smile or a grasping set of eyes can take your video to another level. You have the power to make people cry, laugh, smile, and evoke strong emotions in your viewers through your travel videos.
Maintain the Human Touch
Humanize your videos by adding narration and filling in different personal experiences. You can even make the place more attractive by talking about the special aspects of the place. Audiences must have a thorough knowledge of the subject matter to use the narration as a reference and gain a general understanding of the location.
Connect Your Recordings in Meaningful Ways
This is one of the most tedious and time-consuming steps of travel video editing. Don’t make it look like a random video but make an effort to stitch the clips in a way that portrays purpose or a story. Connect your clips using object motion, camera motion direction, color, shape, or brightness that defines the entire travel video.
Edit Your Travel Video Professionally
After compiling the raw version of your travel video, it’s time to polish it using a professional and effective video editor. Add transitions between shots, brush up the background, cut and crop unwanted footage, add pleasant and soul-stirring music, or even some graphics, text, and animations to add meaning and allure to your travel videos.
Export Properly
Export your videos at the highest possible quality with settings that match your source. You can save a high-quality version and then convert the final product to another format.
Post it Lavishly
Now, it’s time to upload your travel videos on the right channels – consider official YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook accounts than personal accounts to publish such travel videos, which are meant for the public. Use the right tool to post your videos at the right time, which will maintain the quality of the video despite the file size. Avoid compressing your videos, as digital channels do that, and that can deteriorate the quality of the video.
Integrate SEO
Now that you are publishing your travel video on various social media and digital spheres, you would surely want more and more people to connect with you, like and appreciate your efforts, or simply get inspired by watching your travel videos. You need to push your videos to the top by enriching your travel video posts with SEO. Post-keyword-inspired titles, descriptions, CTAs, hashtags, and thumbnails to place your travel video in top-notch searches.
Conclusion:
Travel videos are a rage in the digital market, and people watch it religiously to expand their social sphere. There are times when people watch travel videos, get inspired, and plan a similar trip to experience the same.
If you want to make inspirational travel videos, follow the above-mentioned techniques to make your videos stand out in an ocean of online travel videos. Photographing your travels may seem easy, but achieving professional results requires careful thought, experience, knowledge, and practice. So, go ahead, make a great travel video and become the talk of the town.
