All The Equipment You Need To Be A Wedding Filmmaker In 2021
You can’t shoot a wedding without the right equipment! Keeping your kit lightweight and compact will make a world of difference at a wedding. You will want to keep everything on you at all times in order to make sure you’re not running back to your car to grab a lens that wasn’t in your bag. I said it earlier, but you really can’t afford to miss a shot on a wedding day!
You can’t shoot a wedding without the right equipment! Keeping your kit lightweight and compact will make a world of difference at a wedding. You will want to keep everything on you at all times in order to make sure you’re not running back to your car to grab a lens that wasn’t in your bag. I said it earlier, but you really can’t afford to miss a shot on a wedding day!
Getting great imagery and perfect sound might sound impossible with a lightweight and compact kit, especially if you are used to working on larger productions, but believe me when I say it isn’t as difficult as you might think! It just requires a bit of creativity and the ability to troubleshoot in the field.
EQUIPMENT FOR WEDDING VIDEOGRAPHERS 2021
Cameras
When it comes to camera and lens choices I know that everyone has their own opinions on different systems and brands, either way, if you want to get into filming weddings you absolutely need to shoot on a DSLR or mirrorless camera. Expensive cinema cameras will slow you down and make you stand out on a wedding day and make everyone in the room feel very uncomfortable. If you want to get the nicest, most natural imagery you can then opting for a smaller camera will benefit you greatly.
Aside from choosing a small camera body here are some other factors to consider:
Good in low light for venues with bad lighting
In body stabilization
Possibility to shoot in 4K
Full-frame sensor for cleaner image
While all of these factors would be ideal in a camera, they aren’t essential to making your wedding films the best they can be. There is always a solution to every problem!
However, if I were to begin my wedding filmmaking career again and wanted a camera that fits all of the criteria above I would choose the Sony a7 iii as it is the perfect camera for the job, and even has a sensor size large enough to work for wedding photography too!
If I were on a tighter budget and still wanted to meet all of the criteria I would maybe choose a second hand Sony a7s ii as it is still a fantastic camera more than capable of filming a wedding!
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Lenses
This is another highly personal aspect of choosing a kit for wedding filmmaking, but it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t mention it. Choosing the right lenses for the job will be critical in getting the best footage possible for your films. Regardless of what camera you choose you will want to try and save as much weight as possible with your lenses as they are easily the heaviest part of your whole setup.
For me, I use what I refer to as my ‘holy trinity’ of lenses. I use these lenses on literally every shoot I go to and they never leave my camera bag. Because you can never guarantee how good the lighting at a venue will be, I opted for lenses with a wide aperture to let as much light in when I’m in dark rooms.
My go-to lenses are as follows:
Between these three lenses I am covered for pretty much every eventuality! I will usually keep the 50mm or 70-200mm on my A cam and the 16-35mm on my B cam so I can quickly swap between focal lengths.
I would highly recommend that every wedding filmmaker have some kind of similar lens lineup in their kit ranging from wide-angle to longer focal length lenses as you never know when you will find yourself either at the back of a room and can’t get close enough to your subject, or way too cramped and can’t get far enough away.
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Audio
Now this is where things begin to get interesting! At a wedding, audio is so so soooo important and it is guaranteed to be the one thing you are going to stress about more than anything else on the day!! Why? Because it’s so easy for it to go wrong very quickly!
The two main points in a wedding day where the audio matters the most is during the ceremony and the speeches, the two times where you can’t intervene and stop everything if your equipment fails. That’s the exact reason you want to have multiple sources of audio to make sure that even if one source fails, you have more than one backup of it.
So where do you start with capturing great audio for your ceremony and speeches? It will mostly depend on a venue to venue basis, but that's exactly why you will have more than one type of recorder so you can tackle any situation that arises.
Before I tell you how to approach these situations I first need to introduce you to the equipment you will need. (I personally own all of this equipment in these exact numbers! I do everything I can to make sure I have the absolute best sources of audio I can!)
Budget Friendly -
4-5 x Sony TX650
Best Value for Quality -
4-5 x Zoom H1n or Tascam DR-10L
If you chose the Zoom H1n you will also need 3-4 Shure MVL/A Lav Mics
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Additional Gear For Professional Level Sound -
1 x Zoom H5
A whole heap of XLR cables and adapters
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So now that you have seen what you’re going to be using, it’s time I told you how to use it in the most effective way!
