Portrait orientation is everywhere now.

On TikTok. Instagram. YouTube. LinkedIn.

And yet a surprising number of films are still conceived horizontally and then simply cropped upright for delivery.

Technically, that works.

Narratively, not necessarily.

Because vertical video is more than a different aspect ratio. It changes how we perceive people and spaces.

Faces become larger. Proximity matters more. Backgrounds disappear. Movement has to work differently. Text and graphics become part of the frame.

Above all, the relationship between viewer and image changes.

The smartphone is held in the hand. Often very close to the face. The content is not somewhere in front of us — it is literally in our hands.

That creates a different intimacy.

So the question with vertical video is not:

How do we also cut our film to 9:16?

But:

What would this story tell if we developed it for this format from the start?

That does not mean every film has to be vertical.

But it does mean platforms are not just distribution channels.

They are media with their own rules.

And anyone developing stories for different platforms should perhaps think less about formats.

And more about how people experience stories there.

#frischebrise|