Doing the Vertical Video Thing

Our usual way of looking at scenes and people and all the things in the world is at 120-200° depending upon the different things that we see. We were use to seeing our horizontally. That is until we got into smartphones and further into Instagram stories.

Since then the need for high quality Vertical videos has increased and the creators who are able to pull of amazing vertical videos tend to get more eyes on them. In this video, YouTuber Jesse Driftwood takes us into the working of the different aspect ratios and how to get better at vertical video making. The vertical video, if looked at exclusively at a marketing perspective, is one of the leading ways to improve the traffic to a social media profile. These vertical videos don't require the user to tilt the screen and also fill the entire screen. Vertical videos can also be made by repurposing horizontal videos in the vertical format from YouTube. 

Further on, Jesse Driftwood shows us how we can avoid common mistakes while shooting vertical video and little tips that we can implement to get better at it.  

Check out the video and you might want to start shooting vertical videos too.  

Amar Ramesh's picture

An entrepreneur by profession and a wanderer by nature, Amar Ramesh is a creative photographer based in Chennai, India. Wedding photography being his forte with over 300 weddings under his belt, he also shoots fashion, kids, documentary films, heritage, and lifestyle. And he enjoys sharing his experiences constantly.

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13 Comments

When I think vertical videos, I picture "influencers". :D

I picture trash that should be deleted (so ya, influencers) and they can try again... in horizontal.

Have either of you walked through a shopping center and paid attention to the orientation of the in-center digital displays recently..? Vertical video has legitimate uses outside of social media.

1. How is that even the same? lol

2. How hard it to tilt the phone? lol lol. Are people really that fucking lazy nowadays?

I'll bet a thousand bucks, if Instagram would auto-rotate to view horizontals like Facebook, nobody would care about vertical videos.

Yes, they are that lazy these days. Actually it's on a continuum, with lazy at one end and stupid at the other end.

I've worked for a company where we edited content for those types of displays nick turner and I can assure you we never once filmed anything vertically. If we did shoot our own video content for it we always shot horizontal (albeit wider than usual) so that the footage could always be repurposed for other platforms. While you may say that we're losing resolution that way even at 4K, most of those displays are much lower resolution than what you edit on at home (cause the clients don't wanna spend the money).

Interesting coincidence. This morning we were videoing an interview and I was looking at our talent, wondering if it'd be better to shoot him portrait so we could get both him and his elaborate hand gestures in frame. I didn't tho, because the other camera was landscape and I don't know that would've worked. Haven't done enough vid yet to learn this stuff.

And fffarrk, why has this image rotated? (A still - not off the vid.)

Vertical video... Just Say No!

Pretty sure video is "motion picture"; Picture being the key word. If you can rotate photographs vertically to frame the content appropriately, you can rotate motion pictures too. It's all about the end display. Naturally, don't shoot vertical if the end product is for the tv in your living room. However if it's for marketing/digital displays in shops, it makes a lot of sense.

Sure. In fact, I have to admit that sometimes, portrait mode on the phone, if intended to be viewed on a phone, can make sense too.

But upright-phone by default.... Aaaargh!

"Doing the Vertical Video Thing"

No ... just don't do it ... ever ...

And really love the viewers that have no clues how to setup their TV set and let the vertical stuff being stretched horizontaly to use the whole lcd panel surface. Really reaqlly a nice innovation. And this is the futrure ?