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Writer's pictureFrancesca Dewar

3 Tips for self filming your next adventure

Updated: Aug 17, 2021

Are you about to take on the adventure of your life? A micro adventure in your local area? Or a personal challenge that you want everyone to know about?


These are the tips for you! Helping you to capture the shots you want, remember the trip forever, and share it with the people around you.


Read on to find out more...

Tip One - Work out "Why" you are filming it

It's important to think about the why as this changes how you might film it, as well as the things you might film, and what you will need to film it on.


For Social Media

  • With Reels being so big at the moment you would most likely want to film everything portrait rather than horizontal and you might find it easier to film on your phone so you have all the content ready to use. A sports camera like a GoPro, or a small compact camera could help you to catch higher resolution footage, but just using a phone is already good enough.

For Vlogs

  • There are so many great vlogs out there that people have filmed on their phones, if that is all you have then don't be discouraged. For vlogs just remember to film everything landscape. Audio is also quite important, when you are recording a diary or talking to the camera try to stand somewhere out of the wind.

To make a film

  • You're going to want to capture plenty of footage, and might want to aim for higher quality resolution. During my cycle challenge to self film parts of the trip I took a small compact camera. It meant I could save the battery on my phone and use memory cards to capture more footage. Used with a small tripod it is really good for capturing footage of yourself from a 3rd person perspective.


A small hand held camera like this Lumix is a great way to get high quality footage without much extra weight

Tip Two - Stop little and often

When I tried to film myself on my own trip cycling around the UK I found that it would be really easy to forget to film one day, and then the next I would get so carried away filming every 5 minutes that I'd get frustrated about going so slowly.


A really good balance I found was to stop more regularly and only film one short thing each time. I would also roughly plan my stops, I would still stop if I saw something amazing, but otherwise I would plan when the film breaks would be.


I tried to film a diary once at the start of the day, and then film at each snack break. Either filming myself riding, the view, or the snack break itself. It meant that I was filming at least 4 times a day and could guarantee to capture the mood of the trip - even if at the time it didn't seem like there was anything interesting to film.


Tip Three - get a tripod to film yourself

I already mentioned this tip earlier on, but getting a tripod can make a huge difference to the things you can capture and the way you can capture them. If you get a smaller tripod you can use it along with the environment you are in (like walls, gates, trees) to capture different angles, without taking up much weight.


When people are following your journey they will want to see similar things whether you are aiming to vlog, create Reels, or just share on socials as you go. People will want to see and hear from you, they will want to see the view and what you can see, and they will also want to see you walking through the shot, towards the camera or away from the camera. A tripod can really help for those shots.


I love following Jenny Tough on YouTube for inspiration, she makes great videos where you can really follow her through the landscape.


I hope you've found this blog helpful! If you have please let me know and feel free to share with a friend who you think it might help too!




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