Regardless of whether you choose the cheaper or more expensive equipment I just listed, this is the best way to mic everything up for a wedding ceremony.
Start by putting your best microphone on your groom. In my case, this will always be my Tascam DR-10L but you can also easily use the Sony TX650. Try and position the microphone near the flower on the lapel of their blazer, this hides the mic from your shot and also makes it less noticeable for everyone else, meaning everybody feels more comfortable!
Next I will use another DR-10 on the podium where the readings will be taking place. I will usually wrap my lav mic around the microphone that is being used at the podium to help hide it.
After that I will find the officiant and pop a Sony TX650 on them. I use this because most officiants, regardless of whether it’s a church wedding, humanist ceremony, or local government officiant, don’t like having a larger recorder and lav mic attached to them. I’m not sure why, but that’s why I have the TX650’s, they’re small and nobody ever has a problem with them!!
Finally I will position my remaining microphones near any musicians and also near a speaker in the ceremony room. This is to make sure I get clear audio of the music that’s played and also to act as a final backup in case all of my other sources of audio fail.
Not every wedding is the same, so not all weddings will have all aspects of the ceremony I mentioned above. That said though, if you have at the very least 5 of the Sony TX650’s you will be more than well on your way to being able to cover 95% of the situations a ceremony will throw at you.
Having more audio equipment than you need will give you the flexibility to tackle unexpected situations, like there not being a podium for ceremony readings. In instances like that I will find the people giving the readings before the ceremony starts and mic them up with a TX650 and use my Zoom H1n’s with a lav mic for the groom and officiant. The key to making it a success is to have microphones to spare to make sure that nothing gets missed!
When it comes to getting the best audio for speeches, there are three main ways to tackle it.
The simplest method is to find out who will be delivering speeches before the day of the wedding and making a mental note of who they are on the day. Approach them before the speeches and individually mic them up with either a Zoom H1n and lav combo/Tascam DR-10L or the Sony TX650’s.
Another simple method is to use a TX650 or Rode Wireless GO on the venue’s own microphone with a custom made elastic microphone sleeve. For this you will need to buy some wide black elastic that you can sew together into a cylinder. I have made several of these in varying diameters to fit most microphones I come across. It’s really easy to slip over the venue’s microphone and slide my own mic inside that just before the speeches begin. Just be sure to check the venue staff are okay with it first!
The final method is the most involved and the most technical to pull off. It definitely gives the best results though. For venues that use wireless microphones, you can use your Sennheiser G4 receiver to tap into the frequency of their mic and essentially record the audio direct from their microphone! However, for venues that use wired microphones, you will need to check with the venue staff in advance if you can take a look at their sound desk to try to get a line out from it. In most cases, you should be able to take an XLR cable and get a direct line out that runs into your field recorder; though occasionally you may need to use a splitter cable to get a clean signal too. I would only recommend using this method if you are reaaallllyyy confident you know what you’re doing, as a lot of venues don’t even know how their own sound system works. If something goes wrong it will be on you to fix it!
Aside from the ceremony and speeches, you will also want to try to capture other audio throughout the day to incorporate into your films. Whether it’s guests congratulating the couple, an intimate moment between a bride and her parents, or anything in between, you will want to make sure that you can capture what is said in those moments in a higher quality than the audio from your cameras onboard mic!
That’s why I would highly recommend every filmmaker to use a top-mounted shotgun mic. These are invaluable for capturing high quality audio, and when paired with a wind shield you can film in almost all conditions indoors and outdoors.
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Throughout my wedding filmmaking career I have seen almost every type of audio situation there is when it comes to ceremonies and speeches. Really the only solid advice I can give you is to make sure you have multiple microphones for every possible situation. The more flexible you can be and the more backups you have the less stressed you will be if one of your sources fail mid-recording.
Bags
Remember earlier when I said that it’s important to make sure you have everything you need for the day close by in case you need it? Well this is the moment that you discover just how I manage to keep (almost) everything on me for the duration of the wedding day.
Having a good quality and spacious bag means you can pack as much gear into it as possible, all while being confident it can take the weight of everything inside it.
Just like cameras and lenses, choosing the right camera bag for you will likely be a really personal decision. Though just because it’s a highly nuanced choice for everyone doesn’t mean I can’t give you pointers on what to look for and what I’ve found works best for me and my style of filmmaking!
