One film is rarely one shape. A website wants it wide, a phone held upright wants it tall, and many feeds show a square best. That is easy to say and hard to mean: the shapes are not crops of each other, they are different compositions of the same story.
Next in this piece: The four shapes, and where they go
Section 01The four shapes, and where they go
- 16:9, the screen on a wall, a laptop, a TV, an embedded block on a web page. The default, and the only one where you can reliably put two things side by side.
- 9:16, a phone held upright: stories, reels, shorts, a trade-fair screen standing on end. It is the shape people actually hold, and the shape that punishes wide layouts.
- 1:1, a feed, a square tile, a slide, anything that has to sit next to other squares. Forgiving and slightly old-fashioned, still the safest thing to hand a partner who will place it themselves.
- 4:5, the tall feed post, the portrait poster, the printed A-series page. Takes more height than a square without demanding a whole screen.
Next in this piece: Why a crop is not a reframe
Section 02Why a crop is not a reframe
Take 16:9 and cut the sides off for 9:16 and the film breaks in a specific way: the thing you were meant to be looking at is suddenly off-frame, text runs out of room, and a two-part composition loses one of its parts. A reframe decides, per shot, where the attention goes and how the elements re-stack, which is a composition decision, not an export setting.
Next in this piece: What makes it survivable
Section 03What makes it survivable
- One idea per shot. A frame with one focal point re-stacks; a frame with three does not.
- Text that is a block, not a line. A sentence that wraps to three lines in 16:9 wraps to seven in 9:16, if it was built as a block, that is fine.
- Margins that mean something. Space held for the safe area of each shape, not one margin reused everywhere.
- Motion on one axis where possible. Something that travels horizontally needs re-timing when the width changes; something that rises does not.
Next in this piece: The practical answer
Section 04The practical answer
Decide the shapes before the film is composed, not after it is approved. Adding 9:16 to a finished 16:9 film is a re-composition, doable, and much cheaper than a second film, and much more expensive than deciding at the start. If you are commissioning, ask which shapes are included; the answer tells you whether the studio composes or crops.
Next in this piece: How Nine does it
Section 05How Nine does it
A Nine film is drawn, not filmed, and the chamber redraws the finished film in the shape you choose. Under Frame you pick Wide (16:9), Square (1:1) or Tall (9:16). Nine does not make 4:5; for a 4:5 slot, the square is the closest shape it makes. Then you decide how the picture sits in that shape:
- Whole picture keeps everything the film shows inside the new shape.
- Fill the frame fills the shape to its edges, so nothing is left empty around it.
- Closer and Very close bring the subject nearer, and Look left and Look right move where the frame looks.
- The words can be made smaller or bigger, which often helps in tall.
What you see in the chamber is drawn the same way as the video file, so what plays there is what you get. When a shape looks right, you press Save. It is kept as a version of your film, and the film's page and its video file now show that version. Every version stays, so you can go back to the wide one, or to the film as it was made, whenever you like.
Because the film itself does not change, the three files stay alike. The colours, the pace and the music you chose in the chamber carry over to every shape you save.
Next in this piece: One thing to check
Section 06One thing to check
A film is written wide. When it is reframed to tall, a long title that ran across the wide picture can come close to the edges. So play the tall version through once before you save it. If something sits too near the edge, choose Whole picture, or make the words a little smaller. On our front page you can see a film that was laid out once for each shape; your own film is reframed in the chamber, which is quicker and keeps the three alike, and is worth one look through.
Next in this piece: What it costs
Section 07What it costs
Changing the frame in the chamber is part of every paid plan and costs nothing. The video file in 1080p is part of the plan too. A file in 4K is made wide, tall or square (3840 by 2160, 2160 by 3840, or 2160 by 2160), comes with Film + Transparent and the plans above it, and costs credits. The price stands on the button before you press. If you need the shapes cut shorter for some channels, cutting one film to several lengths works the same way, and you can combine the two in one version.
The films on our front page open in the chamber for free, with no account, so you can turn one tall before you pay for anything. More in editing a film yourself.
Next in this piece: How to do it in Nine
Section 08How to do it in Nine
- Open your finished film from Your films and press Edit in the chamber.
- Open Frame and choose Tall. Pick Whole picture or Fill the frame, and Closer if the subject should be bigger.
- Play the film through once. If a title sits near the edge, choose Whole picture or smaller words.
- Press Save. The film is saved as a version, and its page now shows it.
- Go back to the film's page and press Get the video file. You get the tall file.
- Return to the chamber, choose Square, save, and get that file. For the wide file, choose As it was made under Cuts and press Use it as it was made, or save a version in Wide.