First Video Shoot: Forestry Day

I had been advised by a good friend that to improve engagement on Instagram I need to “give a bit more of myself” In other words I had to produce media that tells followers more about who I am as a person. So, for my first video, I used subject matter that I really enjoy, and that I hoped that others would too.

Using my iPhone I videoed clips of my work at a local farm, where I work every Friday. The work is varied and today I was working with the farmer to cut back and move several Ash trees that had died due to Ash Dieback disease.  

During the day I videoed short clips of my work. The weather was dry, but it became very windy and wind noise was going to be a problem because the iPhone noise cancelling would not be sufficient.  Before shooting the video I had purchased a DJI Gimble, the DJI OSMO Mobile 6, which is designed to work with a mobile device. However, I was not yet competent with it so did not use it for this shoot.

I shot the clips in 16:9 portrait orientation as this would suit a mobile phone aspect ratio during playback and is specifically suitable for both Instagram and Facebook video posts (Wilson, 2024).

I edited the clips together using the DJI software that came shipped with the gimbal. It had a “one touch edit” button that would compile and edit a video in just one click using Ai technology to choose the best sections of each clip and the order that they should be shown in to create a narrative. The results from the DJI App were very good. After using one touch edit I adjusted the clips manually to finalise the video.

I wanted to utilise text on the video to anchor the images. I did this through a title on the initial clip and popups that appeared during the video. I also used my logo at the end.

The DJI App stores the clips in a folder within the iPhone’s Photos app, some of which I have shown below.

Some of the video files from the DJI folder.

The following stills summarise the edit..

The final video is available at: https://youtube.com/shorts/16fbdp41v8U

Reflection

This was my first attempt at speaking and presenting myself on video, I was not looking forward to doing so and really struggled. The wind noise also affected the audio and whilst it was possible to improve it a little using editing software the sound quality remains poor.

In hindsight, I am not happy with the fonts used. The title font is different from the pop-up text, and I am not sure that the messaging is particularly engaging.

Considering engagement, upon reflection the pace is a little slow and lumbering (pardon the pun) and would not hold the viewers’ attention on Instagram where the average content is faster-paced and possibly more engaging, depending upon the viewer’s interests.

I think in the future I will need to create videos that are more upbeat, have a hook (perhaps using comedy) at the beginning, and have a faster pace. Most of the Instagram reels that I have seen tend to use humour, sadly they tend to be fairly inane, appearing to only be interested in securing user likes by following Instagram trends that focus on this kind of media. My worry is that I am not interested enough in making “like bait” to be able to follow their example.

WILSON. D., 2024, The Social Media Creative Creature [Viewed 14/10/2024]. Available from: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xu0IEQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT7&dq=how+to+create+a+video+for+social+media+using+adobe+premier+rush&ots=xd_75FqygA&sig=RP6-fvENI5QzxtPZBkHci88_TMo&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false