Transcription
I think it's pretty obvious travel videos have changed. Gone are the days of trendy transitions, backflips, hype edits, and empty videos. Now, more than ever, people are craving connection, depth, real stories, and films that make you feel something—authentic. In this video, I'll be talking about how you can turn your next adventure into a film people actually connect with, and not just another piece of content thrown into the void and forgotten about.
If you don't know me, I've directed campaigns for DJI and Canon, and I've traveled the world over the last decade creating unique travel films here on my YouTube channel, and I feel like I've had decent success doing so. This isn't going to be a technical video. I'm not going to be telling you what gear you should or shouldn't buy. I'm not going to be telling you how to frame your shots. But what this video will cover is my preparation and mindset, and my approach to creating a travel film people connect with. [Music]
So if that's what you're interested in, first make sure you're subscribed, and next let's get into it. For me, a travel film starts long before I leave my house. Set your intention. It's not about where; it's about why. You see, there's no right way to make a travel film; in fact, there's no right way to make any kind of art. My definition of a travel film is essentially just sharing the beauty of the world and the human experience through your lens, and that could mean anything. Just ask yourself this question: Why am I making this? Is it to capture moments and memories from your trip? Is it to show the local culture? Is it to show landscapes or share the story of someone you met along the way? Again, there's no right or wrong answer. It's just very important to give this a little bit of thought so you can get the ball rolling and lead with intention.
You see, I've been all around the world telling stories, and I try my best to make the stories and films different and unique to each trip. In Morocco, I told the story of local nomads. In Iceland, I told the story of self-discovery. In Patagonia, it was a film about my friend's struggle with alcohol. In New Zealand, I just made a funny video with my friends where we went on a road trip and wore turtlenecks. The core component is: it's okay to be different, as long as you're real and true to the trip that you went on. If you want to impact people, if you want to inspire people, for me it's just extremely important to find something to say, and that way you can evoke a real emotion within your audience.
And if you're not sure about what you want to say or what film you want to make, well, that's where step two comes in. Before I leave, I always try to dive in and get inspired and get excited about my trip. So I do this in a multitude of ways. The biggest one is music. I go to Artlist and create catalogues within Artlist of different songs that I think could fit the potential film that I'm making. Then I'll head over to Frameset and get different shot inspirations from different films and get ideas for color grades and different framing, just to really get myself excited about leaving.
I find a ton of inspiration from other travel filmmakers here on YouTube. You might want to write this down: Aiden Robbins, Elliot Grafton, Railan, Joey Brinn North, Watch Luke, Carl Shakur, Natalie Lynn, GW Tim to the Wild, Sam Newton. I think he has some good travel videos you can watch to get a little bit inspired. Um, but the whole idea here is to just go to these channels because they all tell their stories so, so differently, and for me that's such an invigorating experience and gets me excited for the creative process. But it's one thing to be inspired; it's another thing to act on that inspiration, and that takes me to my next step, which is taking all my inspiration and putting it into one place on Milanote, who happens to be the sponsor of this video.
Now, travel films are tough because you can't normally script out the entire thing and the entire shot list before you leave. But how Milanote really helps me organize all my inspiration in one place, so when I'm on my trip I can quickly reference back to it. I'm a very scatterbrain person, but I love how Milanote allows me to throw all my thoughts into one place and keep it visual. Nothing scares me more than Google Docs and Excel spreadsheets. I am a very messy person, so I really like being visual. I like seeing everything in one place, and Milanote allows me to do that. I can keep my music in one spot, my inspiration, my reference images, my script—everything is in one place, and it's all laid out very visually.
Another cool element about Milanote is you can create boards within boards to keep your ideas organized. However you can organize it, however you'd like. Guys like Railan, one of my favorite YouTubers on this channel who I mentioned earlier, he has some of the most insane Milanote boards where you can look at, and he just has so much packed into one board, and it's really, really impressive how he does it, and I just love the customizability of Milanote and how you can actually create it to however your brain works. So if you are interested in supporting the channel and actually improving your travel film-making experience, go to Milanote. You can use the link in my description. It's completely free to start, so you can go check it out, see if it's good for you, and uh, start playing around with it, start making some boards, and really start organizing your trips before you actually go on them. It's very helpful. Thank you, Milanote, for sponsoring. Let's dive in to step [Music] four.
