Point of view (POV) style videos have become increasingly popular, particularly on TikTok. This style of content gives the audience glimpses into the day to day life of a person or business, allowing watchers to follow along their journey in a way that feels real and authentic.
A particularly effective and useful POV format is the ‘Come with me’ style video. This is where you take the viewer ‘with you’ to an event, trip, or day at work. This style of video is largely suitable for all types of account, no matter your experience level with filming content, which makes it super flexible.
If you’re not confident in front of the camera, you can use a selection of clips and either use a voice over or text captions. If you’re feeling a little more brave, you can talk to the camera and film yourself so it becomes more of a ‘vlog’ style, and this works great too. Whether you’re showcasing an event, a simple day in the life of your business, or even your weekly food shop, this style of video is easy to create and highly impactful.
Today we’re taking a look at how to create one for yourself.
A common misconception for filming Reels, TikToks and other social media videos is that you need high tech equipment. While professional camera shots may be better quality and look beautiful, we often see that they tend to perform better on platforms such as YouTube, or where you are specifically creating a very polished style of content. For social media, an expensive camera set-up is very rarely a necessity.
So keep it simple. Make it look natural. You will need:
You might also choose to use:
You won’t need to do careful planning before filming a ‘Come with me’ style video, but it is worth thinking ahead for anything in particular you want to capture and keeping in mind your purpose. Every video needs a narrative in order to prevent ending up with a montage of random clips with no meaning. Before you press record, ask yourself: what is the purpose of this video? Where are you taking your audience? What is going to be achieved? What are the highlights of this trip? Is there anything you know ahead of going that you want to capture?
For example, if you are a brand going to an event to showcase your products or services, can you show the audience around the event and the details of your stand? Who’s going to be there - can you show the people? Is there one main display or performance you can show? Is the surrounding location worth including? Can you show any BTS (behind the scenes) of the set up? Will there be an opportunity to capture food content? Could you demonstrate your own products or services in action or on the shelves?
If you think it will help, make a couple of notes on your phone of things that you can capture throughout the day or event so that you can refer back to it as you go.
This is arguably one of the most important shots of the entire video and this should be the first thing the video starts with. An establishing shot sets the scene, shows the audience where you are or where you are going and gives them an idea of what you’ll be doing there. This shot sets the tone of the whole video, so consider what is going to instantly communicate what is happening.
This could be a wide view of the street or location, the entrance to the building or venue, a pan of the area, or something else. When we are capturing ‘Come with me’ videos at events, we like to include any banners or signage that immediately set the scene.
Show the things that stand out to you, big or small, the good and the bad. These details make the video feel personal and engaging. Sometimes things don’t always go to plan and the day changes - this is all part of the journey. Don’t feel like you need to make the day come across as perfect. If everything went to plan, that’s great…but if not, you may find a lot of people might be able to relate!
If you’re not sure what to film, just start by pointing your camera at different areas and capture as much as you can, as during the edit you can be more selective and include the clips you think work best.
When filming, it works best to provide a variety of shot distances, as this makes your final video much more engaging and helps the audience to feel part of the journey. Try to include:
Additionally, try a variety of moving and static shots. Capture some footage where you move the camera to follow or pan across a landscape or move towards a point of interest, and some static shots where you keep the camera still whilst the subject matter moves around the space.
While you are capturing your video clips, keep in mind that ‘Come with me’ videos work well when compared with a compilation of random clips because they have a narrative. Narrative is the part that makes your video feel like a story, and gives the content meaning and a purpose.
For this reason, it can be useful to think of your day or trip as a ‘journey’ that will have a beginning, middle and end. Capturing a few clips at different points in the day can make this easy when it comes to the edit - although it is actually also very possible to capture all the clips you will need within a short window of time and still create a video with a clear narrative (trust us, we’ve tried!).
Narration (voice over) or added text can help with telling the story too. Unless you’ve gone down the ‘vlog’ style route for this video in which you have talked on camera, this will come as a final step to the edit, where you can either talk over the whole video (or just sections) to explain what you’re doing, or alternatively you can add text to help drive the narrative.
B-roll is the term used for secondary footage, often used for cutaways to help provide context and a visual interest to help tell the story. These clips are often linked to what is being said or suggested in the primary footage and cut in later during the edit. With ‘Come with me’ videos, b-roll is often the content you capture anyway, so these clips will be your primary footage. However, if you’re going for the ‘vlog’ approach, don’t forget to capture B-roll alongside the clips of yourself talking, as these will likely be something you’ll want to include in the edit.
You don’t need to be a professional to edit a ‘Come with me’ style video. There are many simple editing softwares available that can be used to edit this type of content - including TikTok’s in app editor and the Instagram Reels editor. You can also use editing apps like CapCut, iMovie or InShot to stitch your clips today and create that story timeline.
When editing, trim unnecessary clips, adjust lighting, and add background music. Keep the pace lively to maintain viewer interest; you can do this by having few longer clips and more shorter clips that makes the video feel quicker paced.
If you can, keep the video fairly short. Around 1 minute is often a good length, although of course it depends on what the subject of the video is and how much footage you have captured that will continue to engage a viewer.
We’ll end with some final tips for creating your ‘Come with me’ POV style video:
If you take anything from this article, let it be that capturing a ‘Come with me’ style video isn’t scary at all - it can be lots of fun, and you don’t need to be intimidated by the idea. We hope you found this helpful and feel ready to go out and film your own.
If you need any help with content creation, whether you’re looking for someone to edit and distribute content for your business or you’d rather have someone take care of all the filming too, get in touch.
