Why Vertical Filmmaking Is The Future Of Cinema (How To Make The Best Vertical Movies)

This week, Luke explains why he thinks Vertical Filmmaking just might be the future of cinema. At the very least, he argues that we will start seeing vertical content from legitimate streaming platforms. And to make this argument, Luke dives deep into the history of aspect ratios and why we've been conditioned to only think of serious filmmaking in the widescreen format.

SUPPORT US:

[mortenwoldstad]

The human eyes are placed on each side of the head. Not on top of each other. Vertical film are working against that. Panoramic screen are the natural way for us to look at.
The trend with the vertical way to look is due to the fact that people is to lazy to turn the mobilphone. A filmmaker by heart will never approve the vertical format.

[pabletoday]

This video inspired me SO HARD to make vertical cinematography.
One thing I can say about vertical movement and action is that ots WAY harder to contextualize because of gravity.
Side to side movement can be of a person walking and we can see the distance moved, but to convey that simple action in a vertical canvas we have to get creative and probably stick the camera behind the character and walk in a 3rd person POV. Omg im already problem solving. LETS GOOO

[theghostsofgiants]

The problems with this are: Social media use is not the way we experience cinema or most of our lives for that matter. Vertical compositions are contrary to how we exist: we don't move vertically through space, we move horizontally. You can get some clever vertical shots like the stair shot in that iPhone ad but it isn't a sustainable format for telling stories in an effective visual manor. It's an experimental technique at best, a novelty at worst.

[JirForce]

Vertical media is a downfall and there is no rationality to it... It's just sucks... Are we really going to conform all our media format to a fricking handheld device??? Really??? I hope it will fade away in a few years...

[pratikpatra]

It's not the future of cinema, because the vertical video is popular currently only due to the devices we have. With the undercurrent of VR and AR technologies, it seems that we'll soon see cinema that isn't bounded by boxes, of any orientation whatsoever.

[danielalt]

Vertical aspect is perfect for psychological thillers/horror movies... I got so many ideas...
1. A child looking through a closet, while something happening on the other side,
2. A killer chasing upwards through the stairs, at every level the main character gets flashbacks,
3. A joker having a show in a small spaced multi level opera room, with people forced to watch and laugh,
4. A midget kidnapped for money.

Basically, in order to get close shot, you should not just focus on one eye, but rather you must utilize the room in which the person is. Use a lot of perspective looking up, looking down, walking forward, walking backwards... utilize doors, stairs, legs, skyscrapers, spears, bow and arrow, crevasses ... anything that is vertical.

Remember that closeup scene on both eyes was designed for horisontal ratio, as is the "child in a closet looking while parents are arguing" is designed for vertical. Every scene when a child watches parents arguing, is framed so that the child is behind door or planks, which limit the sides of the horisontal frame. If you really want to show a closeup scene in vertical with both eyes shown, then you must similarly limit the top and bottom sides of the frame, for example a child looking under the blanket or bed or something.

The vertical cowboy scenes are very bad done, as they tried to embed horisontal frames for vertical aspect ratio... You must change the objects on frame, rather than trying to make same scene with verticals ! ! !

For example, mountains in a landscape is not going well in vertical, because it is horisontal = Never shoot landscape...
BUT you can change the scene to be a crevasse, maybe a waterfall, rather than trying to put a mountain into the frame of vertical.

Other examples when vertical is perfect... A person walking in a small alley between 2 brick houses, maybe someone is dragging their knife along one of the brick walls...

You can use wide angle and point a little downwards, to get a lot of foreground... The film can have scenes in construction sites, or maybe tunnels underground which make natural vertical framing.

[jmanzemail]

I for one am excited about all of this because you have no choice and no alternative except to go down the subminiature road next! Let's talk about high-end miniaturization and mounting methods with different camera angles being grabbed simultaneously and wirelessly! Let's bring in some snap editing for this format as well! How about some visor mounts for car scenes and some anamorphic lens effects!