For me, there are four main criteria I am looking for in a camera bag for weddings, and here they are in order of importance:
Plenty of room and dividers to compartmentalise equipment
Very easy and fast access to all pockets and compartments
Great build quality to support weight
Blends in with the surroundings of a wedding
Using these four points really helped me narrow down exactly what it was I wanted in a camera bag for weddings.
What I found worked best for me was using a sling or over the shoulder style bag as it meant I had instant access to all of my lenses, batteries and audio gear at a moments notice. Over the years I’ve changed what kind of shoulder bag I’ve used as my equipment grew in weight and size I know exactly what worked and what didn’t for me.
At the moment I absolutely love using my ONA Union Street messenger bag as it has more than enough space and pockets for me to bring along my two cameras, three lenses, batteries, cards and 95% of my audio equipment all in one bag! It’s definitely a pretty packed bag but it is more than up to the task!
Before I took the leap into using ONA bags, as they are quite pricey, I used a ThinkTank Retrospective 30 as it performed in the exact same way and had plenty of space to fit all of my equipment into as well. The only drawback for me with this bag was the use of velcro in the bag. It may not seem like a big deal, but I didn’t enjoy needing to get something from my bag in the middle of the ceremony or speeches as the velcro would make noise. To you, this might not be an issue but it’s definitely something to consider!
If you don’t like the idea of either of these bags then you could also definitely check out Peak Design’s Everyday Messenger as I have seen plenty of photographers and videographers use it. Alternatively, if you are looking for a sling bag that is much more budget friendly, then you might want to check out lesser-known camera bag manufacturers like Kattee’s Vintage Style Canvas Camera Bag.
When it comes to the final 5% of my equipment that doesn’t fit in my main camera bag, I have those in hard cases like this one for my remaining audio gear, or I just pack it into my old camera bags I don’t use as often.
perfect bag for Wedding filmmakers
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Stabilisation
Most modern day cameras and lenses have really incredible stabilization built into them but don’t rely on that to save your footage from wobbles and shakes. The more points of contact you can give your camera the better and more professional your footage will look. In that same vein, you also shouldn’t rely on constantly filming in high frame rates to slow your footage down while editing. I’ve already written about why I don’t like shooting in slow motion so I will spare you another lecture, but just know that a 3-5 minute wedding film of nothing but slow-mo shots won’t have the same feeling of professionalism as a wedding film shot at 25fps that took more care in its framing and lighting.
Before I go off topic any further, let’s get into the good stuff!
When it comes to stabilising your footage at a live event like a wedding, you don’t want to be slowed down by having to constantly pick up a tripod, set the height, level the tripod head and find your framing before shooting. Enter the monopod! These bits of kit are perfect for giving almost all of the stabilisation as a tripod, without sacrificing any of the mobility.
My Manfrotto Monopod was the first bit of kit I bought when I decided to make filmmaking my career, and it has come with me on almost every shoot and travelled with me across the world. To say I love this thing is an understatement!
best monopod for wedding videographers
If you’ve followed my advice from before and have chosen to bring two cameras to a wedding for multiple angles during ceremonies and speeches, then you will need to bring at least two tripods for them. The good news is that you only really need to buy one good quality tripod to use with your A Cam, as you can pop your B Cam on a cheaper tripod with a wider angle to act as a safety shot.
For your more expensive video tripod, I would choose something like the Manfrotto MVK500 Series of tripods, as they are sturdy, lightweight for a tripod in this price range and also fairly priced for the quality your receive. That said, if you have the budget for it and want a nicer quality tripod then I would choose a Sachtler Ace XL Tripod because the stability and quality of the tripod are second to none and you will probably never need another tripod ever again.
Thankfully, your second tripod doesn’t need to be as eye-wateringly expensive as those two. For your B Cam you can choose just about any travel tripod, as you will most likely just ‘set it and forget it’. So that’s why I would recommend choosing something like the Neewer Travel Tripod for your second camera.
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The way that I film weddings means that my monopod and tripods are the only stabilisation I bring with me, however, I know that a lot of other wedding filmmakers love to use gimbals. If you are a newcomer to weddings and filmmaking in general then I would recommend staying away from using gimbals as they just complicate the day. You will have to take time out of filming guests and the couple in order to balance your gimbal perfectly, and believe me when I say that I speak from experience that your couple would much rather have footage of their guests and family than a handful of gimbal shots of a room or them walking together.
If you are still dead set on getting a gimbal though then I would recommend either a Glidecam or a DJI RSC2, just don’t say I didn’t warn you when you can’t be bothered bringing it out during the wedding day!
