Visiting New Orleans: Narrative Structure on Vacation

There was a brief moment in the summer of 2021 when we all thought things were on their way to getting better. Restaurants and bars were opening back up and mask wearing policies were starting get a little more relaxed. The Delta Variant was just a faint whisper on the wind at this point and it was during this window of optimism that we had happened to book a trip to New Orleans.

I love shooting video and playing with my cameras and equipment when I’m on trips. Some might find things like that distracting but it just adds to the enjoyment of the moment for me. A problem that comes along with shooting footage on a trip is you can end up with hours of random clips that might not have any context attached to them. When I’m shooting video on vacation I still try to keep in mind what my narrative goal is and how I can edit the footage I shoot into a story that is compelling to watch.

We’ve all been in that situation where someone wants to show us videos or photos from a trip or vacation they recently went on and after the first minute or two it starts to get painful. I really enjoy turning my vacation footage into a video that is something someone who wasn’t even on the trip would want to watch.