https://www.instagram.com/p/BxZdzSrHDK_/
1. How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
This video was authored with my rear-facing iPhone 6 camera – but more specifically, using the boomerang function within Instagram. No external editing was done to this short video, instead it was uploaded exactly as it was taken, therefore complying with the notion of Instagram capturing those ‘every day’ moments. While in the past I have enjoyed the luxuries of using a variety of different apps and editing software (such as Adobe’s Photoshop or Premiere Pro) to ensure anything I post on Instagram or social media in general is of the highest quality it can be; posting videos such as the one above and relying solely on the affordances of Instagram’s software has reminded me of what a versatile and user-convenient platform it is.
2. How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
This boomerang was published on May 13, on Instagram. A number of different attempts were made to capture the exact moment when the train door opened, and the one I deemed most effective was chosen for upload. It was during the publishing process that I thought of my caption and used some relevant emojis to help emphasise the caption I chose. In publishing this post, I decided to add the location of where the boomerang was taken – at Heidelberg Station in Melbourne’s North-East. Within my own personal Instagram use, I nearly always add my location as I believe the inner FBI within every Instagram user would like to know the location a photo was taken. Using the location is also another form of distribution, as it takes the image and links it alongside other images that were taken in the same place.
3. How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
Within the distribution process I chose relevant hashtags (such as my own #greendoorspotter hashtag and #metro) to distribute this boomerang into a sea of wider like-minded images and videos. #Metro on Instagram currently has 5,918,336 posts, meaning people not only use but also engage with the hashtag frequently. It was my hope by using this hashtag to provide more context for the boomerang, but to also ensure this video has the best possible chances of engagement.
This photo was also distributed via my personal tumblr account, and thus a much wider group of people had the option of viewing this boomerang and potentially engaging with the account. I also made an Instagram story on my own personal account, encouraging people to check out this account, and follow in my green door journey.
In my personal use of Instagram, I would never distribute an Instagram image to another social media site unless I had to. I believe Instagram to well and truly have a certain aesthetic that is unique and different from other social media platforms – but also just having different software. Facebook does not look the same as Instagram, Twitter does not look the same as Tumblr. Because of this, I believe it is nearly impossible for an Instagram post to look half as effective on another social media site in comparison to the one is created to compliment. When an Instagram post is shared on twitter, an image is condensed to merely a link and caption – therefore it cannot have the same visual impact or enticement that the original post would.
As author Trine Bjorkmann Berry suggests in his work Video Blogging Before Youtube, over time there has been the development of a medium-specific aesthetic which is both influenced by, and works in conjunction with, the technical restrictions of a platform. The technical restrictions of Instagram are different to that of Twitter (and all other platforms), therefore sharing a post designed for Instagram on other platforms may be counter-intuitive.
Berry, T. B 2018, ‘Situating Videoblogging’, Institute of Network Cultures, viewed 14 March 2018, pp. 9–22, http://networkcultures.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Videoblogging-Before-YouTube-web.pdf