EXPERT: TELLING A STORY
So you've built an audience, you've mastered your workflow.
Now it's time to take the next step.
I'm here to meet travel content creator Harrison Brown who is going
to show us how to build a narrative into our content and also the
best practices when it comes to working with your favourite brand.
Let's go find out.
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
So what are we going to be doing today?
We're going to be travelling through Glencoe.
So starting at this level, iconic white bothy and moving to those
mountains and waterfalls and using a variety of different video
settings and also lenses, to figure out how to tell a story to your
audience.
Sit tight.
This is going to be a ride and it's going to be fun.
Let's go.
CHAPTER 2: TRAVEL NARRATIVE
We are in probably one of my favourite spots in Glencoe.
This is the Three Sisters and it's iconic because, well, I mean, look
at it it's gorgeous.
It looks epic.
And this is where we're starting the narrative.
What story are we trying to tell here?
So we're trying to tell the story of travelling to Glencoe.
But I think what people need to remember is
it doesn't just start in Glencoe.
You need to document the whole journey.
How did you begin to build that narrative?
Have a beginning, middle and an end.
Is that sunrise?
And then you arrive afternoon and then it ends at dusk.
That would be a good thread through the whole film.
What can you do in terms of your camera, your kit to make sure that
it's ready?
Always plan before because normally you're starting with an early
morning, you want to have everything worked out
so you can just grab it and go.
So you got your camera in hand ready to go
are there anything you do
to your camera to make sure you don't miss any shots?
A lot of the time things are happening so fast that if you sit and
you edit your settings, you look up and the subject's gone.
So having shortcuts on your camera is really, really helpful.
Let's talk more about social media now
in terms of sharing your work
or just using it to build out story that narrative.
How do you do that?
So carousels are a great way to do this.
So you have the beginning, middle and end
three photos and try and
document the day through those three photos.
And I think that's a really helpful project to get people to start
thinking of that narrative.
How do you plan your journey so that it fits perfectly into your
narrative?
The mistake that people make a lot of the time, and this is kind of
where I find my niche actually
is they only document the journey when
it begins at the points.
People want to see the bad and the good.
They want to see, you know, the whole experience instead of
what social media wants you to post.
So I would make sure that you document the whole journey
from start to finish.
And then in the final edit, you can crop it out you want to
but at least you've got it.
Right shall we start getting some shots, start telling the story?
Absolutely, you need to model for me.
Alright it's what I'm here for.
CHAPTER 2: SUMMARY
- STRUCTURE YOUR TRAVEL JOURNEY WITH A BEGINNING MIDDLE AND END
- ALWAYS PLAN YOUR TRIP AND HAVE ALL YOUR EQUIPMENT READY THE NIGHT BEFORE
- UTILISE CAMERA SHORTCUTS SO YOU DON’T MISS A MOMENT
- DOCUMENT YOUR ENTIRE JOURNEY
CHAPTER 3: VIDEO CONTENT AND SETTINGS
Harrison It looks like we're spoilt for choice in terms of location.
Where are we now?
So at the moment we're at Ralston Cairn and it gives this beautiful
view down the valley of Glencoe.
Talk me through the story that we're going to build here.
So the story will start from this morning since when we got up, had
our first coffee and then we hopped in the car and to the three
different locations that will stop at and we'll be filming a little
bit of each location.
What kind of camera do you use on big projects?
Travel projects R5, all the time it's light, it's portable.
The shooting quality in this thing is insane.
What does R5 offer you?
In terms of handheld video it offers five stops of stabilisation in
the actual camera and then three stops in these lenses as well.
So it is actually really stable footage.
So why is image stabilisation, why is that so important to you?
I think the images are the most meaningful videos that you want to
capture a go by in a flash.
Getting the handheld shots that are
stable that you can actually use is so beneficial because nobody
wants shaky footage.
Are there any focus modes that you use to make sure you don't miss
any shots?
Yeah, absolutely, so Canon actually has probably, in my opinion,
the best, I'm not just saying that, the best autofocus in the
industry.
So for video, what settings do you use?
Normally what I do is I shoot 24 frames and this gives you
really nice motion blur and what you can do is actually seamless
transition in the edit because of that motion blur.
So it's a really good editing hack for afterwards.
And also it allows you to crush in that 120fps as well and get those
really detailed shots.
