In this digital artefact project, I am creating some cinematic short videos. I wanted to challenge myself to explore different kind of way to edit and shoot. The key question I set for this project is Will cinematic videos enhance the engagement of me and the audience?

Throughout the whole project, I was aiming to experiment with different types of storytelling forms, using different type of ways to shoot and edit videos. The idea was to create cinematic videos that is different from others, and let my followers or audiences enjoy the cinematic video.

The journey of doing this digital artefact is a journey of learning, testing, and pivoting. By looking through the reactions of the audiences, and the feedback they gave me, I hope to gain the insight of how my ways of storytelling will affect viewer’s engagement. I was inspired by some influencers on Instagram and TikTok who are posting cinematic videos which are well edited and makes me wanted to do something like this.

Moment 1

The very first step in the project’s development is brainstorming what can I do for the digital artefact when I am going through the subject outline. The idea of creating cinematic videos popped out of my mind. After brainstorming the idea for the first short video, me and one of my friends went to Central of Wollongong and shoot the videos there.

This short video is rapid cuts of some scene of me and my friend walking on the street. I am trying to let my audiences experience the journey with me. By putting so many different scenes into a short video, I want to test whether the viewers would have the patience to watch the entire video or not. According to the Reel Insights, the total watch time for this reel is 5 hours 6 minutes and 31seconds with an average of 9 seconds

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After releasing the video, I am analysing the response through the comments. With 2,520 views, this short videos only get 110 likes, 10 comments, 12 shares, and 2 saves. The engagement was lower than I expected, but I did get a message from one of the audiences, telling me how she thinks about the video, which gave me some confidence and idea on what I should do next.

Moment 2

Before doing another short video, I was struggling to think about the idea. I want the second video to gain higher views than the first one, and really stressed me out. But, instead of just thinking, I went out to have a one-day trip to Sydney. Along the trip, I captured down some scenes, and here comes my second cinematics short video.

The tone of this video is kind of slow. I am shifting the emotional tone throughout the video. The background music of this song is slow, and the way I edit the video is also in a slow pace. After posting this video on my personal Instagram account, I was hoping that it will gain higher views than the first one, but it didn’t go that way.

With only 882 views, I only get 55 interactions in total. I did not get any comment in this video. I ask some of my friends for feedback, and they said the video was good, and the reason why it cannot get high views is because of the background music and the tempo of the video. With this feedback, I know that the audience might prefer video that is in a quicker tempo.

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In conclusion, I have gone through a lot of things throughout this journey. I have explored how different ways of storytelling will engage the audiences on Instagram. I learn the importance of maintaining the connection between me and the audiences, and these lessons will become the guidance for me in the future.