What are the Main Purposes of a Travelogue?
Travelogues represent nonfiction films that heavily focus on a particular place of interest as their primary subject and offer a glimpse into various locations all around the world. While filmmaking a television is largely focused on the creation of a variety of different content types which have many different intents and purposes, the purposes of a travelogue are quite different from other types of video content. But, what are the main purposes of a travelogue?
What is a Travelogue?
A travelogue is a nonfiction travel documentary which typically describes travel and tourist attractions in general without any recommendation on a particular package deal or tour operator.
The idea of a travelogue is to provide details on the location, value of a visit, and individual things to see and do in the area without being biased or directly marketing for any particular vendor in the area.
Purpose of a Travelogue
So, what are the main purposes of a travelogue? Generally, a travelogue provides a place to preserve memories, provide a purpose for travel, and offer a connection with local communities.
The main purposes of a travelogue though are to inform readers about a place, landscape or culture. The travelogue genre represents a popular style which has been showcased in a variety of ways.
Travelogues tend to display locations in a way that make them most appealing to the audience while using open narration to create an emotional attachment among the audience through the use of storytelling and characters.
Characteristics of a Travelogue
Now that you know what the main purpose of a travelogue is. Which is to inform readers about a particular place, landscape, or culture of interest. What are the characteristics of a travelogue?
Travelogues were once up to 80 minutes in length on average, although they are significantly shorter these days.
They incorporate movie sounds into the production to simulate virtual travel and may even use Cineorama or Mareorama to simulate excursions, voyages, and other activities.
Most travelogues feature the following characteristics:
- Live or recorded voice-over narration.
- In-sync audio soundtrack that includes music and background sounds from the location.
- Often displayed in IMAX for modern films.
The Return
While the traditional travelogue is far less common than it once was, cable television has brought the travelogue back. In fact, you’ve likely seen travelogues on Discovery Channel, Travel Channel and similar television channels.
So, what are the main purposes of a travelogue? They’re non-fiction travel based films which document a location. And are created to drive interest to that particular location.
As well as the culture or events of the location. Without marketing an individual vendor or provider in any way.