Composing for a tall frame
A tall frame suits one person, one product, standing figures and movement on the vertical axis: a pour, a fall, a rise, a reveal from top to bottom. It struggles with wide landscapes, groups and two people talking side by side. Get closer than you would for a landscape frame, put the eyes in the upper third, and build depth front to back instead of width left to right. When a scene genuinely needs width, split it into two shots rather than squeezing it into one.
Three ways to reframe a horizontal master
A tracking crop follows the subject through the 16:9 frame and is quick, but it loses most of the scene and can feel cramped. Outpainting keeps the original shot and generates new image above and below it to fill the tall frame; the added areas must continue the perspective, light and horizon convincingly, so check edges and repeated patterns. Regenerating the shot vertically from the same references gives the best composition, at the price of continuity checks against the master. Most campaigns use a mix: crops for close-ups, extension for wides, regeneration for hero shots.
Text, captions and the interface
Every vertical platform lays its own interface over the video: captions and audio at the bottom, buttons on the right, account details near the top. Keep logos, prices and legal lines in the central area, design to the strictest platform you deliver to, and check each cut in a real phone preview. Burned-in captions should be large enough to read at arm's length, one short line per beat. Text belongs on a separate layer from the footage, so a new market or a new platform means changing type, not regenerating video.
One master, many vertical outputs
Reels, TikTok, Shorts, Stories and Snapchat all take 9:16 video, usually at 1080x1920, but they differ in maximum length, interface layout and what openings work. Plan one vertical master per idea, then cut platform versions from it: a faster open here, a different end card there, captions rewritten per market. The Synthetic White video editor cuts, captions and exports in every ratio, so the vertical, square and horizontal versions of a campaign are made in one place.
Updated 26 October 2026