How to resize a landscape video for Reels and Shorts
Reels, Shorts and stories are 9:16 — tall. Most cameras, screen recordings and YouTube videos are 16:9 — wide. Resizing means deciding what to keep.
Two ways to fit a wide video in a tall frame
| Approach | How | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Fill the frame | Scale the clip up until it covers 9:16, then slide it to frame the subject | Talking heads, products, one subject |
| Fit inside | Keep the whole clip, smaller, with titles above and below | Slides, wide scenery, two people |
Fill the frame without losing the subject
When you fill a 9:16 frame with 16:9 footage, you see about a third of the original width. Select the clip in the preview, scale it up, then slide it so the person or product sits in the middle. On paid plans, keyframe the position to follow movement — for example, panning from one speaker to the other.
Mind the safe zone
Instagram covers the bottom of a Reel with the caption and the right side with buttons. On a portrait project, switch on the safe zone guide in the Captions panel and keep faces and text inside it.
Shoot for vertical next time
If you know a video will become a Reel, frame the subject in the middle third while filming. It leaves room to crop to 9:16 later without losing anything important.
Common resizing mistakes
- Cutting off the speaker: when two people talk in a wide shot, frame the one speaking, and change the framing when the other speaks.
- Blurry results: scaling a 720p landscape clip up to fill a 1080 × 1920 frame softens it. Start from the highest-quality original you have.
- Text in the wrong place: titles from the original video may be cut off. Remove them and add new ones inside the vertical frame.
- Forgetting the hook: a resized YouTube clip still needs a vertical-style opening — trim straight to the best moment.
Export at the right shape
The export follows the project, so a portrait project always exports 9:16. The Free plan includes 20 export minutes a month at up to 720p, with a small watermark; paid plans export without a watermark at up to 1080p, and up to 4K on the top plans. See pricing.
Motion Studio doesn't reframe automatically — you choose the framing, so nothing important is cropped by accident.
