Travelling Sunglasses: Fushimi Inari timelapse! What I learned from my first video

Are you learning how to edit travel videos? We're no experts: we are normal travellers, we enjoy visiting new places, filming our adventures, and sharing them with fellow travellers through videos and blog posts. It was always Darek who filmed and edited our travel videos. What I (Giulia) want to share with you is what I learned when I did it myself for the first time: what I did well, what I could have done better, and what was just plain wrong. Amateur advice from an amateur youtuber :)

Fushimi Inari, Kyoto - Path of red Torii gates

Keep going and you will finally find yourself alone!

Our trip to Japan was our honeymoon (itinerary here). We spent two weeks there, two amazing weeks, trying to enjoy it and savour it as much as possible, while filming and documenting for our friends and family at home. You know the feeling, right? The once-in-a-lifetime experience that you want to record and live at the same time, and you're afraid of messing up. Darek was a pro: he recorded during the day while already thinking of how to edit it in the evening, mixing sightseeing with memories. I decided to do an experiment at Fushimi Inari-taisha, the famous shrine of 10000 gates in Kyoto: I wanted to show what it's really like for normal people like us to hike to the top of mount Inari. I would film everything on the GoPro, and later on squeeze it into a timelapse. The crowd, the queues for selfies, the maps, the forks in the road, the shrines, the shops, everything! Right? Wrong.

It was only while editing on my super basic iMovie, using 3 functions, that I realized how important it is to film it right, in order to spend less time editing.

So, here is what I learnt, so that you may avoid making my same mistakes:

BEFORE AND WHILE FILMING

Watch some examples to get prepared

Check out similar videos for inspiration. Do you aim for artistic? Or informative? Can you speak comfortably to the camera? We mixed a bit of everything and it did not come out well. If I had watched a couple of amateur timelapses, I would have noticed how shaky they are, how long the hike takes, what is interesting and what is boring.

Make up your mind before you start filming

During the hike, I filmed everything: in front, above, around, myself, behind, us speaking, us waiting... I thought it was going to transmit the realistic experience of all the stimuli around you, the details and the big picture. Well, when the speed is 8x faster, it turns out to be a nauseous video of shaky images, glimpses of our faces, and blurry segments. I should have decided what to focus on, and kept the camera more steady.

Know your gear

I used the GoPro just a couple of times before the big day. I tested some Field of View options but I did not pay attention to the audio. I got the field right, but it was quite a noisy surprise when I started editing. I definitely should have made more experiments before the big day.

Take your time

I knew my editing skills were very basic. What I did not know was how hard it is to improve them :) Instead of learning editing, I learnt that it's better for me to spend some more time filming, waiting for the right moment, capturing the right angle, than spending much more time editing material that is just not good and does not fit well together.

EDITING

Video first, music second

So, I had 4 files of 17 minutes each. I start with the first, cut here and there, faster this, slower that, add the second file, the third, the fourth... I just have to speed it up, right? And then add some music to it, right? Wrong. After all this work, I realized that the complete, real experience I aimed to transmit actually made the video dizzy and confusing. One second of forest outside of the Torii gates, repetitive glimpses to the top of the gallery, turning around for Darek, turning to the side for shrines... I had to cut many little pieces in order to make a more stable flow along the path, and then fix the music again. In the end, I did not have any patience left, but there was certainly much more to improve.

Show it to someone

It was Darek who pointed out how nauseous the first draft was. I watched the clips so many times that I did not notice it! Instead, he instantly pointed out the shaky parts, the boring parts, the nice and interesting parts. His feedback made it easier to fix lots of mistakes.

Keep it real for your audience

While editing, remind yourself of the objective of your video. What is your audience looking for? Something artistic, informative, personal? We were too shy to talk to the camera, but we still aimed to show in an objective way the hike to the top of Fushimi Inari shrine and all that it entails: the crowd, the effort, the amazing scenery, the length, the arrival, the satisfaction. We want other fellow travellers to know what they will find. Learning about a 1-hour hike in a 10-minutes video sounds like a good deal!

Here's the final result. Considering my beginner skills, I think it's quite alright!