From the souk to your feed: vertical cuts that actually perform
Why we cut vertical-first, the 9:16 reframing rules we use, and the platform-specific lengths that travel furthest on Instagram and TikTok.
Vertical video is no longer an afterthought. 73% of the video views we generate in 2025 are on mobile, in a 9:16 frame, on Instagram or TikTok. We have rebuilt our shooting, editing, and delivery pipelines around the vertical cut first. Here is the reframing rule, the platform-specific lengths, and the one mistake we still see in 90% of the wedding films we are brought in to fix.
The shift to vertical happened in 2023. In 2024, 50% of our social-driven video views were vertical. In 2025, it is 73%. We made the decision to cut vertical-first in January 2025 — meaning the framing decisions on set are now made for the 9:16 frame, with the 16:9 frame as the secondary deliverable. This is the opposite of how we shot for the previous 6 years.
The reframing rules
Rule 1: shoot wider than you think. We now shoot weddings on a 24mm instead of a 35mm, real estate on a 16mm instead of a 24mm. The wider the original frame, the more 9:16 and 16:9 you can crop into. Rule 2: keep the subject in the centre third. The 9:16 crop is a vertical slice — if the subject is on the left or right third, the vertical crop will cut them out. Rule 3: protect the eyes. The eye line in a 9:16 frame is the upper third. If the eye line is at the centre of a 16:9 frame, the vertical crop will crop the forehead.
- 01Rule 1: shoot wider — 24mm for weddings, 16mm for real estate
- 02Rule 2: subject in the centre third of the 16:9 frame
- 03Rule 3: protect the eye line — keep it in the upper third
- 04Rule 4: never crop on motion — let the motion play out in 16:9, then crop
The platform-specific lengths
Instagram Reels: 15-30 seconds for discovery, 60-90 seconds for retention. TikTok: 21-34 seconds for the algorithm, 60 seconds for storytelling. YouTube Shorts: 30-45 seconds for search. Pinterest: 6-15 seconds for the loop. The same vertical cut rarely works on all four platforms. We deliver 4 cuts per shoot — 30s, 60s, 90s, and 3-min — and the client picks the platform. The cost of the extra cuts is 1,200 MAD per shoot, billed as a flat fee.
“The same vertical cut is not a strategy. It is a compromise.”
The one mistake we see in 90% of the wedding films
Vertical cuts are delivered as 9:16 letterboxes inside a 16:9 frame. The viewer sees black bars on the top and bottom, and the engagement drops 40% in the first 3 seconds. The fix is to reframe — not crop. The crop pulls the centre of the 16:9 frame into a 9:16 window. The reframe pulls the centre of the 16:9 frame into a 9:16 window AND adjusts the timing, the scale, and the subject position. It takes 4x longer. It is the only way to deliver a vertical cut that holds up.
Vertical is the default now. Horizontal is the second deliverable. If you are commissioning a video in 2026 and the team you are talking to still shoots horizontal-first, ask them to walk you through their vertical cut process. If the answer is 'we crop it in post,' keep looking. Vertical-first is a shooting decision, not an editing decision.