Okay, so you've given thought into your video. You know where you're going. You've done the prep, and now it's time to shoot. Now I know I said I wasn't going to talk about gear, but I'm going to let you in on a little secret: my biggest piece of gear that I use on these trips: my notebook. Step four is to be a journalist and write it down. It helps me constantly search for stories within my journey, and for me it's super important to not only be a filmmaker but to also be a journalist, because when you do that you build this real connection to what you're working on, and I love that about writing. So even if it's something that makes you uncomfortable, start writing down your thoughts during these trips. I promise you, you're going to start saying things and coming up with ideas that you never even knew you had. And then you look at everything you've written down and start to find the common themes to really get an idea of the story you want to tell, and at that point you can start planning your shots more intentionally to match that story.
I want my travel films to be true to my experience, so I never overly plan. I want things to happen authentically. So that's why I write. How often have you gone out with your camera and just fired off a ton of bangers and then have no idea what video you want to make when you get back? That's because you have no emotional connection to your films, and I really think writing helps fix that. So whether you use a journal or just your notes app, don't be afraid of what you have to say, because I promise that's how your film will create a real connection with your audience. However, you can't actually make a film without going out and shooting the film itself. And I know by now I've talked for 8 minutes or so about my preparation and mindset because it's so, so important to come from this place of realness and intention. But now let's talk about shooting. Let's talk about the fun stuff: shot selection.
And in my films, there are two separate shots that I always try to prioritize: the cinematic shots and the candid shots. Now the cinematic ones are the ones you'd expect. They feel like you're in a movie. They're framed like a photograph, often on a tripod, a drone, a gimbal—lots of movement, really trying to be artistic and create these different worlds, worlds within our films. This is where the artist in you can thrive because you can focus on framing and making the image look as beautiful as possible. Sometimes you'll have someone looking off in the distance to elicit this feeling of wonder, or using negative space to show the vastness of where you are. Sometimes I direct people to do something specific to where we are, like take a photo or pick up dirt, and really just create these scenes where I shoot a wide, a medium, and a tight and create a scene within your story.
However, cinematic shots at times can feel staged, and that's why I think for me it's equally as important to get the candid shots, which are so often overlooked in this industry. But for my films, the ones that connect with people the most, these are the handheld ones, the BTS, non-curated, the real moments. For these, I always have a mic on to get the raw audio and shoot exclusively at 24 frames per second to capture the truest moment, the behind-the-scenes, when life is messy, the moments that feel true to your trip. These are the shots that, if you sprinkle in correctly, are really going to make it feel real and really going to make it feel human. And I promise you, if you can add this element, it's going to take it to that next level.
And if you combine all of these things that we've talked about, that's where the fun starts; that's where the magic starts to unveil. Once you get back, you'll get the privilege of turning your adventure into art. You have the song that matches your story, the color grade that enhances your emotion, and a voiceover that pulls people in and connects with your audience. But the most important thing is to follow through and just make [Music] it. We make travel films to share the beauty of the world, tell stories of the human experience, and turn our adventure into art that means something. And if you can create a film that does that and feels true to who you are, then you'll have something that will live with you forever. Remember, the call to adventure is in all of us. Answer it. That, with our [Music] [Music] Je—what a privilege it is to be a storyteller, an artist, and an explorer. Do these things and be true to yourself, and I promise your films will inspire so many people. As always, thank you for watching. If you want to get some more inspiration, you can head to my channel, watch any of my travel films, make sure you subscribe, drop me a like and comment. Let's get cinematic. If you made it to the end of this beast of a video, go check out Milanote, and I'll see you in the next one. Stay creamy. Bye.