WWWWAAAAyyyyyy! Precious.......

Just say no!

G

Pet hate of mine, too. My 11 year-old daughter loves the show America's Funniest Videos. It seems like a majority of the videos they show are vertical. They even tell people during the show to hold the phone the right way, but people ignore it.

Another way to look at it is that it just makes videos shot correctly look that much better.

They even tell people during the show to hold the phone the right way, but people ignore it.

Well, I assume that most of the videos submitted are *not* specifically shot for the show, but are "normal" videos that something unusual happens and they decide to submit it.

"hold the phone the right way"

No. Categorically no.

The "right" way to hold the phone is whatever works best to artistically or accurately capture the subject. The fact that television screens are near universally manufactured wider than they are tall does *NOT* make this the "right" way; it only makes it the conventional way. Convention may be wrong from time to time.

The premise of that video is completely wrong. The solution is *NOT* to hold the phone the "right way" horizontally, because the right way might just happen to be vertical.

The solution is for sites like youtube to recognize that vertical is a valid option and to respect the shape and aspect ratio of the frame when processing the uploaded video.

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Laurence, you took up more than your fair share of my vertical screen height with your last post :O)

The "right" way to hold the phone is whatever works best to artistically or accurately capture the subject. The fact that television screens are near universally manufactured wider than they are tall does *NOT* make this the "right" way; it only makes it the conventional way. Convention may be wrong from time to time.

Yes but ... does the intended presentation screen have any value in determining this?

Depends on whether you're the kind of artist who tries to conform or the kind of artist who doesn't let conformity be a limiting factor.

Wider-than-tall conforms to the human field of sight. Er, that's how we see. And that's why the cell phone view is annoying and mostly ineffective.
We're going to be seeing a lot of shaky cell phone video, with MP3-quality audio.

"Depends on whether you're the kind of artist who tries to conform or the kind of artist who doesn't let conformity be a limiting factor. "

I think there's a signifcant difference between making an informed creative decision and doing something because you're too intoxicated to know which way is up.

Bob.

"The "right" way to hold the phone is whatever works best to artistically or accurately capture the subject. The fact that television screens are near universally manufactured wider than they are tall does *NOT* make this the "right" way; it only makes it the conventional way. Convention may be wrong from time to time."

The problem is that people who can make that judgment aren't usually the ones shooting vertical video. 99 out of 100 vertical videos have to much empty space above and below the subject matter while helpful subject matter is cropped off the sides. Generally vertical video shooters are just to lazy to hold the phone right.

So the rule is (aren't most rules designed for dumb people anyway?) ALWAYS hold the phone horizontal. ... Unless you know when to break the rule.

It's really just a question of portrait or landscape. Facebook reproduces vertical frames fine and it works well for some footage or stills.

I don't think Leonardo would have improved La Giaconda by going landscape.

"I don't think Leonardo would have improved La Giaconda by going landscape."

I think it would have been an improvement to go landscape if the medium had been video and if he was panning around while trying to following the subject.

Here's what I consider a good example of the perfect use for the oblong-straight-up format and I was thrilled when I came upon it. Needless to say, an advanced student film, which says something about the future of this format.
http://www.thelineanimation.com/

You guys realize you are talking about phone video here?

Does it really matter if it's vertical or horizontal when it sucks either way.