• I always want to learn the skills of making a travel Vlog to present every trip. It is a good way to record the memory and it is cool to show others. I did make one for Hamilton vacation. However, it doesn’t look that good. From my perspective, I think there are some special tricks only for travel videos, such as different camera movement, angles, and editings. Thus, I decided to learn some Youtube tutorials to increase my skills. I hope I can make a better Vlog this time for Vanuatu.

(Figure 1: the screenshot of a travel Vlog of Vanuatu by Arctic Media, source by Zhen )

Equipment requirement:

• Normally, there are types of equipment used a lot for travel videos, such as GoPro, DJI, video camera and iPhone. Consider the portable convenient, my friend and I will use two GoPro to film videos. GoPro actually has great wide-view and high visual quality. Thus, I think we can have the cinematic quality videos.

Camera movements:

• Basically, this Youtuber talks a lot about how to use the body to achieve some great camera movements.
  • Firstly, he introduces the method to film the object around the circle. Just squat a little bit, go down with legs and move the camera horizontally from one leg to another leg. Besides, make sure the camera focuses on the subject all the time and make it in the center of the image. If we want a wider shot, we also need to use hands. Use the body first then use hands to get a more stable shot.

(Figure 1: the screenshot of the film techniques, source by Zhen)

• • The next technique is the swipe up, which actually moves the camera vertically. For having a better frame, we can put the strap of the camera and hold it intense. The close-up shot is a good choice for this movement.
  • The third one is zoom in and zooms out. Because GoPro doesn’t have the function, we can use our body to achieve the same result, basically just lean forward and then lean backward.

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  • The final shot is the passing-by shot, which starts outside and then films the subject. Normally, it works well with the close-up shot.

Transition techniques:

• The first transition is covering the field of view with an object. We can physically place an object over the lens and then remove an object from the top of the lens. Another way is zoom into a color/subject then zoom out from the color/subject.
• Next transition is a spin. It is easy to do it if we follow the same direction. The opposite one called up and down also can work well for the transition.
• Another one is using the same action or movement. For example, using the jump to achieve the transition.
• The last one is using the frame and focus from unclear to clear.

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