One of our FAVORITE things to do is plan vacations with our family. We’re SO blessed to be able to travel, and experience all the amazing places the world has to offer alongside our kids. One thing we ALWAYS make sure to do while on these epic vacations is not only take lots of photos, but also document our experiences on video. This gives us the opportunity to relive these trips in a different, more real way. Since this is so important to our family, we strive to make our family vacation videos as amazing as possible. We wanted to share some of our tips and tricks on how you can make your own crazy, fun videos for you and your family to look back on for years to come!

1. The best camera is the one you have on you. There’s not need to invest in an expensive camera in order to take insanely awesome videos! Your phone or go pro (waterproof!) are great for video because they are compact and easy to travel will. 

2. Try to record short 5-10 second clips (unless you’re filming dialogue). You’ll thank me later when you go to edit all the footage you’ve recorded! This will save you so much time, and helps to add variety when putting together your family video.

3. Remember, you’re telling a story! All stories have a beginning, middle, and end. So, be sure to record parts of all the traveling you’re doing! Either on the way to your destination, or towards the end of the trip. This will help you TONS, mostly so you will have something to start/end the video with.

4. B Roll, also known as the extra footage in between your mains shots, is so important when making an epic film of any kind! Don’t forget to get shots of the scenery/driving/sunsets/sunset to transition between days, locations and sub stories. 

5. Have fun with it! Don’t let it take away from your enjoyment of the trip and definitely don’t let it prevent you from being present. These are family memories, imperfection is perfection and often times what makes the video unique to your tribe. Years down the road the imperfections are what you’ll look back on fondly the most!

BONUS! This doesn’t have to do with making the video but, consider outsourcing the edit. Let’s be honest, it will never get edited otherwise (we know from experience 🤭). If you’re sitting on a bunch of old family travel clips on your iPhone, consider just using the “make a video” option. You can also use this as a quick way to do future edits. There is less flexibility in what you see, but at least you’re saving your memories in a way that’s viewable in the future!

We can’t wait to see the all of the amazing family videos YOU will be making this year! Hopefully these tips and tricks will help guide you through the process of making the most EPIC family vacation videos.