- Have you ever been out filming a travel video,
and all of a sudden you realize,
I have no idea what to film right now.
Sometimes it's really hard to know what
you should actually be filming.
So let's talk about how to make
your travel sequences way more interesting and epic.
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Hey guys, welcome to Travel Feels.
Today we're gonna talk about coverage.
Travel films are basically just
a bunch of different sequences in different places.
It's going to the beach and going swimming
or surfing, it's going on a hike
and ending up in an epic scenic lookout.
It's basically just a bunch of different little sequences
or mini stories within your travel film.
And sometimes you end up filming
this travel film and then you get home
and you realize, I just don't have enough footage.
I don't have enough footage to make
a really good travel film, or my footage
just all look the same.
All the shots are the same basically,
and I can't cut from one to the next.
Whenever I make a documentary-type film,
which is what travel films are most of the time,
I'm trying to think of, what are all
the different things that you can naturally
do in those settings?
I don't like doing too many fake setups,
so I like to think what are the natural things
a person would be doing in these settings?
And you want to think of as many different things
as possible to help you out in your editing process.
And this is where coverage comes into play.
To illustrate this, I filmed my friend Erik
skating this handrail to kind of show you
what I mean by coverage.
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If you want to see more of Erik's rollerblading,
check out the film I linked down below.
Go like his video and comment on it
and send him some love.
So coverage is super-important when
you don't have a clear storyboard
of what you want to be filming,
which is most of the time for travel films.
You're not gonna be able to storyboard
all the different kinds of shots
that you want, so you want to get
as much footage as possible so you
have an easier time in your editing process.
So in this example, I didn't just
film him skating the handrail,
I filmed him walking up to the rail,
setting up, putting on his roller blades,
waxing the railing, preparing for it,
and then I filmed him skating the handrail.
And then I filmed some ender shots
to kind of end the sequence with.
Try to tell as much story as you can in each shot.
So it's really good to have your characters
appear in as many shots as possible.
Don't just show all these different scenery,
have your characters be a part of that shot
in some way so they're in the environment
and interacting with the environment.
It'll be way more interesting instead
of just having a bunch of scenery shots,
to have your characters being there
and being a part of that scene.
And what coverage really means
is to have a bunch of different varieties
of each of those shots.
So not only did I film Erik walking up
to the rail and preparing for it,
I also filmed different types of shots
in each of those settings.
So I filmed a bunch of different shots of him walking.
I filmed a bunch of different shots
of him putting on his rollerblades.
You really want to be getting wide shots,
medium shots, and tight shots.
All three of those as often as possible.
This really helps the editing process.
You never want to go to editing
and just be wishing that, aw, if only
I had this wide shot right here,
all I have is these closeups.
You want to get a variety in your shots,
a medium, a tight, a wide, as often as possible.
It really also helps to cut your films
instead of just always cutting from medium shot
to medium shot to medium shot.
Maybe you're going from a wide
to a nice tight shot and then back
out to a medium.
There's a little bit more variety there.
For example, imagine if I filmed this whole
sequence with just tight shots the whole time.
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It just isn't as good, you don't have
a sense of the space or what's really going on.
The mind just kind of gets numb and bored.
And side tip here is that you don't want
to be doing too many tight shots in your edits.
What happens with tight shots
is that when the brain sees a tight shot,
it thinks that this is something really important.
And if that thing that you're showing
in a tight shot isn't actually that important,
then the mind starts thinking
that, well maybe none of this is important
and you start getting bored and disinterested in the edit.
So make sure if you're doing closeups,
it's something specific that you really want
to be highlighting or telling story through that closeup.
Don't just throw a whole bunch of tight shots
because they look cool.
It's not gonna be good for your storytelling process,
and people are gonna get really bored really fast.
Save those tight shots for specific reasons
when you're trying to highlight something
and really bring importance to that one thing.
But back to coverage.
Think about your travel films as a bunch
of different sequences, almost like mini stories in there.
Don't just get one shot, because then you won't
be able to tell that mini story.
You want a bunch of different shots
to tell that mini story and then tell
the next mini story and tell the next mini story.
That way, you can really keep the viewer's
attention and keep the story going.
It helps to have some buildup also.
For example, in the rollerblading example,
if I didn't have all those setup shots,
there wouldn't be this buildup of tension
and suspense for what's gonna happen next.
If I just went straight into it,
it would kind of be anti-climactic
and a little bit boring.
You want a beginning, a middle,
and an end to each sequence.
Think about it like an editor while you're
shooting, think about what kind
of shots you might be needing to intro
the sequence, to carry the story through,
and then to finish it off.
When you get into that habit of thinking
about coverage, you'll have a way-easier
time making interesting epic travel films.
Your shots won't all look the same
and you'll have just a variety of shots to choose from.
And the purpose in the end is to tell story.
If you're thinking about coverage,
you're gonna be able to tell your story
much better than if you're just getting
tight shot after tight shot after tight shot.
So next time you're out and you don't
know what to film, don't panic.
Stop, think what are the natural things
your characters could be doing,
and then figure out different kinds
of shots that you can get.
Think coverage, what are the medium,
the tight, and the wide shots that you can get
in each of those situations.
And you even want to be thinking
about things like movement.
Maybe you want a static shot just as a safety,
then you want some movement from left
to right, and then from right to left,
because you never know what you're gonna need in your edit.
Maybe there's a really nice drone shot
that's going this way and then the next clip
that you want to use is actually going this way,
but you wish you had one that was going the same way.
It really helps to build fluid edits
that just have these smooth transitions.
The more shots you have, the better chances
you have of making an interesting, epic travel film.
Think about natural shots, think
about coverage, think about movement,
and boom, you're ready to go edit
that epic travel film.
That's it for me today guys, I hope you enjoyed this video.
Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already done so,
like, share these videos.
I love all the positivity that's going
around this channel, let's keep that going.
Guys, enjoy the filmmaking process
and go get some of those travel feels.
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