Creative Approaches to Making Travel and Vacation Movies

Your travel movie can be much more than just pretty pictures. Still photos of beautiful scenery can make a great slideshow, but it's hard to make a great movie of just scenery (unless you add music). Interacting with people and places will help you make a more compelling movie.

Travel movies can be full of characters. So meet locals and videotape them. Talk to and shoot a cafe owner or a lobsterman, surfers, or a lady selling tomatoes; you'll be amazed at what people tell you. (Remember that you have the power to edit out anything when you're back at your computer.) While you're in the field, connect and engage with peopleand shoot away!

Ask people where the locals like to eat bestand what should you order thereand then go there. Videotape the menu, your meal, the waitress (perhaps), and your own personal standup restaurant review (using the tripod) afterward. Even just one brief sequence like this can be very funny.

Don't overlook the characters you are traveling withincluding yourself. You'll probably be shooting your traveling companions on your trip, but don't forget to add one very important character in your movie: you. Ask your friends or family members to take over shooting at times.

If you can't get anyone to shoot you on camera because they don't know how to use the camcorder, set up your tripod, frame a shot large enough for you to appear in, push Record, and get in front of the camera yourself. Or get the whole gang, including you, on camera together.

You can set up your shot in front of a landmark or spectacular view and talk to the camera about what is happening and where you are. Then you can shoot what you've described (without you in the frame) to have extra footage to edit in so your audience can experience what you've been talking about.

Tip

The feature documentary Grizzly Man (directed by Werner Herzog) is a brilliant example of a movie made from self-filmed footage. You can rent it for inspiration.

When you edit your video, remember that you can make as many versions as you likefrom a short highlights movie to a full-on epic. You can share different versions with different audiences or use a quick highlights movie online to get people to come over for a big at-home screening of the longer movie.

Think ahead about the shoot and organize yourself and your equipment to make sure you'll get the shots that it takes to make a great travel movie.