Editing
Truth be told, this is probably where most travel vlogs hit a brick wall. Everything that has been discussed so far is useful to know, but it’s also possible for most people whether they shoot good or bad footage to at least record something. The point where most vlogs end up not happening is when you need to sit down and edit them.
Editing takes time. There really isn’t a way to fast track it. You’ll have to watch through all the footage that you recorded and probably watch through it all several times. So when I advised you to get too much video rather than too little…yeah sorry about that.
And whilst it may feel daunting to have 6 hours of footage for what you hoped would be a 15 minute vlog it is still worth having too much, because I’d bet that most travel vlogs get given up on because when the vlogger sits down to look at the footage they realise they don’t have enough footage of the thing they want to show or that too much of it is shakey or has some other issue.
Editing video is often like putting together a jigsaw without an image of what the picture your trying to assemble looks like. It is something that develops as you do it, and often times it can end up looking very different than you imagined.
I always will go through my footage a few times. The first time I will watch each clip, and will make some very quick decisions to trim to the beginnings or ends off the footage for when I was setting up shots or ending them. That is easy to edit out.
But I’ll also judge if I think some footage is worth keeping, and I’ll try to make quick, and decisive and often harsh decisions on this. If you look at all your footage and think ‘maybe this is a good bit’ you’ll end up with too much footage for the vlog. It was great to have too much when filming, but editing is where you have to make the choices of whether your audience will want to sit and watch what you have to offer. If something isn’t necessary then cut it. In editing a travel vlog it’s better to leave the audience wanting to see more of your adventures rather then get bored of seeing a bit too much of them.
Sometimes you’ll need to include a clip or two which may not be the greatest, but for the context of the narrative you are telling a shakey camera clip or a slightly longer clip of you arriving at a location will help the audience understand where you are and why and even if these clips aren’t the greatest, they may help tell the story you’re trying to tell.
If you’ve got a good mic. (and even the voice recorder on your phone may be good enough), you may decide to record a voice over to add thoughts or context to your footage. This may require you to script something so that you are clear and concise, and again this may feel that it adds a lot of time to the process, especially if you’ve not done over overs before, but don’t let it intimidate you – you’re just saying your thoughts and with practice you’ll be able to become comfortable recording a few short voice over clips.
Now to explain what I was talking about when I said to zoom in the edit! Lots of cameras or phones are capable of 4K ultra high definition footage. And whilst many people have 4K TVs now, many still do not, and most of the footage on YouTube is only 1080p or less anyway. So what that means is that if you shot in full HD or 4K, it’s unlikely that most of your audience will see that quality footage anyway.
This being the case you will find that you didn’t always need to attempt the manual zoom, and that a wide shot in a high resolution will allow you to do a digital zoom in post production. This is where you tell the computer to zoom in on your footage by cropping the frame and giving the illusion that you are zooming in. The benefit of this is that a computer zoom in will always have a perfectly smooth hand and want have any jarring jerks or wobbles.
Of course having said all of this some vloggers barely edit their footage at all and some like to do live vlogs where they stream live to Facebook or YouTube and show locations and give thoughts in the moment, although I’d argue that these videos are less watchable later when they’re no longer live, and there would feel less incentive to return to watch them a second time unless they are later edited.
In terms of editing software there are things like Adobe Premiere, or Final Cut Pro which are some of the big brands. Personally I use Magix Vegas Pro (formally Sony Vegas Pro) but there are loads of cheaper options including some which are completely free. I’ll do another article later to talk about the specifics of editing as it can go very in depth, but will say that whatever editing software you use, remember that most people don’t watch a. Travel vlog to see you include Hollywood style special FX, and that if you include few nice transitions and on screen text that will be more than enough to give your vlog the professional look.
So there you have it! A few tips to get you started with your travel vlog. If you haven’t done so already feel free to check out o Jet Lagged and Loving It vlog series on YouTube and don’t forget to smash that subscribe button at http://www.YouTube.com/extremeimprov if you want to support our vlog and other video content.
Happy vlogging!
