At the start of this year, we went on a family ski trip to Lake Tahoe. I decided to document the trip in a new fashion… with VIDEO (after spending 10 years as a professional photographer, this was new territory for me). The result was SO MUCH FUN. The kids loved it. The Grandmas loved it. It’s now 6 months later and the kids STILL ask if they can watch ‘The Tahoe Video’ often.
So when we did a big road trip to Wisconsin this summer, I decided to do it again. Here’s the result:
This was filmed 100% with my iPhone (I have the 11 Pro), edited in iMovie (free on Apple devices), and used a song I licensed from MusicBed called “Deep Into The Wild.”
[My Mac Basics course has an iMovie lesson if you want to learn more!]
Tips for Documenting a Trip with Video!
- Always film horizontally. I switched away from vertical videos when I started using the 1 Second Everyday app 4+ years ago. It was hard to get used to at first, but now I’ll never go back. Video looks so much better when it fills your TV/computer screen- especially for a special project like this.
- Keep it brief. When I take out my phone to film, the clip is almost always under 20 seconds. Stringing together these short clips (I trim them even shorter when I’m editing) makes for a finished video that keeps your attention well.
- Capture “B-Roll” footage. Little clips that “set the scene” are fun to include. In the video I shared above you’ll see clips of the pine trees, feet splashing in the water, etc.
- Get in the video. Remember to hop in front of the camera yourself so that you’re present in this memory too! I use selfie mode or ask another family member to shoot videos.
- Don’t worry about the audio while filming. When I was filming fireworks for this video, there was a dog barking next to my phone and my Mom yelling “don’t hit my new raft!” but once I overlaid the soundtrack, it’s a totally different vibe. If there’s fun audio to keep from the clip (like the sound of the jetski) you can always bring that back in, but don’t throw out a video clip because of poor audio. (Speaking of audio, my favorite place to license music for these projects is MusicBed.)
Documenting our trips in this way has been SO much fun! I definitely plan to keep doing this in the future. What do you think… will you try it?
