YouTube is currently one of the most visited platforms when it comes to travel content. While blogs are where people go to find itineraries and other details about a trip or a destination, YouTube is where they turn for informational travel video and beautiful visuals.
There are a lot of reasons to make travel videos too. Even when you are just a casual traveller, producing an incredible travel video could land you anything from a free trip to thousands in advertising revenue. Here are some of the best tips you can use to get started.
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Forget about filing your travel video with beauty shots. People may be amazed by gorgeous shots of epic destinations, but what they are really looking for is a good story. You can be very personal when telling stories about your trip; in fact, a good, personalized story is what will set your video apart from the thousands of other travel videos.
Let’s say you are visiting Dubai on an extended trip. Anyone can visit Dubai and make a travel video. What you want to do is stick with your unique perspective and tell a personalized story. Use cool visuals to further advance your story and keep the audience glued to their screens.
Make sure you have a few shots of you speaking into the camera; this is something that a lot of people would be interested in – they can get normal visuals anywhere online. Tell your audience where you are going or what you are doing, and introduce others as well.
Drone shots are more of a necessity than an option when it comes to making travel videos today. Of course, not every traveller owns a drone, like DJI Mini 2, and can take stunning shots using one. Although I do recommend checking a good drone buying guide, or even getting a drone under 200 dollars. This is where drone filming services come in handy.
Since drones are so popular right now, you can actually find professional Dubai drone filming services to help document your trip to this gorgeous emirate. The drone will be steered by an experienced pilot, so you can rest assured knowing that your drone shots will be epic.
There are a lot of other video techniques you can use to tell a great story about your trip. Creating a time-lapse or letting the audience enjoy the city in all its glory while you sit near your camera and have a late-night ice cream is a great way to bring the unique feeling and experience to the screen.
Sticking to our Dubai example, the city looks absolutely incredible in this 4K cityscape video.
This is a video of the Marina Bay shot in great detail, but you can definitely feel the cold air and the overall ambience of this beautiful place as you see the video. Combined with other content, videos like this can really add something to your own travel video.
It’s a well-known fact that an upbeat tune will keep anyone interested in your video, even if they’re not overly interested in what you have filmed. Think of the top summer tunes, and consider implementing one of them over the top of your video (when you’re not speaking of course). Dance classics and cheesy pop tunes are ideal for these – bonus points if you choose something that everyone remembers.
If you do choose to have a song playing over the entirety of your video, try and add some subtitles in so that your audience can read along. You could also choose to speak to your audience over the top of the music or create gaps in the song.
One last tip to keep in mind if you want to make a great travel video: have fun! You are on a trip for a reason, so don’t let taking video footage and capturing your trip get in the way of actually enjoying the holiday. Your mood and how much you enjoy the trip will be reflected in the video, and at the end of the day, your experiences matter more than anyone’s opinion, so make sure you have a lot of fun making it.
Have you ever considered being a YouTuber / video maker yourself?