PEOPLE!
There’s another way!
Just get a dual monitor setup, and keep one in portrait layout. It’s also way better for long text documents and scrolling through webpages!
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This, this, a thousand times this.
Aspect ratio is an artistic choice. All that matters is that it be preserved for subsequent viewings.
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The thing with toddlers is so true. I think the baseline criteria should be more or less “if you can conveniently frame your shot in landscape, please do so.”
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Honestly it doesn’t even matter if the subject would benefit from landscape mode. If you’re filming something to share with people you should do it in portrait mode.
Fixed orientation laptops and PCs have been outsold by multi-orientation smartphones and tablets for 5 years now. At this point less than 15% of devices are fixed in landscape mode. The vast majority of people will be viewing on a phone, where it’s much more convenient to watch portrait videos.
Don’t listen to old people who still think everything is done on a desktop monitor. Shoot portrait video.
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It would be very helpful if phone manufacturers would set the default to widescreen regardless of how the phone is held. A menu selection could override this for those that prefer portrait mode.
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I thought it was odd that one of the examples in this video had someone sliding down a stairwell. It’s hard to see how a landscape orientation would be better to capture that… you’re either seeing blank walls on either side of the stairs while the filmer tries to pan smoothly, or blank bars on either side and the filmer just holding the camera steady.
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.gif = giraffic interchange format
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Drunk people? Diagonal.
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Regardless of your opinion on the orientation issue, you have to admit, this lady actually hits all the notes she is trying to hit, and never goes out of key.
A++ Internet Video.
(low bar…)
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nah , get on in there , playah fellah !! i especially approve of the aspect ratio in still art demo !! do remember to floss after , and , if you feel at all guilty later , feel free to vomit into a sanctioned grave ~ oh , and , ahhh , please sign these release forms please , and i shall need a copy of a photo id ~
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Mine presents little arrows to tell me to turn it, it’s great. 
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Thanks for pulling these up, it might save some time (it will not save any time).
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I know, I know. This is so true. The other day I went to the museum and tried to look at, y’know, actual portraits and I couldn’t see 'em - eyes wouldn’t work that way. Then I wandered in to the sculpture garden and was looking at some Roman statues and again, I couldn’t see them right; too damn tall so the head and feet kept getting cut off. Well at least they didn’t have black bars on the side.
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That’s quite a challenge for e.g. a laptop. Doable, actually, with some creative folding and thicker case…
Watch out for my next kickstarter!
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Filming a video? Turn your phone!
Recording a video? Don’t say “film”. And you aren’t “taping” it either.
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Don’t confuse the number of devices with the number of their uses.
A tiny phone screen is next to useless for sustained work and its only saving grace is that it is pocket-sized. A tablet is bigger but lacks keyboard and is good merely for consuming media; without a good keyboard, production of anything gets rather hampered.
People I know have smartphones and tablets, but these are generally the secondary-use devices; when they can use laptops, they do.
Shoes outsell cars, piecewise. Yes. But the total miles traveled are higher for any (within couple sigmas) car than for any pair of shoes.
And then there are the emerging wearable devices (Google Glass, various augmented reality stuff…) that will be fixed-orientation as well. And for a good reason.
Portrait orientation of a video is an abomination. There are few technical reasons for exceptions, but you generally make less of a mistake by avoiding portrait than by trying to justify its use. If we were meant to watch portrait videos, we’d have eyes positioned vertically.
Yeah, go tell Bill Viola which way to hold the camera.
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Finally, a use for the Thinkpad W700ds second monitor!
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