Best electronic gimbal for wedding videographers
best handheld gimbal for wedding videographers
Lighting
Really? Lighting? At a wedding?? Yes actually! Weddings differ from country to country, region to region, couple to couple, so you can never be sure of how a venue will look, especially at night time or in the long dark winter months.
It took me a really long time to bite the bullet and buy a light to bring along to weddings but ever since I did I have never looked back. In the UK and Ireland, where most of my weddings take place, it varies wildly as to whether a venue or a band will have good lighting for a dance floor or whatever is happening for the evening entertainment. I once ended up shooting a couple’s first dance in complete darkness because the venue and band didn’t have any dance floor lights. The photographer had set up flashes around the dancefloor and got great photos but I ended up with really noisy and muddy looking footage. That’s when I knew something had to change.
Thankfully it doesn’t take much to fix this problem! In fact, all you need is one light!
As with all the gear I use at weddings I like to try and keep it as lightweight and as small as possible, that’s why I would recommend picking up the Godox S30 or Came Boltzen B30 LED spotlights. They both can run off a single Sony NP-F battery, meaning you aren’t stuck looking for a power source, and they both give out very similar qualities of light.
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My personal preference would be the Godox as it’s very similar to the Aperture LS Mini 20D’s that I use, but the Came Boltzen is just as capable!
I will use this single light source to flood the dance floor as a backlight and then shoot towards it for the couple’s first dance. It’s absolutely incredible to see the difference a single, focused source of light can make to your dance footage. Using a spotlight like this allows you to cut through any coloured lights a band might bring for the dance floor, add shape and shadow to the people dancing and in the worst case scenario even allow you to save what would have been a completely dark dance floor, in short, no matter the situation it elevates the whole look!
Stop Shooting In Slow Motion
Capturing footage at higher frame rates and playing them back at a slower 24 or 25 frames per second is a really useful filmmaking tool for heightening the emotion or tension in a shot. Actions that would usually happen in the blink of an eye can be extended out for the audience to not only see what’s happening but also feel the moment that it happens. Slow motion shots are the perfect way to tap into your audience’s suspension of disbelief and captivate their attention. But only if you use it right!
Capturing footage at higher frame rates and playing them back at a slower 24 or 25 frames per second is a really useful filmmaking tool for heightening the emotion or tension in a shot. Actions that would usually happen in the blink of an eye can be extended out for the audience to not only see what’s happening but also feel the moment that it happens. Slow motion shots are the perfect way to tap into your audience’s suspension of disbelief and captivate their attention. But only if you use it right!
There is no shortage of tutorials on YouTube teaching you how to ‘FILM EPIC SLOW MOTION BROLL’ or ‘Shoot CINEMATIC slow motion like a PRO’, and chances are you’ve probably watched and learned from them too! In fact, they’re really great resources to learn how to accomplish the technique! The problem is that most of these tutorials end it there. They don’t take the next step and tell you the why or the when you should be using slow-mo footage.
If you’ve read any of my other articles you might have noticed that I have brought this up before, but knowing why you should be using a technique or a tool is often more important than knowing how to do it.
As a result of this readily available information, and with so many aspiring filmmakers all too eager to learn the techniques and put it into practice, there has been an explosion of short films, travel videos and even wedding films that are using an excessive amount of slow-mo footage. However, as cool as slow-mo shots look they have a pretty specific purpose when making a film or video.
So why should you not be shooting slow motion footage? By the very nature of slowing down a shot, you are signalling to your audience that this is something important and that they should be giving it their full attention. It’s kind of the video equivalent to changing the tone of your voice, writing in all caps, or sticking a bright neon sign on a shop window. You are trying to draw people’s attention to something in particular.
In traditional big-budget TV and filmmaking you will notice that slow motion shots are sparingly used, if even at all, through a movie or series. You might see it being used to signal the first time a character meets a love interest, during a fight scene to really draw attention to the impact of a hit, or maybe even as a hero has a near-death experience. All of these moments are times when the people creating the film want the audience to be right on the edge of their seats, drawn further and further into the story of the world they’re creating. The slow-mo shots always have some kind of significance or meaning attached to them.
Think of any video you’ve seen recently that used slow-mo footage. Now think about the shot that stuck with you from it. I’d take a guess and say that the reason it’s resonated with you is that it drew your attention to a moment of heightened emotion or added a bit of visual flair to an otherwise average shot.
