Vertical Takes Over

Since the very beginning of mobile phone videos I’ve been telling my students and clients to hold the mobile phone in horizontal position while shooting video, because every screen that video will end up on would be horizontal. However thanks to the trend of sharing quick videos directly from mobile phones to mobile phones using platforms like facebook live is changing things. Snapchat reported users are nine times more likely to watch a vertical ad to the end, versus a horizontal ad, according to Adweek. This vertical shift is overturning a long history of horizontally-oriented video content—and challenging marketers to think of delivering video content tailored to specific platforms and devices. I don’t know how far this trend will go but it’s certainly making professional filmmakers and videographers uncomfortable.