Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Portrait orientation in Imovie

Here are my postings from another board, where I got no valuable answers.






Portrait orientation in Imovie

Hello everyone,


I have to create some content in Portrait orientation mode for a commercial display. Any tips to create the content in imovie in the 9:16 format?


How about creating animations in flash. How can I make those to be portrait orientation movies.


Any help is appreciated.


Theo.

Imovie doesn't let me type vertically, as well, when I flip everything using the crop button, it doesn't fill the 9:16 format.
....
Help

I still need help. I don't understand how to create proper formatting to fit a portrait orientation movie with Imovie.


Will final cut pro let you edit and create in portrait mode?

Posted on Jul 12, 2012 8:07 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jan 29, 2017 9:54 PM

YGTBFKM....


So on the iPhone I can create and edit a movie, but I can't color correct or crop or filter. But I can do that in iMovie. But I can't use the portrait video and correct it and put it back on the iPhone without having it shrink down with gigantic black rectangles on the sides??? AWESOME!!!!!

33 replies

Jul 13, 2012 11:59 AM in response to tudorior

QuickTime Player Pro ($30) is one of the few tools that can create any dimension stand alone files.

It can also be used to add an additional image file in your required dimension to your portrait video and can then scale down that video to fit your height restriction.

Videos are always wider than tall so your potrait video height will need to be scaled down and it will appear smaller and have black bands on each side when centered on an all black image.

Jul 23, 2013 12:22 AM in response to QuickTimeKirk

Restrictions like this ensure that only landscape movies taken with an iPhone may be edited with iMovie without losing swaths of material above and below. Especially since a portrait video is what you take if you quickly grab your phone and record in its most common upright position. So it costs $4.99 for 16:9 but $30 for 9:16 -- an arbitrary and ridiculous distinction.

Jul 23, 2013 1:14 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

There is nothing arbitrary nor ridiculous about recording a movie in portrait. When recording video with an iPhone, many people record in the portrait orientation because it is the natural position of the phone when most commonly used. Landscape has been the most common for, as you say, 130 years, but today millions of videos are taken using a cell phone where many, if not most, of these are captured in the portrait orientation. What is arbitrary and ridiculous is a cell phone app that disregards these possibilities.

Jul 23, 2013 1:54 AM in response to CrunchyCreamy

CrunchyCreamy wrote:

… today millions of videos are taken using a cell phone where many, if not most, of these are captured in the portrait orientation. …


… and on what kind of 'monitor' you're watching portrait videos WITHOUT bars?

does, e.g. YouTube offer portrait-mode …?


You're only posts on this board is complains about a video-app for camcorders 'lack' of ability, to handle material of wrong handled devices ...


dftt 😁


-bye-

Dec 29, 2013 2:12 PM in response to tudorior

There is an article on this from 2012 at: http://www.larryjordan.biz/fcpx-custom-project-sizes/ which seems problematical.


However, in the latest version of Final Cut Pro (10.1) I have done a quitck test and been able to create a new project with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 i.e.portrait mode. I don't know whether there will be a any problems 'down the line' but it looks promising and I remembered reading somewhere that it is capable of handling arbitrary resolutions.


User uploaded file

Worth looking into.


Geoff.

Dec 29, 2013 3:36 PM in response to GeeD

It Works!


Liking a challenge, I put a 1080p video clip into the new project that I had inadvertently recorded holding the camera in portrait mode. I rotated it by 90 degrees in FCP and added a couple of rotated still shots. It exported fine and plays in potrait in Quicktime Player, although the video has a large black border.


Dropping it into VideoSpec it confirms the video is 1080*1960 with a display aspect ratio of 0.551:


User uploaded file

I then added to the timeline the same clip after rotating and saving in Quicktime Player 10. This part of the exported file now fills the portrait frame fully. I added text and some simple transitions and they all worked fine. So yes, it can be done in FCP 10.1.


Of course, unless you want to add text on video it might be simpler just to create your movie in landscape mode with everything on its side then rotoate and save the exported video. If you only need text on stills you could add this in a still editor before importing into iMovie. Even in FCP it does not seem possible to write text on its side.



Geoff.

Jan 2, 2014 2:51 PM in response to Matthew Morgan

You mean in the viewer? Yes it displays in portrait mode though of course it does not make very efficient use of the viewer window! The exported movie also plays in Quicktime Player in portrait orientation.


User uploaded file


I just noticed that rotating in Quicktime player before import reduced the resolution of the clip to 608 x 1080 but the exported movie is 1080 x 1960 (I accidentally put 1960 instead of 1920 when creating the project).


Of course since text can be rotated it could all be done (probably more conveniantly) on its side in 1920 * 1080 and rotated after exporting.


But I guess this is getting off-topic and should go to the FCP discussions.


Geoff.

Portrait orientation in Imovie

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.