Tips To Making Promo Videos For Instagram While Traveling The World

Chances are you’ve already seen a lot of travel videos on your Instagram feed and witnessed the fantastic lifestyles and adventures of some people. Now, you want to try it yourself and maybe earn a decent amount of money from it.

The more established influencers have money to hire professional photographers and videographers. They do it, so all they have to do is to pose and talk in front of the camera. The problem is that not all travelers have that kind of luxury, and it may also be valid for you. If that’s the case then how would you be able to come up with excellent promo videos for Instagram? Luckily for you, there are things that you do to help ensure that you’re still going to stand out online while traveling the world.

Below are some tips for you to ponder:

Decide On The Right Kind Of Travel Video To Make

As you probably already know (or maybe not yet), travel videos come in many forms. You have several choices depending on the purpose of why you’re going to make it. Before you begin shooting, it’s essential to know which style you want, whether it’s the usual walking out there on the streets, or the vlogging style where you have to talk a lot.

Some people also prefer a more cinematic, inspirational, fast-cut video. It’s where you don’t have to narrate what’s happening or what you see around too much. Again, it all boils down to the purpose of making the travel video. Some of the questions that you can ask yourself to make things clear include who your target audience is and the feeling that you want them to get when they watch the clip.

Most promotional videos on IG have the purpose of inspiring other people to visit a specific country by bombarding their audience with beautiful visuals and authentic interactions with the locals. That way, the maker of the promo vid gets to transfer the energy they got from their personal experiences with the place to the viewers. 

If the purpose of your video is not to inform your viewers but only to show the beauty of a country you have visited with bits of artistry, then the cinematic, fast-cut style would be a more suitable option.

Prepare The Right Gear

An essential gear to carry with you when you visit a place to make a promo video for Instagram is a camera. It’s necessary to note that there are a lot of options for the camera to use, and your choice can influence your work.

If you’re only beginning to capture photos and videos and still going to learn along the way, then a compact, lightweight setup would be your best bet. Cameras like the Sony Rx100M3 and others could be the ideal choice if you aren’t so familiar with basic settings like ISO, aperture, and shutter speed yet. These models can automate most of the process when you’re finally out there to shoot.

After some time and once you’ve already learned how to manipulate the settings of the camera to your advantage, you can then shift to a more advanced gear for sharper footage. The more sophisticated devices also have lenses that can cover broad enough angles. They also have excellent zoom capabilities, which are useful if you’re going to take a shot of subjects from afar.

Don’t Limit Your Creativity

Instagram will only allow you to post a one-minute video on the feed and a 15-second one for the IG story. That’s too short for you? Well, you have to enhance your creativity so that you could still make things interesting. Don’t limit your creativity because of time constraints. Use the limitation as a creative opportunity and bring your best product out of it.

Again, it’s only a matter of finding the purpose of your promo vid and staying positive that you can do it. Once you have those things figured out, you’ll take the right direction, starting from your ideas to the final editing of the output.

Shoot Smartly

What usually happens with most vloggers when they come back home and start editing the clips from their travel is they begin to see what’s lacking from what they have and wish they had more material to include in the final output. Because of this, some of them overshoot once they roam around their subject country or place the next time.

While there’s nothing wrong with it, chances are you’ll miss enjoying the beauty of the country and defeat the ultimate purpose of why you traveled in the first place. Whether you’re going to visit Bangkok in Thailand or Puerto Princesa in the Philippines, what you can do instead is to shoot smartly.

So, what does shooting smartly mean? It’s dedicating a block of time when all you’ll take care of is gather shots that you can include in your promo video. It’s best to dedicate time for shooting in the morning or around sunset. You can then use the rest of the day to explore and enjoy whatever experiences await you.

Use Contrasting Visuals

Contrasting visuals is one of the best strategies to use when capturing adventures as you travel the world. As you know, you have a lot of options when it comes to the type of shots to use and experiment with so you could tell your story and that of the place more effectively. Your clip can include action shots, close-ups, wide shots, low shots, and high shots, among others. It’s a way to make your promo video pop and become a hit among your audience.

Final Thoughts

One thing that you always have to remember is not to focus too much on yourself and end up forgetting to highlight the place you’ve visited. That reminder, together with all the tips mentioned and discussed above, should help you produce your best output for a promo video for Instagram as you travel around the world.