[filipebotocorreia]

Here’s my two cents as a videographer: Vertical videos are a way to dumb people down. They might make sense for short, clickbait videos, product or fashion photos, social media stuff, but they are not at all natural when it comes to cinema. Additionally, they significantly damage the dynamics of most scenes. If we want to show the vastness of a landscape with a subject in it, we end up showing areas that are usually not relevant to the composition: too much ground and sky. In dialogue scenes, if we want to have a shot with both actors (or worse, a group of actors), we need to use extremely wide shots or place characters in unnatural positions. And once again, in those wide shots, we end up with a lot of empty space above and below that probably won't add anything. This doesn’t mean we can’t create original works designed for vertical that work very well. For example, a music video designed for vertical screens. I even like and find it makes sense for festival screens to be vertical, especially for musicians with instruments, as it's the best ratio (though I still prefer 4:5 over 9:16). But for it to become the industry standard for films? I really hope not. Call me "old school, " but I think we are destroying something that took years to find the best formula for, just because turning the phone is too much to ask of people...

[EriqOrtiz]

I'm working on my first vertical feature film now. I really appreciate this video. Tremendously informative. Thank you. 👍🏾

[dieglhix]

yet another reason I'm having the vasectomy carried out

[bikotheanimator]

As an animator in film/games industry, these modern phones influencing vertical videos has bothered me since the beginning. 90% of videos are vertical now on youtube. The youtube shorts made it even worse because it brought the TikToxic people. Youtubers like SSSniperWolf do nothing but watch other peoples' TikToxic videos for false "reactions" and get revenue from it. Vertical never looked good. 95% of humans don't know how to do basic film and turn the phone sideways for horizontal. The crazy part is, they probably think actual cameras in the store capture images in vertical, which they do not. True cameras capture photos in horizontal. Vertical videos cut off 50% of the raw footage. I don't comprehend why this is appealing. Almost every car video these days is vertical, short, and covered with TikToxic music. Everyone is attempting to do cinematic work in vertical form, and they have no clue what they are doing.

[floridaactor]

I do not believe this is the future of cinema. I always film in a horizontal manner. Unless future TVs have that aspect ratio, I do not see vertical filming as the future.

[gona]

No, it's not, because classic smartfones are not the final stage in the evolution of this type of gadgets.

[SuperSaintsfan]

awesome video !!! im working on a verticle project, your content is dope!!!

[thecelerysessions]

How does this video not have more views? Well explained, Informative and interesting. Thanks

[DodaGarcia]

I really admire the enthusiasm of vertical filmmaking advocates and the creativity with which they've been trying to make it work, but I doubt it'll ever catch on outside of the social media content space. It's clear that even when used by a skilled filmmaker such as yourself making the best of the format, it still shows its limitations at every turn while adding nothing of value other than "you don't have to turn your phone to watch it".

The Damien Chazelle short film, which was meant to show inspiring ways in which vertical video could be explored, just cemented this impression. Not only were half of the shots awkwardly composed, but also the concept itself couldn't have made it more obvious how much the format ends up dictating the types of story that can be told. In other words, that was an entertaining short but if that's the best an Academy Award winning director can do with the format, that's not a good sign.

On a more nitpicking note, I don't see much merit in the idea that getting a viewer's attention by occupying more screen real estate is that advantageous in a filmmaking context. That might be a decent argument for vertically-formatted trailers or ads, but usually by the time someone decides to watch a film (feature or short) it has already caught their attention in some way so having the entire film be formatted in that suboptimal manner just degrades the experience for very little gain.

[josgoodkid]

Cannes just made Tik Tok a partner and that short films made on tik tok will be able to compete in the competition.

[rescuecomplex]

I believe vertical is more immersive, because you also "see" with your body, where feelings of emotions happen. With a vertical screen you feel more what you are seeing. i believe; it's not a techical conclusion! :)

[bohemiangarden]

yet you didn't make this video vertical (*sighs)

[NotAloneStudios]

I've been thinking about this a lot. I always wondered what if we saw a found footage movie like this?