Shortly after Instagram rolled out its “Stories” feature - the 24-hour shelflife “snapchat clone”, I discovered that you can upload items from your camera roll! Hell yeah! Why keep posting super compressed snapchat videos or be limited by the capabilities of the iPhone’s camera when I already have a DSLR on me every day?
I begin producing and posting with fury, and soon I got a ton of people asking:
“WHOA! What kind of phone are you using!? This looks AMAZING!”
“Thank you, thank you, I know, I know.”
But, really, anyone can do it.
The reception is great. People love it, and it does give you a more polished product than you can manage with the phone.
It is a lot of work, though.
Even when you streamline it, it’s still more effort than just snapping a video with your phone. I feel this is best suited to someone that just wants to experiment with video and improve their skills. Or maybe you’re a pro who can hammer out amazing videos in seconds, in which case you may already be doing this. I actually haven’t encountered a single account that has, though, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.
Especially since I’m spilling the beans here.
So, because we cover a ton of local restaurants at Nooklyn, that’s mostly what I’ve been filming. I do a little bit of atmosphere, a little bit of food, and a little bit of character. Take a look at the @nooklyn Story feed to see it in action.
So, how can you do it, too?
1. Grab your video-capable camera and shoot some video in portrait orientation. That’s right, hold it “wrong” for shooting video. Why? Because the medium you’re shooting for is vertical, and that’s how it’s meant to be watched. Keep it steady. It helps if your camera has a built-in stabilizer, or if you have stabilized lenses. You can also use a support like a monopod, but we’re trying to stay mobile here. A little hand movement keeps it alive.
2. Import your videos to your favorite video editor. I started with iMovie, then I’d flip the videos in quicktime. I’m now using Adobe Premiere Pro, because you can do everything in just that app. And it’s better than iMovie. Just sayin.
3. You’ll need to rotate the video to vertical, add color correction, and probably a stabilizing effect like a warp stabilizer - but it can get wobbly if you moved too much, so only use it if you have to.
4. Export your pretty, polished, vertical video. Don't tell Mykki Newton.
5. Airdrop it to your phone.
6. Post your video within 24 hours. Instagram only allow you access to files you’ve created in the past 24 hours, so don’t forget to post it. If you do forget to post it in time, export it again.
That’s it! You’ve got some lovely pro-ish camera footage on your Instagram stories. Don’t worry too much about perfecting it. The nice thing is that you don’t have to try very hard to get footage that beats the pants off of most of what’s out there. You’ll get better in time, just keep at it.
I’ll talk a bit of behind-the-scenes of the videos I post on my @nsdoyle Instagram stories, so keep tuned there if you’d like to know more.
If you’d love to get more detail on the process, let me know in a message via Instagram @nsdoyle. If people are interested, I’ll make a training video.
Go make something great!
Edit: Fun Fact!
This is the most popular post on my website!
So let me know how I can make more like it for you:
Comment below and tell me:
- What are you struggling with?
- What do you want to know more about?
- Got any questions about this process?