While the amount of vertical content created specifically for social media continues to grow every year, filmmakers and content creators are obligated to adapt their gear, camera rigging, and shooting style to this new form of content. In this opinion piece, we’ll discuss and reflect from a shooter’s perspective on the ergonomy and practical concerns of shooting vertically, as well as what we could hope for in the future to make our lives easier. Instagram introduced Reels in August 2020, and TikTok has been a major player in the short-form content industry since 2018. More recently, YouTube also joined the game with YouTube Shorts in 2021. Many filmmakers like me have been creating “traditional” 16:9 videos for decades. Then, vertical 9:16 videos started to appear, and at first, many of us didn’t believe they would be here to stay. However, whether we like it or not, especially as filmmakers, vertical videos are here to stay. To throw a bit of statistics in here: 82% of internet users prefer watching video content on their phones in a vertical orientation (source: Wibbitz) Instagram Stories and Reels report up to 80% higher engagement when using vertical video. (Source: SocialMediaToday) TikTok is one of the most downloaded apps worldwide, and YouTube Shorts make over 70 billion views daily (source: Google Blog) You got it—vertical videos won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, and as professionals, we have to adapt. However, this new format also creates new challenges. Image credit: Canon / DJI Creating vertical videos...
Published By: CineD - 3 days ago