Chapter 5
Recording and Posting Great Videos
IN THIS CHAPTER
Recording video on your smartphone or tablet
Uploading videos
Adding descriptions
Sharing your video on Instagram
If you’ve checked your competitors on Instagram and other social-networking websites (you have, haven’t you?), you’ve noticed that they’re creating and producing short videos to promote their business. And if they haven’t, producing videos of your own is an opportunity to have an advantage over your competition. After all, digital video advertising is expected to grow at double-digit rates every year through 2020 (www.emarketer.com/Article/Digital-Video-Advertising-Grow-Annual-Double-Digit-Rates/1014105).
Instagram added video to its smartphone apps in 2013. Sorry, Windows and Mac users; you can’t upload video to Instagram from your computers.
In this chapter, you learn how to record video in the Instagram app by using a smartphone or a tablet. Then you discover how to edit your video with Instagram’s built-in editing tools and add a description.
Finally, you find out how to share your video on Instagram and start bringing in viewers and, maybe, customers.
Recording Your Day
Instagram gives you the flexibility to record videos that are as short as 3 seconds or as long as 60 seconds. If you find that 60 seconds is too limiting, use the video as a teaser (think of it as your own movie preview) to get people to click through to your website or to another video website such as YouTube.
Before you record a video, you should know your audience: People younger than 35 prefer 10-second videos, and people 35 and older prefer 30-second spots (www.adweek.com/digital/new-study-shows-millennials-prefer-short-mobile-videos-while-older-crowds-long-form-170739/). Learn more about reaching your audience in Chapter 3.
Filming with a smartphone or tablet
When you’re ready to start recording a video on your iPhone, iPad, Android smartphone, or Android tablet, open the Instagram app (if it’s not open already) and then tap the + icon at the bottom of the home screen. In the Library or Photo screen that appears, tap Video.
The Instagram apps on the iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones, and Android tablets all work the same.
The first time you open the Video screen, a pop-up window appears, as shown in Figure 5-1. Instagram wants to access the microphone on your smartphone so it can record videos with sound. Access the microphone by tapping OK.
The next time you open the Video screen, you won’t see this pop-up window. If you want to turn your microphone off and on in Instagram, access your smartphone’s settings, open the Instagram settings entry, and then turn the microphone on or off.
The Video screen has the following elements, all labeled in Figure 5-2:
- The viewer, which is in the upper part of the screen, displays what your smartphone sees through its camera lens.
- The switch cameras icon is in the lower-left corner of the viewer. Tap this icon to switch between the front and back cameras.
- The recording bar is one of two bars just below the viewer and on the left. The recording bar represents how long you’ve been recording. When the recording bar is blinking, you can start recording either at the beginning of a video or after a video clip. (You find out about recording multiple video clips in the next section.)
- The 3-second recording time bar indicates when the video is 3 seconds long. When the recording bar passes the 3-second spot, you can save your video.
- The record button is the large gray circle in the bottom half of the screen.
Start recording by tapping and holding down on the record button. The recording bar expands as you record. (If you reach the 60-second limit, the bar spans the width of the screen and Instagram stops recording.) The amount of time you’ve been recording appears above the record button, as shown in Figure 5-3. When you’ve finished recording, release your finger from the record button.
If you record for only one or two seconds, the recording bar is solid for the time you recorded. Between the recording bar and the minimum bar, you’ll see a blinking recording bar. That blinking bar tells you how many more seconds you have to meet the minimum recording time to save your video.
Recording multiple video clips
To save time, you can record multiple clips in one recording. For example, suppose you're recording a video of your new restaurant. After filming the inside of the restaurant, you don’t want to spend precious video time recording your move to the outside to show the exterior of the building.
After you record your first clip, release your finger. When you’re ready to start recording again, tap and hold down on the record button again. You may repeat this process as many times as you want within the 60-second limit for a video. The timer above the record button continues from the time you paused the recording.
The recording bar places a white line between each clip. In this way, you can see how many clips you have. Figure 5-3, for example, has three clips of varying times.
Deleting video clips
If you decide that you want to delete the last video clip you recorded, tap Delete at the bottom of the screen (refer to Figure 5-2). The color of the Delete button and the recording bar changes to red. Then tap Delete again. The Delete option disappears and the blinking recording bar appears so you can record a new video clip.
If you want to delete more clips, just repeat this process. Easy like Sunday morning.
Checking out your video
After you record your video, you'll want to review it before posting. From the Video screen, tap Next. You see the Filter screen, which you learn about in the next section.
If you haven’t recorded for the minimum 3 seconds, you’ll see a pop-up above the minimum bar when you tap Next. This pop-up points to the minimum bar and tells you to record at least to that point. After a few seconds, the pop-up disappears and you can record another clip.
The video starts playing in the viewer. To stop playing the video, tap anywhere in the viewer. To resume, tap the play button, in the middle of the viewer, as shown in Figure 5-4.
You can toggle video sound on or off by tapping the speaker icon at the top of the page. If you’ve stopped your video, the video will start playing after you turn the video sound on or off.
Improving Your Video
You can improve your video in several ways: add a filter, change the cover frame, and trim the video. In this section, you start by applying a filter to your video in the Filter screen.
