One edit, every aspect ratio.

The 16:9 edit is finished, and now it needs to be a Reel, a feed post and a Short. The quick way is to crop the middle out of every shot and export. It is quick, and it usually shows: heads cut off at the forehead, titles running off both edges, the product sitting just outside the frame.

Every version should look like it was made for its screen, because on that screen it is the only version anyone sees. Here is how we get there, from the shoot to the file names.

00:24

Plan it at the shoot

Most of the work of a good vertical version happens before anyone presses record. If you know the video will also be cut to 9:16, frame for it while you are still standing behind the camera.

• Keep the subject near the centre of the wide frame, not out on a third by the edge. Whatever sits at the edges is what the vertical versions lose.
• Leave room above the head and below the hands. A 9:16 crop keeps the full height, so the top and bottom of the frame are all it has.
• Shoot at a higher resolution than you deliver, if you can. A 9:16 crop of a 1920 × 1080 frame keeps about 608 pixels of its width, and extra resolution is what lets you move that crop around without the picture going soft.
• Mark the vertical frame on the camera’s monitor, even with tape, so whoever is framing can see what the phone version will see.

01:13

Finish the master, then make versions

Lock the story in one aspect ratio first, usually the 16:9 master. Picture, sound, music, colour. Get it signed off. Only then start the versions.

If you make versions while the edit is still moving, every change has to be made four times, and one of them will be missed. It is always the one that goes live first.

These are the frame sizes we deliver:

• 1920 × 1080, 16:9, for YouTube and anything landscape.
• 1080 × 1920, 9:16, for Reels, Shorts and TikTok.
• 1080 × 1350, 4:5, for a portrait post in the feed.
• 1080 × 1080, 1:1, for a square post in the feed.

In most editors each version is its own sequence at its own frame size, with the master’s cut copied in. The cuts carry over for free. The framing is where the real work starts.

01:50

Reframe with keyframes, not one crop

The tempting move is to scale the master up once, centre it, and call it done. One crop for the whole video treats every shot as if the subject never moves. Subjects move. People lean, walk and point at things, and products get picked up and turned around.

One crop for the whole video treats every shot as if the subject never moves.

So reframe shot by shot. For each clip, set the position of the picture so the subject sits where the new frame wants it. When the subject moves inside a shot, keyframe the position: one keyframe where the move starts, one where it ends, and let the editor ease between them. Some editors can follow a face on their own and suggest a path. Treat that as a first draft and check every shot with your own eyes.

Keep the moves slow and eased. A reframe that snaps from side to side looks like a mistake. One that drifts reads like a camera operator who knew what was coming.

Live demo·brandfilm_MASTER_16x9

Reframe it yourself

Pick a ratio, then drag the window over the wide frame. Add a keyframe, move the playhead, move the window, add another, and press Play.

Reframe · 9:16

1080 × 1920·Reels, Shorts, TikTok

9:16

Effect controlsMotion

Position 1075.2, 561.6

00s01s02s03s04s

1. Keyframe at 00:00:00:00, position 499.2, 540.0
2. Keyframe at 00:00:03:00, position 1075.2, 561.6

02:36

Text is per version

Titles, captions and lower thirds do not survive a crop. Text placed for a wide frame runs off the sides of a tall one, and text placed for a tall frame looks lost in a wide one. Rebuild the text for each version rather than scaling it.

What we check in every version:

1. Text sits inside the title safe area of that frame, not the master’s.
2. In 9:16, titles and captions stay clear of the bottom and the right hand edge, where the app puts its buttons and its own caption.
3. Line breaks are set again. A title that fits on one line at 16:9 may need three short lines at 9:16, and each break should fall where the sense breaks.
4. Size is judged on a phone. What reads fine on an edit monitor is often small in a hand.

Keep the text on its own tracks above the picture, so each version’s text can change without anyone touching the cut.

03:19

Re-pace the open

A vertical version usually meets its viewer in a feed, mid scroll, often muted. The 16:9 master may open on a wide establishing shot, a logo or a slow build. That works on a big screen, for someone who chose to press play. In a feed it is a reason to keep scrolling.

So the first few seconds of the vertical versions often get their own edit. Start on the strongest moment, bring the title forward, and move the logo to the end. The rest of the video can usually stay as it is. If a version also needs to be shorter overall, that is a new edit, and it should be briefed as one.

We wrote more about openings in the first three seconds.

03:53

Name the files so nobody asks

Four versions of one video look identical in a folder until somebody opens them. Put the ratio and the frame size in every file name, the same way every time, so whoever uploads never has to guess.

• brandfilm_v3_16x9_1920x1080.mp4
• brandfilm_v3_9x16_1080x1920.mp4
• brandfilm_v3_4x5_1080x1350.mp4
• brandfilm_v3_1x1_1080x1080.mp4

Project first, then version, then ratio, then size. They sort together, they read clearly in a chat thread, and nobody posts the square one to Reels by accident. Send the project files along with them, so the next round of versions starts from the same place instead of from scratch.