Summary:
- Vertical video is now the default viewing mode on mobile first platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and Meta Ads.
- Planning vertical cutdowns during your shoot ensures quality, efficiency, and reach.
- If you’re still shooting only in widescreen, your content is missing where the most attention is.
Why Your 2025 Brand Video Needs to Work Vertically
If your brand video isn’t being filmed with a vertical version in mind, it’s already behind. In 2025, vertical is no longer a format choice, it’s the baseline. The fastest-growing video platforms are all mobile first, and they prioritise vertical content.
I’ve seen the shift first hand at IPER, where clients increasingly expect vertical deliverables right from pre-production. It’s not a trend. It’s a shift in viewer behaviour and in how we plan shoots.
More than 80% of digital video views now happen on mobile. Most viewers won’t rotate their phones. If your video isn’t built to work in vertical, you’re either cropping awkwardly after the fact, or not using your best footage at all.
What Happens When You Don’t Plan for Vertical?
It’s not just about format. Retrofitting horizontal footage into a 9:16 frame can ruin composition. People get cropped, graphics shift, and the energy gets lost.
We’ve worked across government, education, tourism and property projects where the best results came from preparing with vertical in mind. That doesn’t mean doubling your workload. It means making smart decisions at the shoot:
- Frame subjects to suit both 16:9 and 9:16
- Shoot with "safety zones" that allow for cropping
- Capture alternate takes or extra plates for social
- Log each take with final formats in mind
A Real Example: Planning for Portraits
For a recent Queensland tourism campaign, the hero video was built for web and cinema. But the brief also included over 20 social cutdowns portrait, square, and vertical. Because we planned for this from the start, the edits were clean, quick and properly framed. No guesswork, no regrets.
What to Ask Before You Shoot
Here are four questions we ask during pre-production:
Where will the content be used?
Do you need multiple versions for socials, paid ads or YouTube?
Can we plan a cutdown matrix in the script stage?
Are we framing for safe vertical crops?
Answering those early avoids expensive fixes later.
Don’t Shoot Twice. Shoot Smart.
Planning verticals doesn’t mean running two full productions. It means getting more mileage from the same shoot. That’s what we focus on at IPER and it’s what helps our clients stay ahead.
Need help scoping your next video with vertical cutdowns built in? Let’s talk.
