How did you author the video you recorded for upload to Instagram?
This week I was running out of things to take videos that encompass good or bad design. Then alas! As I was walking my fur baby Ralph I look down and realised that his lead is an amazing example of good design.
The object affords an extending lead on a retractable lever. I initially wanted to capture this affordance, because it reminded me of Elaine’s talk about the affordances of scissors, with the finger holes designed for optimal positioning for the human hand. Ralph’s lead also affords the comfortability of my hand, in the grooves on the lead.
I took this video on my iPhone 11, on a casual Saturday with my boyfriend. As Manovich states, ‘Instagram is about capturing photos on the go, in the real world, in real-time’ (Manovich 2016, p.12), and this is an accurate depiction of a typical day in my life.
This video did not require flash, because our surrounding was perfectly lit by the sun. I wanted to depict the way the lead affords great distance than that of a standard dog lead, and show the audience that Ralph remains unbothered, unhurt and happy as I walk backwards. This video actually took about five tries because there were dogs everywhere and they kept running into the shot #sopure.
On Instagram, I placed the video into the square grid and applied the classic Aden filter to 50. I also had the chance to finally choose my video thumbnail photo. I decided to keep the sound because I think it adds more substance than the viewer trying to guess what it could sound like.
Applying the Aden Filter and Selecting the Cover Thumbnail:
How did you publish the video you recorded for upload to Instagram?
After editing the video, I uploaded it to my account with the caption ‘Happy Ralph 
’. I tagged my location as Barkly Gardens in Richmond, because it is a popular hangout amongst dog lovers. Moreover, it’s also a simple way of telling my followers where I am without stating it in the caption. According to Lozan, Posts with a tagged location result in 79% higher engagement than posts without a tagged location (Lozan 2019), so I also took this into consideration to garner more likes.
Since uploading this video to Instagram, I decided to add some hashtags. I understand that the ‘#dogsspotting (97.6k posts)’ and ‘#DogsofMelbourne (935k)’ hashtag has a huge cult following that engages with it constantly. Consequently, I added three hashtags two days later to try and squeeze any engagement that I could for this post.
How did you distribute the video you recorded for upload to Instagram?
As per my previous posts, I distributed the video to my Facebook and Twitter accounts at the same time as my Instagram, roughly the same time as my pervious content (2-3pm weekdays).
As per usual, my twitter account didn’t relay the video over; so I manually uploaded it myself. Although I expect to auto-distribute this video, it’s as frustrating and time consuming as the previous times. This undermines the exact reason for the inclusion of the automatic distribution feature, that being to make the distribution process more quick and simple. Why would instagram include this option if it never works?
My video before it was published to Instagram, including cross-distribution:
My Instagram video distributed on Facebook:
My Instagram video distributed on Twitter:
References:
Lozan. T, 2019, ‘Why Location Tagging on Instagram Matters’, webpage, viewed 25th February 2020 <https://www.socialinsider.io/blog/instagram-location-tag/>
Manovich, L 2016, Instagram and the Contemporary Image, University of San Diego, USA, pp. 12.