1. How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
To author this week’s video, I used my iPhone’s 6 front camera, which has 1.2 MP and 720p for video recording. Because last week I realized the constraints of Instagram when it came to recording a video to be directly posted, I decided to use the camera application of my phone. That way I gained the capacity to use both of my hands and, because I used the front camera, also recorded myself doing something more complex.
As I mentioned in this week’s photo post, I decided to follow Dominik DeCoco advice on having a theme for my posts on the social media app (DeCoco 2020), and because I upload a video of my toiletry bag, I ditch my first idea and record a tutorial video showing how to apply the eyeshadows I showed in the photo post. To do it, I had to find a place with a good light, because it was already dark outside, and the bathroom was the best option because it also had a big mirror to see what I was doing.
My decision to do that type of video comes from what I’m used to seeing on Instagram and similar platforms, like youtube, where “beauty gurus” show you how to use certain products. Lev Manovich states that people certains styles socially acepted “that define what is worth documenting, and how different subjects should be photographed” (Manovich 2016, pp.52), even though they aren’t trying to be professionals. People, as I did myself, create content they know will be accepted between the digital space that the social media application offers.
Once I finished the recording, I used the editing application PicsArt, which let me trim the video to 23 seconds, put energetic music over it, and a filter that made it look more warm in terms of colours. The final product ended up looking much more complex than what it really was at the beginning. This is one of the main differences I notice from other types of video authoring. With networked cameras, I easily record myself and edit the video, adding different features, in not more than an hour and without any kind of professional knowledge, using just my phone and not other types of complementary devices. On the contrary, as I mentioned in week 6’s review, Nam June Paik had to use eight different elements to create his functional artwork “TV Bra for Living Sculpture”.
2. How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
The publishing process I did was directly from the PicsArt application. I only record one video because I was aware that I could cut out the parts I didn’t like. This is one big difference from analogue video because with other types of cameras and technologies, the publishing process was much more difficult and it was directly correlated to the authoring; you would not take a photo or video if you weren’t sure it would have been worth realising it to the public. Manovich said that “the short color film rolls and cartridges were too important to waste on random photos” (Manovich 2016, pp.57), pointing out how important the process was before.
Once I finished editing and adding all of the features I wanted, the app gave me the option to share it directly on Instagram. I took a few minutes to transfer from one platform to another, but it was definitely an easy and fast operation. Once in the social media network, I had a few more options for the uploading process, which include choosing which frame I wanted for the cover, adding my location, writing a caption and choosing if I wanted the video to play automatically, which I did.
For the caption, I followed the advice of Chris Do, an expert on social media, of writing something related to what you are showing or what you want to represent (Chris Do 2019), in a casual and friendly way. I wrote “A tutorial on how to apply the @maccosmetics eyeshadows”, little different from the photo of this week, but in the same lines, and I also put the hashtags #maccosmetics #makeup #brown #eyeshadow #practical #design #victoria #melbournebeach #maccosmetics #tutorial.
3. How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
During the publishing process, the app gave me the option to share the video into other social media platforms. Thanks to this feature, I was able to distribute the content in Tumblr and Twitter at the same time I was doing it on Instagram. Manovich calls this the “network effect”, though I was able “to use Instagram on other popular social networks” and “Instant global sharing” (Manovich 2016, pp.41) the tutorial I made. A few years ago, that was unthinkable and, as I wrote in the review for the second assignment, to be able to distribute a video you needed to know how to manage electronic signals.
In order to get more reach, I used a geotag locating me in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. I also followed Chris Do recommendation to use a mix of hashtags with low, medium and high amount of followers, which were “#maccosmetics #makeup #brown #eyeshadow #practical #design #victoria #melbournebeach #maccosmetics #tutorial”. I could notice the results immediately, with 28 views and 8 likes on the post to this date. One of the reasons for the increase in interactions can be that the beauty community is huge on social media, specially Instagram, and I used hashtags related to that topic.
On the other platforms I also got better results than last week. First of all, the video did show on my Tumblr’s page and could be played without leaving the website, and I also got two likes on that post. However, on Twitter I still don’t have many interactions, or any interaction at all.
Reference
– Manovich, L. 2016, ‘Part 1: Casual Photos’, Instagram and the Contemporary Image, University of San Diego, USA., pp. 24-57.
– DeCoco, D 2020, How The Instagram Algorithm Works in 2020 – Full Training – Own the Instagram Algorithm, Youtube, 31 January, heyDominik, Vienna, viewed 15 May 2020, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWfVwVAOIvA&t=1021s>
– Do, C 2019, How To Get 10k Followers On Instagram Per Week, Youtube, 6 November, The Futur, Santa Monica, viewed 15 May 2020, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89bF5Dzh_F4>