And that’s where I think that most new filmmakers get hung up on shooting and editing everything in slow-mo. The slowed footage is making them feel like their footage is better than it actually is. When it’s converted to a lower framerate while editing it is taking their ‘average’ shot and creating the illusion that it is somehow better than it was before.
Truth be told, I’ve been guilty of this in the past too. Recording at 50fps and playing it back at 25fps somehow made my bad footage feel more professional. In the earliest videos I made, the majority of my footage was playing back in slow-mo making me believe that my videos were great! Unfortunately, all I did was make my bad shots drag on for much longer than they should have…
All of this is to say that it is very easy to fall into the trap of using high framerate footage as a crutch for poor filmmaking. You should be putting your effort into your lighting, composition and storytelling before you even consider filming a shot in slow motion. Know and understand what utilising slow-mo footage will do to the narrative you’re telling before you make the decision to use it.
How then, are you supposed to figure out when is the right moment to capture slow motion footage? Really it will depend on your project, the story you’re trying to tell and the emotions you want to try and evoke in your audience.
Take travel films and vlogs on YouTube for instance. I’ve found these to be by far the worst offenders when it comes to using too much slow-mo footage, so it makes sense to draw the comparison here. Dragging out shot after shot in slow motion, each one telling the viewers that it is something ‘important’ to look at without delivering anything of real visual or emotional value, only serves to distract the viewer and draw their attention away from the video. Instead, the creators would do their work much more justice to use the slow-mo shots sparingly and at moments that they want to emphasise.
For a travel filmmaker who is making a film about hiking up a mountain, this could mean only using slow motion footage once they reach the summit at sunrise, or using it to accentuate a moment of connection with a local who opened their home to them for the night. Making these conscious decisions of when and when not to use slow motion footage will only serve to make you a better filmmaker.
Everything You Need To Become A Travel Filmmaker In 2021
Travel filmmaking is one of the most exciting and challenging specialisations any filmmaker can make. It’s equal parts demanding and rewarding. It’s certainly not a profession for the faint of heart! You have to have a deep desire to get out and experience the world and need to have the right technical skills and creativity to make all of it come together.
Travel filmmaking is one of the most exciting and challenging specialisations any filmmaker can make. It’s equal parts demanding and rewarding. It’s certainly not a profession for the faint of heart!
To make a career in travel filmmaking you will need to not only be comfortable with travelling and the stress that can come with travel arrangements not going to plan, but also be comfortable in documenting everything that is happening around you at all times. Every experience you have while on the move is just a small part of the bigger picture and you will need to document the right parts in order to tell the story.
You have to truly love both travelling and filmmaking. Flying out to a new city once a year and making a one minute montage of clips isn’t going to cut it. You have to have a deep desire to get out and experience the world and need to have the right technical skills and creativity to make all of it come together.
Feel a little scared about that? Good! You should be!
That means you’re ready to hear what it takes to become a successful travel filmmaker!
The Mindset
Unless you have somehow landed a job at a travel filmmaking production company then chances are you’re going to have a lot of work to do to get noticed. It’s going to take a lot of time and money, so you better start saving for trips now.
Your passion for filmmaking and travel has to turn into more than just an interest. It has to become an obsession. Watch travel documentaries, read up on the best places to visit on a budget and begin planning everything to the finest detail.
Watching and consuming as much content as you can give you ideas on places to visit and explore and also what kinds of moments you should be trying to capture on video and how to edit.
Find other travel filmmakers who you love the work of and really study what it is about their work that draws you to it. Learn everything you can from what they create.
Before you ever go on your first trip you have to make sure you know your equipment inside out. Every spare moment and free weekend you have should be spent actually making things to hone and practice your skills. You should be able to do this in your sleep because while you’re travelling if a moment happens and you don’t have your camera in your hand it’s gone forever.
Practice other skills too. You never know what will come in handy! Back in the day, a travel film would have been produced by an entire production team. There would be production coordinators, camera and sound crew, a director, you get the idea. Nowadays equipment is so much smaller than it used to be and gone are the days of large crews for travel films (well mostly anyway). These days most travel film production companies and the people that hire them are looking for people who are skilled in more than just one area. It’s not enough to just be really good at capturing genuine moments. You need to know how to capture audio, edit everything together, colour it appropriately, and how to keep everything on schedule when travel plans inevitably go off track. If you want to be a professional then you have to have a very diverse skillset.
The Equipment
It is absolutely incredible how good the quality of modern-day phones are when it comes to capturing video and photo but if you want to make it as a professional then that, unfortunately, isn’t going to cut it in the long run.
You will want to take the leap and invest in some good quality equipment to make your films look their absolute best!
When travelling you generally want to travel as light as possible, and doubly so if you’re bringing camera equipment with you! Shaving kilos from the weight of your camera kit will make it easier to get around and make you blend in with other tourists and locals. The more you fit in with your surroundings the more likely you are to capture great shots.
So what would I recommend for an aspiring travel filmmaker? Read on to find out.
Tripods
First of all, I would start with a good, lightweight tripod or monopod. These are essential for stabilising your footage, particularly if your camera and lenses don’t have image stabilization of any kind. And even if they do I still think one of these is essential!
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Cameras
Small, lightweight and incredibly powerful. That’s what you’re looking for in a travel-friendly camera. I would choose the Sony a6500 for its size and capabilities but I would also recommend the Sony a73 for those who want the look of a full frame camera.
best aps-c camera for travel filmmaking
best full frame camera for travel filmmaking
Lenses
Your collection of lenses will probably be what weighs the most in your kit. Choosing zoom lenses over primes will help you save weight and more importantly prevent you from swapping lenses and missing a crucial shot!
Best General Purpose Lenses
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best low light lenses
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Depending on what you want to capture you might also want to take a look at some ultra-wide lenses for astrophotography or super zoom lenses to capture footage of wildlife or vistas that might be very far away.
Audio
Having good sound for your films is actually a lot more important than having good visuals. Most people will stop watching a video if the sound is awful, but will stick around longer if your footage is shaky or not exposed correctly as long as the audio is clear and sounds great. Take it from me, it’s better to travel with one less lens as long as you can bring some great audio gear.
First to consider is the audio into your camera. Getting good audio here means you don’t have to sync it up while editing and is great for capturing moments as they happen.
Best Travel Shotgun Camera Mics
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However, there may be times you want to set the camera up and walk into the distance while still getting clear audio of what you’re saying. In that case, you’ll need a wireless system to go into an external recorder or your camera. You can either use this by itself or plug in another microphone to the transmitter and use that to hide the system.
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If you don’t trust running new audio into your camera and want to sync it while editing then you will need a field recorder of some kind. These will allow you to capture audio even if your camera isn’t on and add an extra layer of security in knowing you caught great audio!
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Other Essential Gear
You will also need to have a lightweight laptop and hard drives to handle your editing and data storage as well as plenty of SD cards to make sure you don’t run out of space! Laptops are a very personal choice and you likely have one that is perfect to use already however here are my top picks for all the other small, but no less essential, equipment you will need.
fast SD card for reliable capture
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Small and fast ssd for storing files
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Travel camera bag
Having a camera bag you can rely on will be key to making your travelling easier. There are three main things I look for in a travel camera bag.
Comfort - You’ll be wearing it all day so it needs to be comfy as hell. You don’t want to be an hour into a full day hike and already feel the weight of your bag on your shoulders.
Security - There’s a lot of expensive kit in there. It needs to be safe! This means I want the camera access to be only from the back of the bag. I want to be able to not have to put the bag down to get equipment out, and most importantly I don’t want it to scream “Hey! I have loads of valuable stuff in here!”
Space - It’s very easy to stuff your bag with only your equipment. You want to capture as much as possible and you want every tool at your disposal after all! But you also need to remember that if you’re on a day trip in a city or a mountain you will probably want space for extra layers if it’s cold or raining, plus room for snacks, water and anything else you might need. Don’t make the same mistake I did by only having camera gear and then feeling miserable and hungry half way through the day!
So with all those criteria in mind here are my top picks for travel worthy camera bags!
NOMATIC x McKinnon Camera Pack
This bag was made alongside YouTube sensation Peter McKinnon.
He’s travelled extensively over the course of his YouTube career and knows exactly what every photographer and filmmaker needs while travelling. In my opinion, this is honestly as close as a bag gets to perfection for a travelling filmmaker!
perfect bag for travel filmmakers
Lowepro ProTactic 450AW II
This bag takes a very close second! There is so much room in this bag for a lightweight kit plus snacks and clothes for a day excursion. My only complaint is that there isn’t a dedicated section of the bag for this. But I love it all the same.
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Peak Design Everyday Backpack
If you only plan on doing short trips and travelling incredibly light then this bag will be the perfect fit for you. Its size forces you to choose only your most important equipment and is perfect if you are creating a film in a city or built-up area.
