My Family Travel Music Videos

Ever since discovering the ease of filming and editing videos directly on my phone, I’ve been having a lot of fun with my ‘family travel videos.’   I’ve been making travel videos in one way or another since the earliest days of Youtube, including an early video that went viral and has over one million views (See The World's Most Dangerous Hike below).  At the time, I had no idea what I was doing on Final Cut Pro, but I was able to stitch something together with a good soundtrack to make something short, punchy and engaging.  These early travel videos led directly to my TV show, as my raggedy clips effectively auditioned me for the part, showing I was the genuine article.   Unfortunately, the quality of my early videos don’t stand up in our 4K Ultra HD world, but they’re still make me nostalgic about a very different time and place. 
 
The first video I ever made simply stitched together a bunch of lose clips I had collected on my 3 mega-pixel Pentax camera. 3 mega pixels back then was state of the art!  The soundtrack was Bedouin Soundclash’s When the Night, and it captured the lunacy and innocence of my 12-month modern gonzo journey. I called it: Something to Make You Dream: 

After Word Travels, our little TV show that was too fast and flashy for its time, I continued to produce dozens of little videos to add value to readers of my Canadian Bucket List and Global Bucket List book projects.   By the late 2010s, I was still cranking out dozens of videos for The Great Australian Bucket List, again to add value to the reader.  This idea of adding value and sharing stories across mediums continues today with my ‘Bucket Listed’ Canadian Geographic column, only the production has improved dramatically thanks to better smart phone/camera/editing technology.  It also helps that Youtube lets me soundtrack my videos with any song I choose, since they compensate the artists and I don’t use my channel to earn income (which might come back to haunt me, but probably not).  

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As I tell my kids, I’m not a Youtuber, but I do have a Youtube channel, I do make Youtube videos, and I like them a lot.  Some don’t get much traffic, some hit a nerve (like the one above to accompany a column I wrote about Winnipeg’s Activate Games).  Most videos are the length of a single song (4–6 minutes) although sometimes we do so much it requires multiple tracks and a longer video, as in the case of Switzerland above.  I choose my favourite songs or something that just fits for the vibe of the journey.  Sometimes I look for local artists, as in the case of my videos from the Inca Trail below and on Italy's Amalfi Coast.  When a cut lands perfectly on the beat, I get the reward of a sweet little editing buzz.  Music has always aligned with travel, and the right song can imprint a moment forever. ​

​I’ve put together 3 videos this year, and they all came out particularly great.  My son explores Raja Ampat with Seatrek with the perfect song from Canadian artists Walk off the Earth.   My daughter and I had an adventure of a lifetime in Mexico's La Paz, and we just returned from paradise, namely Exuma in The Bahamas.  

As you can see, my kids always steal the show, and I imagine them watching these short videos one day with their own kids, amazed by what they got up to around the world.  Although who knows, maybe 4K video will be as grainy and low quality in the future as my early videos are today.  Maybe Youtube won't exist at all.  In my closet are old Super 8mm reels that my grandfather filmed more than 60 years ago.  I transferred them to DVR tape about 20 years ago, itself now an obsolete medium.   In the end, it's all about capturing memories and sharing stories across time and space, and having some fun in the process. 

If you enjoy my videos, subscribe to my channel.  Here's a few more I'm particularly proud of: