How to Successfully Film a Travel Vlog

Iz Harris, a travel vlogger gives advice and what formulas she uses to shoot and edit for her videos.

What I’ve gotten from this is that you mainly have three types of shots you need to get in order to give the viewer context and what it would be like to actually be there. Harris really focuses on not just showing the viewer the space, but rather immerse the person and give them the feeling of what it would actually be like visiting the place or space.

What’s really worth noting is that she has what she calls a formula for doing this, although I think each one of us would have our own way of taking the type of shots we think are important to show.

In the Edit

You need to make the video flow. In order to do so, she uses the best footage up front to give the viewer context. She then follows this with an introduction where she tells the viewer what the video will be about, where she is and what to expect, and then goes into adding all the shots she’s taken that she thinks portrays the place.

Look at the pacing. To tell a story make it a “cohesive viewing experience”. Each place you’ll be visiting, and activities you’d be participating, will require a different pace.

What I’ve Learnt

Look at a theme for your video based on what you took from the experience on a personal level. Base the music, sound effects, and pace on that theme and create your video with that as thread to best portray what a person could experience when visiting the place.

Wouter du Toit's picture

Wouter is a portrait and street photographer based in Paris, France. He's originally from Cape Town, South Africa. He does image retouching for clients in the beauty and fashion industry and enjoys how technology makes new ways of photography possible.

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5 Comments

I am always looking for that "Golden Nugget", that one extra little piece of the puzzle... and this video totally delivered! Thanks for highlighting it.

So true, she really shares some great advice.

Great little vid. I was wanting to produce some travel videos and was really wondering how to start. Your video was exactly what I needed.

I'm happy to hear! She shares some great information in the video. So good to learn the process of one who's done it before in some way, so you can adjust it to your style and workflow. Have fun on your next trip!

I think that people are too serious about travel blogging. If you don't wanna monetize your content, just film whenever you want on your camera without "color grading" and other stuff. Modern cameras make quite good output without tweaking. I'm gonna visit Africa and climb Kilimanjaro https://en.altezza.travel/articles/climbing-kilimanjaro-difficulty next month. I'm gonna take my Canon R and 24-105 f4 and that's all I need. I don't wanna spend time planning video stuff.