I was like, This is so natural. It looks right, it feels right. So why are we not making vertical videos?
— Zena Barakat, former New York Times video producer, on the appeal of vertical videos. In a column that will be horrifying and appalling to some, the Times Farhad Manjoo writes that not only are vertically-shot videos kinda OK, they re also the future, since we re never going to let go of our mobile phones — and vertical works better on our phones. Just ask 100 million Snapchat users. The debate over horizontal vs. vertical video has been long and bitter, pitting professional videographers against amateurs, but it seems the verdict is in: Most people just don t care, and are too lazy to turn their phone sideways to watch in landscape mode. Of course, a rational person may say that there are times to shoot video horizontally and times to shoot vertically, and common sense should dictate which. But as we all know, tech debates are no place for reason.
(Good vertical)
(Terrible vertical)