Book Review: Lonely Planet's Best Ever Video Tips

Lonely Planet's Best Ever Video Tips is a pocket book guide to video creation for beginners and intermediate video creators alike. It may also have a few ideas for video creators used to filming in one specific area or style looking to branch into other areas.

As you would expect from a Lonely Planet book it's specifically targeted at people on the move, shooting video on location, whether that be on assignment or just on holiday. As such the book is ideally sized to fit in a pocket or in a (camera) bag without taking up too much room or adding too much weight (at just under 130 pages).

Tips range from preparation prior to heading out including camera choice, accessories, making a plan and more to technical tips such as how to shoot various types of scenes, composition, lighting, talking to the camera and improving your audio among other things.

Creative tips are discussed; how to connect with audiences, vlogging in public spaces, finding stories etc. along with editing advice such as what software to use, finding your tone, how to cut and mix up shots, using music etc.

There are also tips on how to share and get your finished videos seen.

No subject is discussed in any great depth. Typically it's one page per topic alongside a one-page illustration.

The collection of tips come from a group of eight different video creators all with different interests in the types of video they like to shoot. None stand out to me as anyone who is particularly well known in their field but never the less they have produced a diverse range of tips covering almost everything you may need some useful advice for.

One particular tip that I found useful was creating a 'wild audio' file of the ambient sound at any location which you then use in editing to mask audio cuts by using it as an underlay audio track for the entire scene.

If you're an advanced or seasoned video creator you're probably not going to read much in this book that you weren't already aware of. However, if you're a beginner with the camera or you still feel like you have plenty to learn there's quite a bit here to keep you on track or serve as a refresher whilst on location.

A handy book to have around whilst you're still finding your style and voice in video creation.


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