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Creativity and Making Money
Having the best and most expensive gear won’t make you successful overnight, nor does it guarantee that you are going to immediately be making the best travel films. The only deciding factor for your success is going to be you and your drive to make travel filmmaking your lifestyle and career.
There is no set path to ‘making it big’ in this industry and there is no way to know how people will react to your brand of creativity. However, what you can do to begin earning money as soon as possible is to begin uploading and selling clips from your travels to stock video agencies. Genuine and interesting moments are normally in very high demand and should sell quickly. Don’t think you can just make a living off stock footage though, you will probably need to take on freelance filming and editing gigs to maintain your lifestyle and pay for your next flight.
Once you have created films you are proud of, reach out to companies within the travel industry and see how you might be able to help boost their brand message on social media. It is highly competitive out there so you have to make sure your work stands out from everyone else out there!
And on the subject of standing out from the rest, make sure that you aren’t just copying another travel filmmakers style. YouTube, Instagram and TikTok are filled with travel films and videos that are packed with transitions from shot to shot that have no link or connection to each other. Try to avoid creating films that rely on these heavy-handed techniques just because they might look cool. Discover your own voice and tell the story of the places you visit. Whether it's through your own eyes or through the eyes of the people who live there.
Talking to locals and hearing their stories and experiences will give you a fuller understanding of the places you travel to and will only elevate your work as you tap into what connects us all together. Uncovering these stories and following them until your films reach a satisfying conclusion will be so much more fulfilling than a 2-minute edit of cool shots and transitions.
There is a lot to take in and learn all at once, but if you truly love travelling and filmmaking then dedicating yourself to it is the only thing you can do.
Filling up your camera bag will take time as there’s no fast-track way to success. Start small and slowly work your way to a position where you are funding your own trips and creating your own films. Eventually, you will reach the point where brands will want to work with you and that’s when you begin making the money to sustain your passion and your lifestyle!
If it’s something you truly want then you have to put the work in! Good luck out there!
Ditch Film School - A Guide To Becoming a Self Taught Filmmaker
Learning to become a successful filmmaker is hard. There is no way to sugarcoat it. It takes years of learning, money and creativity before you even manage to get to the starting line of becoming a halfway decent filmmaker, let alone a successful one. However, these days it has never been more accessible.
Learning to become a successful filmmaker is hard. There is no way to sugarcoat it. It takes years of learning, money and creativity before you even manage to get to the starting line of becoming a halfway decent filmmaker, let alone a successful one. However, these days it has never been more accessible.
Gone are the days of having to spend a literal fortune to pay your way into a film school, learn the ropes and leave education at the bottom of the ladder to success. The internet has decentralised the information and knowledge that you need to begin making films. For the cost of access to the internet, you can watch hundreds of hours of tutorials to begin teaching yourself how to make films.
In fact, chances are all you’ll really need to pay for is a camera, lenses and lighting, and the price of those have all become more affordable too!
So what’s the catch? Surely with all of this freely available information, there has to be some kind of drawback? Otherwise, film schools wouldn’t exist any more. To put it simply, not all of the information you see out there is created equal. Some of it can be fantastic and insightful and some of it can be pure rubbish. It will be up to you to decide what information is relevant to how you want to learn.
All of this is to say that you don’t need a formal education in filmmaking to be a successful filmmaker. Most people working on a film or TV set don’t necessarily have a degree related to film if any degree at all. What counts more than an education on set is that you work hard, get along with the rest of the crew and do a good job. Nobody will care that you wrote a dissertation and got your degree with honours if you’re not prepared to pitch in and work hard on set. In this industry, practical experience and proof you can do what you say you can, will always trump a fancy piece of paper you got from a college or university.
Where do you start then if you decide to ditch film school and become a self-taught filmmaker?
There’s no simple answer here as it depends on how experienced you are with your equipment and editing software, which niche of filmmaking you want to focus on, and your drive when it comes to teaching yourself. However, here is what I would do if I was back to square one and had just picked up my camera for the first time.
1 - Learn With Intention
Ultimately the fastest way to learn is to take a focused approach to practical filmmaking. This is what I did when I got my first camera in 2008 and is what I continued to do all throughout my time at college and university. Learning from tutors, textbooks and online videos are all well and good but it is up to you to put the effort into taking it a step further and practising the techniques in the real world.
Be honest with yourself and the level that you are at. Don’t think that because you watched a single video on a topic that you have mastered it. Constantly keep your eyes and ears open for new information on a topic, try it for yourself and repeat it until it becomes second nature.
