I just got back from an american road trip, so I wanted to share some of the things that
I learned from filming it all, but also plenty of the mistakes I made.
At the beginning of the trip, I thought, this’ll be easy, I'll just film what happens, as it
happens.
But that didn’t work.
Take a look, this is all the footage I got from spending a couple of days skiing:
(we got me holding the camera while trying to ski, this shot of my friend Walker, Jack
putting his glove on, and Ralf was also with us, but this is all the footage I have).
That’s literally all I filmed, and watching it back, I can tell you, it’s really not
an accurate representation of what those days were like.
Sure, it shows a bit of what we did, but I failed to capture the most important thing
- what it felt like.
Now here’s what it was really like: to begin with, very frustrating, realising how difficult
it skiing is.
Now none of my clips showed that, so I should have passed the camera around so we could
film each other as we tried and failed to ski.
And then I could have pointed the camera at myself and talked about what it was like.
But then later on, the most prominent emotion had to be the thrill of going faster than
I was comfortable going.
So rather than just filming the flat bit at the end of the run, I should have filmed,
or got someone else to film when we were skiing fast.
Could have filmed over the edge of a steep run and talked about how nervous I was to
try it, and then afterwards, talked about the buzz you get from facing your fears.
But I didn’t do any of that, so the frustration and excitement and satisfaction really doesn’t
come across in the footage I got, because I wasn’t thinking about the emotion.
Instead, I just started filming whenever it was convenient ie - when nothing else was
going on.
So of course the footage was bad.
Rather than filming when I felt like filming, I had to try and think of the people who might
watch the footage, and how I want them to feel.
And so I ended finding three common types of reaction to travel videos:
Number one is beauty - the audience goes wow, isn’t that an incredible landscape or I’m
so jealous of that luxurious hotel room, perfect sunset, whatever it is.
Number two is adventure - the audience goes ehh this is dangerous, or that looks like
so much fun.
Here are a couple of mild examples: "This is called getting out of your comfort
zone." "it's cracking, it's moving"
And number three is reality - it’s usually worth including a bit of every day stuff,
going from place to place, getting food, it’s more honest than only showing the top highlights
of excitement and beauty.
Give it more personality, and is much more authentic.
A few examples:
And so once we've got that foundation of thinking about emotion, then we get into how we're
actually filming.
I think the main thing that can prevent us from capturing real emotions is if we are
shy on camera, or the people around us are.
So I found a couple of things that seemed to help if there was any awkwardness.
Firstly, I found it much easier to film when something else is already happening, when
people are already doing something, rather than just asking them out of the blue to ‘say
something for the camera’.
But for me the best one of all is to try and avoid looking through the screen when recording
other people - they tend to relax if you can angle the camera towards them, but still make
eye contact and talk to them as you would normally, rather than staring silently at
them through the camera.
Now - to briefly talk about equipment - to start with I brought my DSLR with a zoom lens
and a microphone, but honestly, I missed out on so much while I was taking it out of my
bag, removing the lens cap, and turning the microphone on.
So for the rest of the trip, I used old point and shoots, which could go in and out of the
pocket hundred times a day if needed.
The only problem was the audio quality - some of the footage was ruined by the wind, I
wish i’d got one of those mini windshields.
So obviously it’s completely up to you what gear you use, if you’re willing to carry
it, and take the time to set it up, of course you can go for the big, expensive gear, but
for what I was doing, I wanted it as small and light as possible.
Now when it comes to editing - the simplest thing to do is a montage - like this 30 second
edit:
Now that had some beauty with the nice scenery, some adventure with Jack, and some menial
shots of just walking.
But it’s doesn’t really count as a traditional story, it’s just a jumble of shots rather
than each one passing to the next.
So here’s my attempt at telling a short story using just the footage from that same
day: so aparently, if we hike down to about there,
we should be able to see the colorado river.
so we've just reached the halfway point of our hike.
And the key thing is that we've only done the downhill, so we're half way, but we've
done the easy half, not the difficult half.
So we've just started heading back up to the top, and we have full 360 degree grand canyon,
full 360 degrees.
We're going up there, to the very top.
The sun is hot.
Jack, how you feeling?
My forehead man, could fill a swimming pool right now, it is moist.
Back to the top.
Doesn't actually look like that far down, which is disappointing...
This is one of the best bits, when you get to take your boots off.
So good.
Now, I’m not claiming that that was a golden example of storytelling, but I personally
would rather watch ten minutes of that kind of thing, rather than ten minutes of the first
one, the montage.
Obviously the audience is the only judge of how entertaining it is, but I can say that
the story version is a fairly accurate summary of that day - and most importantly, how it
felt to be there - which is why I included those sweaty, exhausted shots, because that
is an honest representation of what it was like.
So while there is a time and a place for high production value, epic music and flashy transitions,
I think travel videos are actually a great chance to practice simple, honest storytelling.
That said, i’m very glad be back, and I will see you next week.
Jack: You have to find the perfect stones Simon: That's impressive!
Jack:4, 3, 2, 1...
There we go.
Simon: Impressive Jack