Portrait Video

[Bubby Grub]

Hi All,

I have been given a 20 minute long video shot by an IPhone in Portrait mode transferred to me by dropbox: details 1920 x 1080, I need to
include this in a project I am doing for a friend. Now I can crop the black bars from it and have a background behind it. The video is only of
people no scenery. Can anyone suggest something I may be able to do to make it look a little better. The way it is, does really spoil the whole
look of the project as a whole. I am open to any suggestions. I am editing the project in pe13. Thanks in advance Bubby

[Dave McElderry]

One of the things that bothers me badly Bubby. Can't understand the practice of taking video that way. One thing you might do would be to take some frame captures from the video as stills, crop them appropriately, and use them at the sides.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

...One thing you might do would be to take some frame captures from the video as stills, crop them appropriately, and use them at the sides.

The Beeb (BBC) seems to use that trick often when showing a portrait oriented image that would otherwise have distracting black sidebars. The "side images" comprise the original image enlarged to fill the whole screen but de-focused/softened.

One can see that the de-focused image is a copy of the now central main image but, because it has been blurred/softened, it does not detract from the main, central image.

[Dave McElderry]

I've seen that too John. What I don't care for is when the defocused image is video. The movement is distracting to me. I think a still works better.

[Bob]

When you need to fit a 1080x1920 (vertical) video into a 1920x1080 (horizontal) video frame, you'll be scaling the clip down a lot. That's going to introduce a lot of transparency on the left and right sides which will render to black if you don't place anything behind the clip. If you don't need to show the entire vertical image, you can reduce the amount of scaling to reduce the size of those empty side bars. Essentially, you're zooming in and can pan and scan somewhat. Be sure "scale to frame size" is not checked if you want to do that.

It's probably best to place a background image behind the clip to keep the background from becoming black bars on the sides. A still from the video enlarged to fit the frame and blurred works and is frequently used. I personally find that bugs me. I prefer a plain background with a compatible color or gradient.

Vertical video is becoming very common on mobile devices. People just don't want to turn their phones ninety degrees either to take videos or watch them. The ad companies are noticing this and are making vertical commercials for use with mobile devices.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

What I don't care for is when the defocused image is video. The movement is distracting to me. I think a still works better.

I agree, Dave. De-focused video wouldn't work so well as a de-focused still image.

[Chuck Engels]

I like to see depth of field used in video, with the background blurred but the foreground not, or vice versa. But just a blurred shot in video looks like someone didn't know what they were doing

[Bubby Grub]

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the suggestions, yes I did include a little cut version of the video earlier on in and used slides on either side which did help.
When I include the full length video, I will include a compatible background and may try a little zooming in on certain parts with scale to frame
size unchecked and take it from there if it works great, think I will just go with what looks the best at the time. Thanks Bubby

[Kent Frost]

Anytime anyone gives me vertical video to edit with, I immediately feel obligated to send them this (although I usually don't unless I know them well enough).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt9zSfinwFA[/youtube]

[Dave McElderry]

Haven't seen that in a while. That's a good one. I need to hang onto that link.

[BuddyB]

[Chuck Engels]

Kent, I am going to have to use that !! The only thing that makes me wonder is why the picture of John Goodman, what's that about anyway? That was really awesome

[Francesco Carzedda]

I would rely on pan/crop, as Bob suggested.
Is it possible to see it, in private on YouTube for example?
I would provide my channel's address for having your license.

[Francesco Carzedda]

Vimeo recommends this app for Ipad for viewing rotated clips correctly:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/video-rotate-flip-no-time/id813426004?mt=8

[TreeTopsRanch]

Wouldn't you think they would show a before and after shot of their software example? They show a vertical shot then lots of little 'square' thumbnails. So I really don't know if they use padding or what to change from vertical to horizontal. The reviews don't help much either.