5 Reasons Why You Should Start Making Travel Films
We’ve all experienced a moment of envy for those beautiful travel videos you see on YouTube and Vimeo. I’m not talking about Instagram Stories or those crappy home videos we’ve all made with our GoPro and selfie stick. I’m talking about the kind of travel videos that transport you to another world with jaw dropping cinematography that captures the authentic beauty of the exotic locations, local people and cultures. Wouldn’t it be awesome if on your next vacation you could make something worth sharing? Here are 5 great reasons why YOU need to step up your game, and start making travel films on your next trip:
1. PRESERVE YOUR MEMORIES
We are living in a golden age of travel. More than ever are people are realizing the value of experiences over material things. After all, things will come and go, but experiences will stay with you forever… or at least we hope they will. But even if they stay with you for a while, eventually memories can fade. So why not capture your experiences in a way that will not only preserve the most important visual moments of your life, but might also inspire others to do the same?
Preserve your most precious travel memories.
2. GIVE YOUR TRAVELS PURPOSE
Whether you’re heading out on a two-week vacation or doing what I did, leaving your job for a long term adventure, creating travel films gives your experience a whole new sense of purpose. It’s easy to get side tracked, especially the longer you travel. Having that much freedom to do what you want and go where you want can actually become overwhelming and eventually, you can feel lost.
3. CONNECT WITH LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Creating travel films gives you a focus that you wouldn’t have otherwise. Sure, you can always be making your list of next “top 10 temples I need to visit”, but a film just about temples is something few want to watch. So what if you don’t just go to the temples, but you go there and meet with the monks? What if you go there to film daily life at the temple? Suddenly you have a greater purpose that will not only carry you outside your comfort zone of just sightseeing and reading informative plaques, but connect you with the local cultural community, which is what travel is really all about. Ten years from now, good luck remembering temple #23. But that monk, who invited you in for tea after filming him, and told you his life story, while you told him yours, is something you will remember forever.
Making travel films brings you closer to the people and places you visit.
4. MAKE LAYOVERS AND LONG RIDES MORE FUN
Shooting travel films also gives you “busy work” when you don’t know what else to do. There can be a lot of downtime when you travel. From overlays at airports to 14-hour train rides… at times you need something to do! So why waste your time watching reruns on Netflix for the 100th time, when you could be busy creating your own incredible visual masterpiece to share with the world?
Give yourself something to do on long rides and layovers.
5. DISCOVER NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Making travel films might not just give you a new hobby. It could also lead to new opportunities. You may discover a talent you never knew you even had and could lead to a career change. Sick of your day job? Practice videography on your vacations and who knows, maybe when you get home you’ll feel inspired to start a new career as a wedding videographer or local commercial production company. Even if you don’t decide on a complete career change, you never know what other opportunities could present themselves while you are filming such as exclusive access to events or monuments.
Filmmaker Nathaniel Connella capturing the opening shot to his National Geographic Short Film Showcase, ‘Rhythms of Peru’.
LEARN HOW TO MAKE TRAVEL FILMS
If you’re feeling inspired after reading this but don’t know where to begin, you’re in luck.
Nathaniel Connella is an award winning professional travel filmmaker who has been featured by National Geographic, BBC Travel, Lonely Planet and more. His eBook titled, ‘A Beginner’s Guide To Travel Filmmaking’ is an easy, to the point read that explains all the essential tools and ideas you will need to take your travel films to the next level.
