webdev You know you’re getting old when the most fundamental rule of cinema, the absolute sacrosanct rule, going back over 100 years is turned on it’s head by millennials.
I’m talking of course about vertical video, the aberration which started when video started appearing on phones in the mid-noughties. For some reason Apple et al decided not to programme in a function to automatically flip an upright phones video camera to glorious 16:9 or 1:85:1 or even boring old 4:3 – oh no – we got skinny, weird vertical video instead. Vertical’s stranglehold has been solidified by Meerkat, Periscope and Snapchat and it looks like if you can’t beat em – join em!
The fact is, with in the sort of environments where people are holding up their phone to watch video – vertical video advertising works A LOT better. In fact, according to the Mail Online, vertical video ads are watched in their entirety 90% more than correct aspect ratio ads!
The big brands are now getting in on the action with major brands like Burger King, Daily Mail, L’Oreal and Ralph Lauren using vertical ads on Snapchat and Periscope.
Where does this leave the video content provider? Most film maker’s I know (above the age of 30) think vertical is the filmmaking equivalent of Donald Trump. But unlike Trump, vertical video could potentially be the first course for a cornicopia of new formats which will tear up the rule book – the most significant being VR – heard of that? 🙂
Bottom line is that you can’t stop progress – however you can mercilessly take the mick out of it as Glove and Boots do in this cracking video (shot horizontally!)
