Luxury Hotel & Travel Video Production - Top 10 Best Practices
Luxury Hotel Video Production
Hospitality industry has grown immensely with the influx or regular travelers, solo travelers, as well as luxury travels. Luxury travel, in particular, has taken an upswing, with the world coming ever closer and the social media helping people create travel goals. This very social media is where the luxury hotels find their clients – by producing high quality video based content for their hotels or hotel chains.
Video production for hospitality requires perfection beyond the normal, and usually requires a team of cinematographers is required in various disciplines to be able to create the finished and fine look of the luxury hotel video. Some of the important constituents of a quality hotel video are:
1. The City Introduction
Ideally, the hotel video should have a very brief intro to the city, so that people are able to identify with the location. It is simply an establishment shot, and a montage of the airport intermixed with some of the popular tourist spots of the city combine to create a good enough intro in a few seconds.
2. The Drone Shot – From Infinity to the Hotel
Drones have been powering the hotel video scenes from much before it became common for everyone to follow. With the advent of the more advanced drones which provide better footage and higher resolutions with more features – it is only likely to advance further. The ideal hotel introduction comes from the far out in the sky to fast zoom into one of the scenes of the hotel – ideally the poolside, to showcase the lush exteriors of the hotel. If the hotel's on seashore or a mountainside, then those are the areas to be included in the scene.
3. The Walkthroughs
Mounting the DSLR on a gimbal or a steadicam, the walkthrough videos covering the entries, the exits, and the alleys of the hotels provide a real-time view of how it feels to be walking at the place. The entries and exits from the room are also covered in these walkthroughs, which are shot at a gentle pace as if someone is walking through them. Too slow, and it will become boring, while too fast may make the viewer feel dizzy.
4. The Panning Shots
Simple panning shots that move from left to right smoothly to showcase the length and breadth of the place, including the interiors and the exteriors help in covering the details of the places, and are joined in between the walkthroughs, as and when the video moves in the area. This can provide a seamless experience, and slow panning helps viewers assimilate the visuals in the area, as opposed to still frames, that tend to be boring, unless there's something happening within the frame.
5. Blur ins, Blur outs, and more
The finer details of certain areas, such as the details of the interiors and décor are by blur-ins and blur-outs where we keep a wide-open aperture and move the focus slowly in to out. This helps in covering the finer details – such as a few textures, designs, etc, while also making sure the frame doesn't get too boring. Every detail that can be covered is usually done in a creative manner instead of just zooming in on a still frame. In fact, zoom-in is hardly used in professional cinematography.
6. Tracking In, Dolly, and Slider Shots
For capturing the entire living systems, baths, etc, the tracking, dolly, and slider shots are employed to create smooth movement towards the object of interest. This is different from walkthroughs, as these movements are slower, usually in the form of a curve, and more cinematic in nature. These are shot to let the viewer see and feel the experience by themselves. Even the bars and dining are shot in the same way.
7. The Balcony View
Some of the special suites in the hotel may be having special views. Some may open directly to pool; some may have a scenic mountain range, while others may be sea-facing. These pictures are usually still frames with time-lapse or videos that have been sped up to showcase how the view varies from the balcony – adding another attraction to the room.
8. Capture the Lobby, Restaurant, and Hotel Bar
Hotel lobby, restaurant, and bar are some of the most important places visitors are likely to spend time in, and every luxury hotel video is incomplete without the presence of the shots from the locations. A gentle coverage of the details in various ways – be it capturing the details of the bars, the atmosphere and the arrangement of the restaurant, or the surroundings of the lobby – these are some visuals that become an important testament to the reputation of the hotel.
9. Add Some Action and Fun
Add some action and fun shots to showcase the experience the visitors will be able to enjoy. Instead of merely covering the baths, hire some models and showcase the experience. Instead of shooting just the ambience of bar and restaurant, have real people make the place appear lively. Be it bathing in the pool, or enjoying a fine dining experience – people will attract people, and are an important constituent of the video production for luxury hotels.
10. Blend Them Well
Now that there are intro shots, walkthroughs, details, panning, balcony view, some action – blend them well so that it appears one smooth motion. At no place should a viewer feel disconnected, therefore it is important to slowly build it up from the city montages to walkthrough to the lobby, to some ambience shots of lobby, then moving on to the alleys, and into the rooms where we pan through the room, then capture some details, and the views from the balcony, moving back to alley then restaurant, and bars, and so on. The whole video should not be too long, but should be enough to provide the experience that the visitors are likely to experience in the best possible way.
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