Cinematic Travel Video Edit

Earlier this year, I traveled to Indonesia, where I visited Bali and Lombok. I wanted to travel light, and I also really liked the aesthetic and vibe of old-school footage, so I decided to film most of the trip with a 25-year-old camcorder. I have now digitized the footage and would love to turn it into a short travel video of around 1.5–2 minutes that I can share with my friends to capture the experience and atmosphere of the trip.

In addition to the VHS/camcorder footage, I also filmed some underwater scenes with an Insta360 camera. These clips will need some color grading and correction, but I would still like the overall video to maintain the nostalgic VHS/camcorder aesthetic. Ideally, the Insta360 footage should feel like a natural extension of the film rather than looking completely different from the rest of the video.

One thing I noticed is that the camcorder footage seems to have been stretched slightly horizontally during the digitization process. This should hopefully be a relatively simple correction. Apart from that, I don't think the VHS footage requires any additional color grading, as I would like to preserve its original look, including the natural imperfections and vintage character.

Would you be able to create a finished travel video from this footage?

I would like to give you complete creative freedom when it comes to the editing style, pacing, transitions, and overall storytelling. Feel free to experiment with creative or seamless transitions, modern effects, or even AI-assisted transitions if you think they would work well. I am particularly interested in a balance between the nostalgic, imperfect VHS aesthetic and some modern editing techniques, so the result feels intentional and cinematic rather than simply being a compilation of clips.

For the background music, I have a few references that capture roughly the atmosphere I have in mind:

“I'm God” – Clams Casino
“Time to Pretend” – MGMT
“Ganja” – Ooyy

Overall, I would like the video to feel like a personal memory of the trip: spontaneous, nostalgic and authentic, while still having a modern and visually engaging edit.

I'm happy to leave the creative direction largely up to you and would love to see what you can create from the footage.

Deliverables:
• One master video, ideally 1.5-2 minutes, exported in 1080p H.264
• Project files (Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve) so I can tweak in the future