We’ve all witnessed the amazing lifestyles, travels and adventures of our favourite people on Instagram, every day on our feeds.
It’s like those pretty people just have pro photographers follow them around their daily lives right?
Well, as a traveller and adventurer yourself who HASN’T got this luxury, but still want an awesome IG account, I want to share an Instagram secret with you that’s going to make you stand head and shoulders above even the prettiest person backflipping off the biggest cliff.
And that is… Instagram travel videos.
Now I’m not talking about a one-shot, shaky, rough video filmed on your phone…
I’m talking about cool adventures and creative filmmaking, condensed into a 15 second Instagram video.
Here’s an example of a great travel video that works on Instagram:
Instagram videos have the potential to really draw you in more than photos possibly could. My followers have told me multiple times that my Instagram travel videos make my feed stand out, and I want the same for you too.
To get you even more excited about this – one of the best things about insta videos is that you can use any music you want! Because the clips are a maximum 15 seconds in length, at present instagram doesn’t care what music you choose.
Before we get into the Steps to creating awesome instagram travel videos, there are some bigger names out there doing this that are very worth mentioning just for your inspiration, such as:
Check them out!
Now you’re inspired and wanna get creative with all kinds of Insta videos of your travels with all kinds of cool music, let’s get into the How-To.
How to create awesome Instagram travel Videos
Step 1: Understand this: Limitation = Creativity
It’s easy to think “15 seconds? How am I supposed to make anything interesting in that time? What’s the point?”
However.
If you begin to push aside these thoughts and view this 15 second limitation as a creative opportunity, then things start to get interesting.
How can you tell a story in 15 seconds?
How can you give your followers a real sense of what a particular moment was truly like in 15 seconds?
In the travel video above I couldn’t sleep on a night bus across Europe, so wanted to capture that trippy-blurry vibe you get when drifting in and out of sleep on a night journey.
Viewing your travel filmmaking in this light can give you a sense of purpose and direction right from your ideas, to your shots, to your edit.
So let’s break these down and talk about shots.
Step 2: Use contrasting visuals for your travel videos
New video out now!! Link in bio?? Lemme know allll your thoughts ? Tom
A video posted by THOMAS ALEX NORMAN (@thomasalexnorman) on
The way I love to capture my adventures is through contrasting visuals, often using a lot of different types of shots to really engage the viewers. There are tonnes of different shot types to experiment and tell your story with.
Think about what each shot communicates. For example, a close up could communicate a sensory experience such as touch, whilst a wide shot can capture an entire landscape.
Check out the example above of another insta video, that summarises a couple of months I spent in Barcelona, featuring tonnes of contrasting visuals.
See them? The clip included:
- High shots
- Low shots
- Close Up’s
- Wides shots
- Actions Shots (GoPro)
Using a lot of different shot types is what really can make your videos ‘pop’.
Now that we’ve got the shots, lets talk about the Edit.
Step 3: Editing your Instagram travel videos
Next adventure ? England > Poland > Hungary > …?
A video posted by THOMAS ALEX NORMAN (@thomasalexnorman) on
Now’s the hardest (and most fun!) part, where you choose the best and cut out the worst.
Remember: You’ve only got 15 seconds.
Be brutal and cut out the shots that don’t add anything, in favour of those that tell the story and/or look awesome.
If you’re slightly more advanced, you can also incorporate clever editing techniques to really make the video “pop” such as
- Slow-motion
- Time-lapses
- Jump cuts (jumping forward in time in the middle of a shot to the beat of the music)
- Stabilisation (Getting that “helicopter-smooth” effect)
- Now you’ve got the basic cut, it’s time to add the music!
(It’s worth noting here that in terms of process, I always develop a rough cut of my footage to get a feel for it, THEN choose and add music and finalise the cut from there.)
Step 4: Choosing Music for your Instagram Travel Video
Mandatory boxing day walk in the countryside ?
A video posted by THOMAS ALEX NORMAN (@thomasalexnorman) on
As I said before, you can now choose ANY track to go with your video!
Go crazy with music.
Use anything you want!
One piece of advice I always give here is to choose a track that is the same pace, and “vibe” of your footage.
Don’t pretend your trip was something it isn’t by adding in crazy upbeat house music to a slow, romantic boat trip. Choose a track that suits your travel adventure!
If you want to go out there and start making travel films for Instagram, YouTube or just for your own memories, first thing you want to know is what camera to use right?
Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. As an introduction to my value packed newsletter and personal universe, I always give away my ‘ultimate travel gear-list’ for free so you can get started asap.
If you’re really keen for more then I open up enrolment to my complete travel filmmaking course and community ‘Editing Mastery’.
Don’t worry – grab the gear list and I’ll let you know when enrolment is next opening.
Good luck with your first insta-edit!
Do you have any tips for creating Instagram travel videos? Leave your instagram handle in the comments so we can check them out!