Applying a filter
Below the viewer is a row of filters. (The Normal, Clarendon, and Amaro filters are shown in Figure 5-4.) The thumbnail image below each filter shows you the filter's effect on your video.
Swipe in the row of thumbnails to view all 23 filters. (Normal is the default, so it isn't considered a filter.) Tap a filter's thumbnail, and the video with the applied filter plays in the viewer.
You can change the intensity of any filter by tapping the filter's thumbnail, and then moving the slider to the left and right. (The default intensity is 100.) As you move the slider, the video reflects the change. When you've finished selecting an intensity, tap Done.
The video continues to play when you apply a new filter or change the intensity of a filter. If you want to return the video to its original state, tap the Normal thumbnail.
Changing the cover frame
Instagram uses the first frame from your video to produce a cover frame, which is the frame that appears at the start of your video. You can change the cover frame as follows:
In the Filter screen, tap Cover.
The default cover frame appears in the viewer and also below the viewer in a white focus box. The other frames appear next to the focus box and are dimmed, as shown in Figure 5-5.
Tap and hold down on the frame in the focus box, and then drag the frame within the row.
As you drag, the focus box moves to another frame in your video and you see this new cover frame in the viewer.
- When you find a cover frame you like, release your finger.
- Tap Next.
The cover frame will appear in your Instagram feed, so be sure that the frame you select isn’t blurry. You want to make a good impression on your followers as well as your potential customers.
Adding details
In the screen that displays your video (refer to Figure 5-4), tap Next. The New Post screen appears, as shown in Figure 5-6.
In this screen, you can add a caption, include a location where the video was recorded, share the video on other social media networks, and turn commenting on and off. The process for adding all this good stuff is described in Chapter 4. (Note, however, that you can't tag people in videos, so you can skip the instructions about tagging in Chapter 4.)
Posting Your Video
When you’re ready to post your video, tap Share in the upper-right corner of the New Post screen. After a few seconds, your video appears on the Instagram home screen, as shown in Figure 5-7.
The video starts playing as soon as you view it and will play continuously every time you view the post. The video plays without sound, but you can turn on the sound by tapping the video icon in the lower-left corner of the video. Cool beans.
Uploading a Stored Video
It’s easy to upload a video that you've already recorded and stored on your iPhone, iPad, or Android smartphone or tablet. Simply follow these steps:
- Tap the + icon at the bottom of the Instagram feed screen.
- If the Library screen is not displayed, tap Library.
Select the video you want to upload by tapping its thumbnail image in the Camera Roll or Gallery screen, as shown in Figure 5-8.
The video plays continuously in the viewer. Stop playback by tapping anywhere in the viewer.
Instagram automatically crops your video to the size of the viewer, but you can resize the video to its original size by tapping the resize icon (labeled in Figure 5-8).
(Optional) Apply a filter, change the cover frame, and trim your video.
These tasks are described in the “Improving Your Video” section.
- Tap Next.
(Optional) Add a caption and a location, specify other social networks where you want to share your video, and turn commenting on or off.
These tasks are the same for photos and videos. For details, see the section on enriching photos in Chapter 4.
Uploading Multiple Videos from an iPhone or iPad
If you’ve already taken videos with your iPhone or iPad and saved them to your Camera Roll, you can upload them to a single Instagram video and share it with your followers. Sorry, Android users; this feature isn’t available on Android smartphones yet.
Follow these steps to upload multiple clips into one Instagram video:
- Tap the + icon in the Instagram feed screen.
- If the Library screen isn't displayed, tap Library.
Select the first video you want to upload by tapping its thumbnail image in the Camera Roll screen. Then tap Next.
The Filter screen appears.
Tap Trim, at the bottom of the screen.
The Trim screen appears, and your selected video plays in the viewer, as shown in Figure 5-9.
Tap the + icon, and then tap the thumbnail for the video that you want to add to the first video.
The selected video now sports a 2, which tells you that this is the second clip that will appear in the video. This second clip plays continuously in the viewer; to stop playing, tap anywhere in the viewer.
Repeat Step 5 until you’ve added all the video clips you want.
As you add each clip, Instagram assigns it a number indicating its order in the video.
Tap Done.
The Trim screen appears, with thumbnails of your video clip in the order in which they will appear in the video. You can add more clips at this point, if you want. (Tap the + icon, tap the clip's thumbnail, and then tap Done.)
The viewer displays all the clips playing continuously so you can see how they will appear to your followers. To stop video playback, tap anywhere in the viewer.
If you add a clip that puts your video over the 60-second limit, Instagram will automatically trim the last clip so that your entire video lasts for exactly 60 seconds.
- (Optional) To remove a clip from your video:
- Tap and hold down on the clip's thumbnail. The viewer is replaced by an X inside a box.
- Drag the thumbnail to the X.
(Optional) Apply a filter or change the cover or both.
These tasks are described in the “Improving Your Video” section, earlier in the chapter.
Tap Next.
The New Post (Followers) screen appears.
(Optional) Type a caption, add a location, share your photo on other social networks, and turn commenting on or off.
For more information, read the section on enriching photos in Chapter 4. All the information there applies also not only to photos but also to videos, with the exception of tagging people. (You can’t tag people in a video.)
When you upload a video with multiple clips, you can’t change the orientation of the clips to landscape or portrait. Each clip appears in its original orientation, so keep that in mind when you want to create a video with multiple clips.
