Should I Film Vertical or Horizontal for Short Videos?

Film vertical when the video will be watched on a phone held upright. Film horizontal when the main screen is a television or a computer, or when the scene is wide. If you need both, keep extra space around the main subject and keep important people away from the edges.

Think about the main use first

The direction you film in should follow where the video will be watched and what you need to show. A vertical frame suits a phone held upright. A wide frame gives more room for a landscape, a group of people, or movement from side to side.

For a short personal video that will live in a vertical place, film mostly vertical. For playing a video to family on a television, horizontal may be the better choice.

If you need both outputs, leave more space around the main object. Do not place important people right at the edges of the frame.

Picture three cyclists riding side by side. When a wide shot is converted to a narrow one, only the middle rider may stay visible. No automatic crop can keep everything at once without shrinking the picture further.

Why the edges matter

A vertical frame is tall and narrow. Anything close to the left or right edge can disappear when the video is trimmed for a phone screen. A horizontal frame is wide and short. Anything close to the top or bottom edge can disappear when it is trimmed for a television or a wide screen.

This is why the safe habit is to keep the main subject near the middle and leave a little breathing room on all sides. You do not need to measure anything. Just step back a little or move the phone slightly further from the subject.

Do not change direction in the middle of a clip

Turning the phone during filming usually creates a part of the shot that you will have to fix or leave out. If you want the other direction, film a separate clip instead.

Mixed sources are not a mistake, but they need a decision. You can crop, shrink the picture with a background, or use a different shot. Make that decision on purpose, based on the content, not just on which version fills the whole screen.

A simple checklist before you press record

• Decide where the video will be watched: phone, television, or both.
• If it is a short vertical video, hold the phone upright.
• If it is for a television or a wide scene, hold the phone sideways.
• Keep the main subject near the middle, not at the edges.
• Leave a little space around the subject if you may need both directions.
• Do not rotate the phone during a single clip.
• If you need the other direction, film a separate clip.
• Check the first few seconds before you film the rest.

What this means for short business videos

Short videos for Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts are watched on a phone held upright. That is why Relsko turns your own phone clips and photos into short vertical videos at 1080x1920.

You do not need to film perfectly. You upload your footage, the assistant asks at most a couple of questions and proposes three concepts. You pick one, and Relsko makes three cut variants of that concept. You download the one you like.

Relsko never adds stock footage, generated scenes, or anything that was not filmed. Standard export is available to everyone, and animated captions are in beta. The interface, assistant, speech transcription and in-video text work in 16 languages, and a finished video's text can be translated into any of the other 15.

You can register for 30 days of full access without a card, and invitations extend it. After that there is a free level with a small watermark. Limits are up to 50 files per upload, 200 per project, 2 GB per file, and video length of 10 to 35 seconds.

What to do next

Upload your phone footage to Relsko, answer the short questions, choose one of the three proposed concepts, and download the cut variant that fits. If you are unsure about direction, film a little extra space around your subject and let the vertical format do the rest.