THE LION DOOR VIDEO
1.How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
Similar to all of my previous content I chose to author this video with the front facing camera of my iPhone 7. Through the Instagram feed, each post exists in relation to it’s previous and following post. Therefore, this video is a continuation of my previous photo and portrays what is behind the door I displayed in that photo. I found working with a moving subject very difficult, as the dog I was videoing ran away a number of times. I enlisted the help of my partner, but then his shoe was in the video, thankfully Instagram affords cropping which saved that video. Another aspect I found difficult when authoring this content was the lighting. Natural lighting can be temperamental, especially when I opened the door which washed out the dog. I did not manage to find a way to rectify this aspect of the video, but hopefully with more practice I’ll be able to come up with a solution to problems such as these. Similar to all of my previous posts, I utilised the ‘Aden’ filter to keep the aesthetics consistent. In addition to this, I thought I’d mention that I am attempting to have a colourful, warm colour scheme on this Instagram.
2.How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
Instead of continuing with Game of Thrones related content, I decided to move onto another extremely popular content category on Instagram; dogs. I view my Instagram account @adorabledoors as a way to utilise the constraint of having to produce door related content as a framework to explore other popular categories of Instagram content. Therefore, utilising the overall theme of doors and discovering what is behind them to include generic popular content. I am intrigued to find out what type of content drives the most traffic to my page, whether it be #dogsofinstagram, #GoT or #streetart. The jury’s still out on how I might include a food or makeup related post on a door themed Instagram page. As aforementioned, I struggled to take the video and therefore had to go through a few videos before I found one that worked. Once I’d found a video that worked, I chose to include the captions ‘It’s definitely not a dog behind this door’, relating to my previous post. After upload, I decided that I wanted to include a location but wasn’t sure what to geotag it as. Eventually, I decided to include the location ‘Sandringham, Victoria’ which was where the image was taken.
3.How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
Similar to all of my previous posts, I used the toggle feature to easily cross post this video on Twitter and Tumblr. I also used the geofilter, ‘Sandringham, Victoria’, with the intention of generating reach. Although, I’m not sure how many users will actually search for Sandringham on Instagram. Additionally, I chose to include a number of hashtags relevant to the posts, including #dogsofinstagram, #cute and #puppy. I included these hashtags as they are decently popular and therefore I assumed that they would drive traffic to my page. However, a few days after posting this video did not receive much engagement, which is interesting as I thought it would. It could be due to the use of an irregular and therefore limited geofilter. However, it is also interesting to note that thus far the photos I have posted receive significantly more engagement in comparison to the videos. In terms of software affordances, Instagram definitely favours photo production, however I wonder if the algorithm also favours photos? In 2016, Instagram announced that they would change their feed to be algorithmic rather than chronological, this article outlines the significant impacts it had. Many Instagram users were concerned when this algorithm was first introduced, as they were scared it would limit their engagement with their audience and stunt their growth. This constraint that Instagram introduced forced it’s users to be creative in working their way around it through the apps affordances. Utilising popular content themes and relevant hashtags to distribute their content.