Great, and previously when we talked about photography, you talked
about mapping buttons and stuff like that to make it your own.
What do you do for video anything similar?
Exactly the same so you can customise your own buttons.
So for me I have custom 120fps 4k, which gives you that nice crispy
slo-mo and I also have custom 50 frames.
So what shot of me do you need to get here?
Well, these beautiful mountains in the background look pretty big in
comparison to you, don't they? So what we want to do is show the
scale of how small you are
in comparison to those mountains with the 70-200mm.
So we'll get a nice compression shot of you here.
Right,what do you need me?
CHAPTER 3: SUMMARY
- THE CANON R5 IS PORTABLE AND HAS EXCELLENT IMAGE QUALITY
- IMAGE STABILISATION ENABLES YOU TO CAPTURE STABLE FOOTAGE ON THE FLY
- 24 FPS GIVES MOTION BLUR YOU CAN UTILISE IN THE EDIT
- 4K 120 FPS GIVES YOU CRISPY DETAILED SLOW-MOTION
- LONGER LENSES COMPRESS THE DISTANCES
CHAPTER 4: WORKING WITH BRANDS
How do you turn your travel content into something that people
actually pay for?
I think the first thing you need to think of as niching up.
Find your niche for me it was the outdoors, so a lot of outdoor
clothing brands then contacted me after that because I fitted
their profile.
So for someone who doesn't have brands approaching yet.
Right.
How do you fund your travel?
For me, a lot of the time a couple of years ago it was that I loved
the process of travel so much so that I would fund it myself.
The key point here is
you need to love what you do enough to pay for
it yourself.
If I didn't do this job for brands, I'd probably be
doing it for free.
As a travel content creator like yourself.
You must have some brands that you want to work with.
How do you approach working with them?
Unpaid gigs until I get their attention.
That's a little bit of a shortcut.
Or what you do is you reach out to the brand.
You reach out over Instagram.
You reach out over email.
You try and get your foot in the door as
much as possible, as early as possible, and start building that
relationship.
And once you figured this brands and you know what to do.
What kind of content do they like?
I think it comes in a variety.
I think a lot of the the brands that contact me contact me for
my niche.
So they want to be in the outdoors, they want to be in the
wilderness.
And I can offer them that setting in a creative way.
Is it still important to, you know, do your own passion projects?
You need to keep the fire burning.
Sometimes these brands, they're fantastic to work with, but they're
very pernickety about how you frame things, how you do things.
But if you do your own passion projects that you have control over
and it's your own creativity, you can create whatever you want.
So now that you've secured a gig with one of your favourite brands,
any other advice?
I think something that I would definitely, definitely look at when
starting to work with brands is contracts.
Have a contract to protect yourself, protect the brand, but more
importantly, protect your own work and your own content that is
essential.
Well, are we going to get some more shots to finish our narrative?
Absolutely.
You need to model.
All right, I'm ready.
CHAPTER 4: SUMMARY
- ESTABLISH YOUR OWN NICHE
- BE PREPARED TO SELF-FUND YOUR TRAVEL INITIALLY
- REACH OUT AND SHARE YOUR WORK WITH BRANDS
- KEEP DOING YOUR PASSION PROJECTS BETWEEN PAID JOBS
- HAVE A CONTRACT IN PLACE TO PROTECT YOUR CONTENT
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY
Harrison, thanks for taking me around Glencoe,
It's been epic.
Like, great location, the weather, everything.
It’s been amazing.
Scotland
And I think we've learned so much today.
We've learned about building a narrative
when it comes to video and
photography and travel content.
And we've learned about working with brands.
Are there any other final tips and tricks that we can take away?
I think when it comes to travel, photography and videography, no
matter where it is you are, whether it's a city break or it's a beach
holiday or it's down to Glencoe for the weekend, there's always a
story to be told.
I think edit a hundred videos, start to finish,
take over a thousand photos, start to finish editing, process and
all, and eventually you'll get that perfect style and that perfect
content and perfect content attracts the perfect brand.
So guys, practice makes perfect.
So keep practising, keep shooting.
And if you need to go back on this video and watch it all over again,
make some notes and just get out there
and hopefully you guys enjoy it.
Make sure you subscribe for more videos
in the Canon Leaning series.