When you go on a week-long trip with friends, especially if alcohol is involved, it’s hard to remember all the inside jokes, delicious meals, and travel disasters that make your trip so enjoyable. As a generation, we tend to obsess over capturing ‘THE’ photo on holiday to create an ideal image for social media. While dressing up and looking stunning each night is fun, I’d argue that it’s equally important to stop taking yourself so seriously and instead focus on capturing the silly moments. The home video is truly a lost art and has been overshadowed by the disposable culture of smartphones; deliberately choosing to record your travels with a video camera ensures that the footage you capture is high-quality and meaningful, rather than being confined to your Snap memories.
What to use?
The best way to start is to source a camera that is not your phone; this will prevent you from getting distracted by notifications and being that one chronically online friend who has their phone out at dinner. I use a video camera that I found lying around at my parents’ house, but a standard digital camera works really well if you already own one. If you’re not so lucky, keep an eye out for bargains in charity shops and on eBay. Make sure you don’t go too vintage, though, because camcorders that use tapes can be really difficult to transfer to a laptop. When you leave, don’t forget to pack the charger and some spare SD cards.
How to document your travels
If you are travelling with your friends to the airport, that’s a great place to start. Get some cute shots of the plane and everyone’s airport outfits. Once you have arrived, a tour of your accommodation is essential! Other great opportunities to get the video camera out are when you’re out at a restaurant for dinner, if you go to the beach, or when you visit any landmarks. Channel your inner Zoella and record anything of significance, because when you’re back home, I can guarantee that you’ll feel like you didn’t record enough. However, moderation is necessary, because it’s important to enjoy the trip yourself; you don’t need to view everything through the camera.
Putting a vlog together
An excellent remedy for the post-holiday blues is to sit down with a cup of tea and edit your footage. I’m on a Mac, so I use Final Cut Pro, which is really good for specific edits and adding sound effects, titles, etc. Alternatives include iMovie, if you’re using an iPad, or CapCut, which can be downloaded on most devices. Once you have edited your clips and spliced them together, you can export your video to social media if it’s short. The best way to share it with your friends is to upload it as an unlisted (private) video on YouTube. If you are looking to go properly old-school, you can even burn it onto a DVD if your laptop is old enough! I love doing this because you can customise the cover and gift it to your friends (you could also do this with a USB stick), or watch it as part of a movie night.
I hope this gave you some inspiration to make your next trip more memorable – happy vlogging!
Illustration by Berenika Murray for The Student.