How To Make A TRAVEL VIDEO: 5 Mistakes TRAVEL VLOGGERS Should Avoid

Are you making any of these common travel vlogging mistakes?

Many new travel vloggers begin creating work long before they step back to actually learn HOW to make a travel video. I certainly did!

Learning by doing is fantastic, however, there are many common mistakes new travel vloggers can avoid to enjoy an easier workflow with better results.

Learning to avoid these mistakes will make travel vlogging much more fun!

Here I share 5 mistakes I see new travel vloggers make – complete with examples of my terrible early footage – along with how YOU can avoid them.

I’d love to hear if you have made any of the same mistakes I did, or if you have any others you would love to see travel vloggers stop making.

Leave me a comment here on the blog, or on the video and let me know!

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1. Not Filming Enough B-Roll 

Let’s talk about B-Roll, because it’s a very hyped up thing over on YouTube.

The way I see it, a good vlog has two structural elements in addition to any cinematic sequences.

• A-Roll – This is your story line, it’s YOU talking to the camera about what’s going on.
• B-Roll – This is the object or scene you are talking about and want to show.

An ideal situation for say, an intro, would be perfect framing of an object, as you’re standing in front of it talking about it.

But it doesn’t always happen that way. Sometimes the object or scene is far too small or too big.

A better way to film this intro for the Paris Video would have been to film a nice well lit intro of my face, and then add beautiful B-Roll shots of the Eiffel tower over parts of me talking.

It’s a FAR less amateur way to create a travel video intro. 

B-Roll used in this way helps to break up the talking and add some visual interest. It also gives your viewers something to reference, AND it’s a sneaky little trick you can use to add in some edit points.

Now the PROBLEM, is that while you’re out travel vlogging, you may not be thinking about all of this B-Roll that you need, so you may forget to get it.

After all, traveling is hectic!

However, it’s important to stop, think, and just FILM the things you’re talking about. You may not use the footage later, or you may use it for cinematic sequences, but either way at least you will have it.

2. Not Including A Storyline

You also hear a lot about ‘storytelling’ over on YouTube, and with good reason.

A storyline is the foundation of an entertaining movie, or a short video.

Even if you are filming a vlog where you just go out and experience your day, chances are a story will evolve.

Since the story is already there, your job is simply to document it well.

You could, however, experience a great day with a great story, but instead accidentally leave out parts that help tell that story, and then include other parts that don’t.

OR, you could forget to include a basic story structure- beginning, middle, and end.

There’s a lot more I could say about this and it definitely does take practice. So when you’re starting out travel vlogging, just be mindful of the story you’re trying to present, and aim to tell it well.

Even the most beautiful travel footage with no storyline simply won’t hold anybody’s attention!

3. Poor Panning 

When a lot of us first start making videos, we tend to try to do what we see in movies.

We naturally emulate the sort of shots we’ve seen our whole lives.

One classic is the pan. The pan shot is just a sweeping shot of an environment, or following a subject along a horizontal axis.

Watch the video to see my example of a really bad pan from Italy!

It’s especially tempting to attempt a sweeping pan in a travel vlog because you might want to share all of the landscape that you are taking in. It’s also a super cool way to land on a subject, who then starts talking.

However, you can end up with some pretty crappy pans if you simply hold a camera out and move it along.

Here Are 2 Quick Ways To Film A Proper Panning Shot

First stabilize the camera by holding your arms tight against your body, and swivel your HIPS, not your arms as the pivot point. Hold the camera out tight by adding tension to the strap around your neck. Exhale as you do this to decrease shake.

OR, you pan your camera using a TRIPOD, or a GORILLA GRIP with a ball head specifically for video.

The ball head offers this smooth turning ability, so you can carefully bring your camera along its intended path.

Another tip is to definitely INTEND a path. Decide a starting point and a stopping point, preferably something in the foreground. Otherwise your pan will just seem pointless.

4. Creating A Perfect Travel Scenario

I was definitely guilty of this when I first started making travel videos.

Actually, I was sort of making them in more of a documentary style at first and not including any aspects of my life that is more of a ‘vlog’ style.

But once my vlogging instincts naturally fell into place, all of that changed.

Even if you are filming in full on ‘this is what’s happening’ vlog style, it can be tempting to put down the cameras and take a break when you suddenly enter into a stressful situation.

So let’s say you get massively lost trying to get somewhere. It seems like a terrible time to be messing with your camera or vlog, but really it does add a LOT to the story if you can pull off capturing those moments.

Getting MILDLY hurt is another example.

Your first instinct may be to put away the camera and stop the bleeding.

But as long as the bleeding isn’t too intense, it could be fun to at least note the situation and warn your viewers that the rocks along that hiking trail are slippery and you should definitely wear sturdy shoes to avoid a skinned knee.

By the way, I created a PDF document that expands on this a bit.

It’s a FREE download called MY TOP TRAVEL VLOGGING TIPS

These tips are different from the mistakes you’ll find in this video, and I encourage grabbing it if you want to really UP your travel vlogging game.

5. Using Inappropriate Music In Your Travel Video

There was a time on YouTube when all of these short travel videos began appearing that were just “EPIC”.

In my video, I show an example of GoPro’s demo compilation for a better understanding of this. It’s fast action, LOTS of cuts, LOTS of super well done footage and high adrenaline moments.

Sometimes, this high-energy beat dropping music is an amazing compliment to footage that suits it. 

However, some new travel vloggers seem to think that if they just throw together some ho hum travel footage sequences, and then top it all off with SUPER high energy music then their whole video will take on that style….

And no, it doesn’t work.

There is nothing wrong with editing together footage that is less than extraordinary. It’s not like we’re all out snow boarding and sky diving all the time. I’m certainly not!

But my suggestion is to try to find music that follows the pace of what it is that you’re doing.

There are lots of sources to find royalty free music for your travel videos, and I recently made a video about it if you’d like to see!

If you’d like to discover a place where you can get a WIDE range of great royalty free music for youtube videos, then I suggest ART LIST.

If you use my special affiliate LINK you can get an extra 2 Free months on your subscription! 

So that’s it friends!

I’d love to hear if you have made any of the same mistakes I did, or if you have any others you would love to see travel vloggers stop making.

Also, leave me a comment below so I know what sort of travel video production tips I can help you with next!

In case you missed it, last week I finally announced the launch of my first official AMaeTV product.

It is two awesome LUTS PACKS to give you the ability to quickly and easily color grade your videos for amazing results! Check out my SHOP page for all the information on how to make a purchase.

Or, here is a detailed video explaining color grading and introducing my LUTS.

I would LOVE to see you using my LUTS, so let me know if you decide to make them a part of your workflow and I will definitely check out the videos you create!

You may also want to check out some other recent posts I created >

This video and blog post break the process of creating a travel video down into 12 bite sized STEPS

If you enjoy these types of videos and you’re not subscribed to AMaeTV yet, please do so. That way you can catch all my latest travel videos- which always talk about the production involved.

xx, Alicia

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