Short-Form Vertical Cut From a Horizontal Master
A producer has a finished 10-minute horizontal 16:9 video at 1080p, 29.97 fps, with burned-in lower-third titles near the bottom of the frame and a presenter who sometimes walks to the left edge. The organization wants three vertical 9:16 clips of 45 to 60 seconds each for social platforms, with captions. The source project files are not available, only the exported master and a separate high-quality audio mix. The producer has one day and a single editor. The editor plans to crop the center of the frame for the vertical clips and add captions. During a test, the presenter's face is cut off in one clip and the lower-third titles are lost in another.
1. Why does a fixed center crop fail here, and what approach should the editor take given only the master file?
Read the worked answer
A fixed center crop assumes the subject stays centered, but the presenter moves to the left edge and the lower-third titles sit near the bottom, so a center 9:16 crop will cut the presenter and the titles in some shots. Without project files, the editor should use a moving crop or pan-and-scan per clip, keyframing the crop to follow the presenter, and should reframe shots so the subject stays inside the vertical safe area. Where the presenter is at the edge, the editor may need to scale down slightly and reposition, accepting some loss of resolution. The editor should also plan to recreate titles as new vertical graphics rather than relying on the burned-in ones, since the burned-in titles cannot be repositioned.
2. How should the editor handle captions and titles for the vertical format?
Read the worked answer
Captions should be rebuilt for vertical viewing rather than copied from any horizontal version, placed within the platform's safe areas and sized to remain legible on a phone. Because the burned-in lower-thirds sit near the bottom and may be cropped, the editor should recreate titles as separate graphics sized for 9:16 and position them away from the platform's interface overlays. The editor should verify caption timing against the audio mix and check that captions do not cover the presenter's face. The editor should also confirm caption line length and reading speed are appropriate for short clips, since dense captions in a 45-second clip are hard to read.
3. With one day and one editor, how should the work be sequenced to deliver three clips on time?
Read the worked answer
The editor should first select the three strongest 45-to-60-second segments from the master and lock those selects before doing any reframing, so effort goes only into clips that will ship. Next, the editor should build one vertical sequence template with correct 9:16 settings, safe-area guides, and caption style, then reuse it for all three clips. Reframing and captioning should be done clip by clip, checking each on a phone-sized preview. Titles should be recreated in the template rather than rebuilt three times. The editor should reserve time at the end for export and review, and should confirm each platform's duration and file specs before export so no clip needs reworking late in the day.