HISTORY OF HORIZONTAL VIDEOS

From the beginning of motion pictures (1878 or 1888, depending on how you look at it) until a little over a decade ago, pretty much all video has been shot and viewed horizontally. This means that the aspect ratio, which is the proportion of the frame and listed as width:height, would be something like 4:3 or 16:9, with the screen being wider than it is tall.

HERE COMES VERTICAL

With the advent of the smartphone and social media, the market for vertical video exploded out of nowhere. When posting videos on social media, clients now have to consider whether they want their videos to be shot and posted horizontally, shot horizontally but cropped vertically, or shot and posted vertically. This can be a difficult decision because usually you want to be able to use a video across multiple platforms (website, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, etc.) It is usually best to prioritize horizontal videos, but there are times when it is only about vertical videos.

THE PARTEE SHACK BIRTHDAY VIDEO

I recently did a video of an adult’s birthday party at the Partee Shack mini-golf arcade in Greensboro. The video was only going to be posted on their personal Facebook page, so they asked me to shoot it vertically. I adjusted my camera rigs so that my cameras would be vertical during shooting, and here’s how it turned out.