Being purposeful with your spare time every week to learn and practice new techniques will make you grow faster than simply reading up on a topic.
2 - Search For Good Quality Sources
As I stated earlier, not every piece of information out there is created equal. Really put the time and effort into discovering sources of information and inspiration that are of excellent quality. If you want to learn how to become a better documentary filmmaker then watch documentaries of directors and DoP’s that inspire you. See if you can find and learn from them on social media, look to see if they sell a course on a personal website, watch with a critical eye how their framing, editing and pacing is done. Really immerse yourself in their work.
But not only that, immerse yourself in the work of the people that inspired them, and of others that inspire you. The more good quality sources of inspiration you have the larger your pool of knowledge and creativity will be. You will know you’ve found a great quality source when it stirs up something within you, an almost indescribable feeling that immediately resonates with you and motivates you to try something new. Never stop trying to find these sources as they will guide you through to discovering more about not only your own work but also about yourself.
3 - Ignore Current Trends
I cannot stress enough how important this point is. It is so easy to fall into a trap of seeing something cool and exciting that you want to immediately emulate it into your own work. Right now, there is a very common theme in YouTube videos to have ‘Cinematic Buttery Smooth Slow-Mo B-roll’ montages filled with transitions, whip pans and overly dramatic music. I understand the appeal of these segments in videos but they aren’t indicative of how real filmmakers approach their work.
Following trends immediately dates your work and makes it difficult for you to repurpose your films and videos for showreels or trying to draw prospective clients to hire you for work. It might be difficult to hear, but chasing likes and attention on social media by replicating a shot, transition or technique you saw on Instagram or YouTube won’t help you or your work in the long term. Recreating the work of other people and the trends you are seeing right now only serves to make your work get lost in the noise of everybody else doing the exact same thing.
4 - Choose Substance Over Style
This goes hand in hand with the previous point, but having a film or video with substance has so much more value to it than a collection of pretty shots. Once you are past the early learning stages of your filmmaking journey try to create work that has meaning, whether for yourself or for a wider audience. Flashy transitions and heavy colour grades will only take your work so far, but a story or video that has depth to it will strike a chord with people and make them care about your work.
That’s not, of course, to say you shouldn’t make your work look as good as possible. Capturing an audience’s attention in the first place will be important to make them stick around for the rest of the film. Style will dazzle your audience and bring them into your film, but substance will make them stay and hopefully make it a memorable experience for them. Find the balance between the two and make it work for you.
5 - Create Constantly
You have likely heard this so many times before, but it is probably the single most important piece of advice for anyone who wants to become a self-taught filmmaker. Learning by doing is the only way to fast-track your way to becoming a successful filmmaker. The more you fail in the beginning of your journey means you will have already built up the experience in how to tackle the obstacles and difficult situations that arise when working as a professional filmmaker.
Spending three years creating video after video, film after film will catapult you leagues ahead of a graduate who spent the same three years only learning from books and creating a single film at the end of their degree. Film theory, learning from tutors and reading movie scripts is great, but there is no substitute for hands-on, practical, knowledge that allows you to easily navigate your way through the world of filmmaking.
What Resources Are There To Diversify Your Filmmaking Knowledge?
To hopefully give you a head start on discovering what sources of inspiration resonate with you here is a list of filmmakers, photographers and general creatives that keep me motivated to try new things within my own work.
You will notice that I tend to stay away from content that sensationalises talking about camera equipment and focuses more on lighting, storytelling, behind the scenes or delving into the work of other photographers and filmmakers.
If you find that the inconsistency of knowing what topics a YouTuber will cover is slowing down the pace of your learning then I would highly recommend taking a look at websites like Masterclass and MZed that were created specifically for people who want to learn directly from professionals working in the industry. They are subscription-based resources however I can speak from personal experience when I say that the content on both of these websites is top tier and will teach you virtually anything you could want to know as a creative professional.
Just remember that regardless of if you decide to learn filmmaking through formal education or via self-study that there is no ‘correct’ way to become a professional filmmaker. The main deciding factor to your success as a freelance professional will be your own drive to grow and progress in your chosen field. You don’t need permission to become a filmmaker. It is up to you to decide the path you want to take and the direction you want your work to take you in.
ABout Sam
Sam is an experienced filmmaker, photographer, and editor with over 6 years experience working professionally in the media and creative industries.
