Guides

Travel Filmmaking - What to Shoot and How to Shoot

To Zoom or not to Zoom?

Keep zooming to a minimum if you want a closer shot, get closer to the subject rather than zooming.

Tripod

If possible ensure all shots are ’locked-off" on a tripod.

Lighting

Use natural light where possible, best times are early morning and late afternoon Use reflector/lamps if required.

Other

What makes a story and what doesn’t?

Go back to finish a story off if you don’t have all the pieces

Guides

Travel Filmmaking Post Production Tips

Post Production

  • Editing the style and professionalism of your edit will be dependent upon what film you are making and for which audience.
  • Presentations - cut short films to illustrate your talk. Alternatively cut the audio from your him and set it to photographic slides.
  • Other places for your film if no one seems to want it. Don’t give up hope. Consider Video libraries (Ike photo libraries), Video archive libraries, news organisations (if news angle). campaigning organisations.

Rights

  • Whoever owns the rights has the power… and rights means money. Trust no one! Especially media professionals! Read contracts thoroughly and take legal advice.

Selling Pre-expedition

  • Research the commissioning editors you are approaching, what they have commissioned in the past and ‘strands’ they are currently commissioning.
  • Strongly consider working alongside an established production company to pitch ideas to broadcasters. Submit 1-to-2 page written pitch with illustrative photographs including:

Selling Post-expedition

  • Notoriously difficult as above with either a) short promo (to get money for post-production or b) complete edited film. Consult legal advice on all contracts.

Credit to String Films for much of this advice.

Guides

Travel Filmmaking Pre-Production Tips

Message

What is the message i want to communicate? This is important because it is the main objective of your film.

Audience

Who is the audience? Is it for the general public, kids, schools / education. It is meant to for public relations to attract corporate sponsorship. Is it an academic anthropological record? What is the best medium to reach this audience? ls film best or something else? If film, then what genre, style, format and structure? Will you make a documentary? Watch and study examples of films similar to the one you want to make.

Guides

COMPILE Simplify Diary
I wrote this post last winter (2010). Subsections are updates winter 2011 in retrospect.
I am going to be getting rid of things
  • My laptop died and I’m resisting the desire to buy another one. Instead, I am using Macs at uni and other machines for work. This has I think had a positive effects on my life the last couple of months. Because it was; creating a place where I could be to be organising files and things. Restricting my productivity due to not being able to run heavy duty apps like Indesign and Lightroom, and generally providing too many opportunities to fiddle due to its portability- I pity those with iPhones.
Reducing the stuff that I do
  • I have stopped actively looking for website work and instead tend to do very specialised work on other projects with other people. This is partly due to experience gained from working before and also from contacts gained through my course.
  • Being in London I have tried to grasp the reality that I can’t be doing mountain adventures all the time, so I’m not romanticising about them. Instead I have turned my attention to psychogeography stuff, walking and cycling in the city, urban exploring, history and place.
Killing off projects
  • I have come to an appreciation that ideas are cheap and plentiful, not all are worth pursuing and realising a good idea requires time, dedication and effort. Its impossible to realise all the ideas that I have and I wouldn’t want to anyway.
Roughing it more
  • I do this by deliberately doing Couchsurfing in the city and other forms of non-standard city accommodation. My life became more difficult, I had to put effort into everyday things like sleeping and eating but it was satisfying. However, a level of stability is important. Finding the right balance isn’t easy. Getting too comfortable results in laziness.
Eating less
  • I make my everyday life so that it requires more effort and I didn’t have the chance to spend time snacking in a flat. I am eating well, but have a life that requires the energy.
Denaturalising my technological instincts
  • I did a U-turn on this one. Instead I stay aware of the ‘call of technology’ and have plenty of downtime. On the other hand I am going in deeper with technology and trying out new things like mobile technology, working on macs, GPS, materials, biomimicry, coding, design research.
Making tactile objects instead of digital based media
  • I have done research on craftsmanship through my university course and I have written an essay on the value of knowledge gained through experience. I am yet to do enough making though, and this is coming up in a project where I am looking at artist Daniel McNett.
Spending more time with people talking, cooking, making fires, walking.
  • I am spending more time with people these days because I am there with people.