It also means that viewers can enter full-screen playback without having to rotate their device to see the video at an optimum size.

The format fits the Facebook news feed nicely as well as the Instagram grid view. The more I looked into this, the more I began to understand the reason: mainly that square video (and, to a lesser extent, vertical video) proves to be more engaging on mobile devices. They had been shot in 1080p HD, but needed to be uploaded to Facebook and Instagram in a square format. Last month I was asked by a client to help produce a series of social media videos that had to be square. However, the subject of editing square video has recently resurfaced for me. And as for vertical video, well my blood begins to run cold… After all, these days video should be 16:9, surely? Soon after, it was with some relief that I heard that Instagram had started supporting “proper” 16:9 video. When I was first asked to do this, Instagram only supported the uploading of square video formats which was completely alien to me. I have, on occasion, been asked to put together specific edits for sharing on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. Ok, I admit it! Ever since I was asked to look into this subject I’ve had the Huey Lewis And The News song running through my head… So, now that’s out of the way, what’s with all this square video and where can we find it? As we’re seeing more of this type of video around the web, we asked Chris Roberts to look into it for us and explore how we can use Final Cut Pro X to “squarify” our edits. The increased use of video on social media has seen a rise of the “square video” format.

Change aspect ratio in final cut pro