Business Content
Vertical vs. horizontal video.
Your business probably needs both.
/ 6 min read
One of the first questions businesses ask about video is:
“Should we shoot vertical or horizontal?”
The answer depends entirely on where the video is going and what it’s supposed to accomplish.
Horizontal
Build the
brand.
Horizontal shines when you have more room to tell a story.
It’s cinematic. It’s immersive. And it works especially well when the environment itself matters to the story.
- Website hero videos
- YouTube
- Company profiles
- Testimonials
- Case studies
- Recruiting
- Facility tours
- Brand films
If we’re showing your restaurant, construction operation, gym, office, manufacturing facility or entire team, horizontal gives us space to establish the world around the business.
Vertical
Give the brand
a face.
- TikTok
- Facebook Reels
- YouTube Shorts
These platforms are consumed on phones, and vertical owns the screen. But there’s another reason we like vertical for business content:
People look
good in it.
An owner talking to camera can fill the frame. We see their face. We see their expression. We hear their personality.
There’s still enough room for the environment, but the person becomes the focal point.
Example
Fourteen hours
of smoke.
Imagine a BBQ owner standing inside the restaurant:
“We smoke these for 14 hours, and somehow people still ask if they’re fresh.”
- Cut
- Brisket
- Fire
- Knife through the bark
- Customer reaction
- Logo
That's not really
a commercial.
It's content.
And vertical is extremely good at it.
Important
Don’t just
crop it.
This is where businesses get it wrong.
They shoot a beautiful 16:9 video and later decide: “We’ll just crop it for Instagram.”
Sometimes that works. Sometimes you end up with half a person, missing text and framing that looks like someone filmed the video through a mail slot.
If we know something needs to work vertically, we shoot for vertical.
- Different composition
- Different movement
- Different editing
- Different pacing
Owner on camera
Owner on camera?
Vertical has
a big advantage.
This matters most for businesses where the person is part of the brand.
- Contractors
- Realtors
- Coaches
- Restaurant owners
- Barbers
- Tattoo artists
- Fitness professionals
- Local business owners
People aren’t only deciding whether they want the service.
They’re deciding whether they trust you.
Putting an owner or employee on camera repeatedly builds familiarity in a way another montage of slow-motion equipment usually doesn’t.
The decision
So what should
a business shoot?
Major website / brand story?
Horizontal →
Consistent social content + personal brand?
Vertical →
Proper content day?
Both →
If you’re investing in a full content day, plan for both from the beginning. Capture hero material horizontally. Then intentionally capture:
- Vertical hooks
- Talking segments
- B-roll
- Short-form concepts
One production day can create assets for very different purposes if they’re planned that way from the start.
The Killer take
Horizontal gives your brand a world.
Vertical gives it a face.
Great businesses often need both.
Next step
Need content
that actually fits
where it’s going?
We’ll plan the formats before somebody decides to crop everything later.
Work in real estate? Read:
Vertical vs. horizontal video for real estate →
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