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Vertical video produced by the BBC


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Old 21-12-2016, 03:01
d'@ve
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I could barely believe my eyes tonight when a current BBC News story linked to a vertical video (posted last week) on their website. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38287061

"This video has been optimised for mobile viewing on the BBC News app." they say. I assumed that it meant perhaps a lower bitrate than usual and was prepared for that but no. It's a vertical video produced by them and embedded in a landscape player window.

Now I'm a strong supporter of the BBC (and licence fee before anyone starts) but this is utter madness when all mobile users have to do is turn their freaking phones by 90 degrees in their hands to view a standard video aspect ratio. They should try doing that with the average TV or computer monitor! You can't even read the media headlines which are the main subject of the video, they have to sloooowwwwlyyyy scroll across. Utter madness and I never want to see any self respecting broadcaster do this ever again. Vertical video produced by the BBC, whatever next? Grrr! Rant over.
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Old 21-12-2016, 07:51
Aaron_2015
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Vertical videos are far easier to watch through Facebook/Twitter on mobiles, which is why the BBC are doing it.
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Old 21-12-2016, 09:05
ElMarko
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I think we're going to just have to accept it as an AR by now
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Old 21-12-2016, 10:52
Mark C
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I think we're going to just have to accept it as an AR by now
I fear you're right. I heard a couple of weeks ago of one production company, asking if delivery of footage was possible in a portrait AR.
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Old 21-12-2016, 11:22
Hamlet77
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I assume you are talking about portrayed mode as opposed to tv being normally landscape mode. Because technical all video is both vertical and horizontal.

Vertical video makes no sense.

And yes constantly using portrayed mode is stupid, every single mobile phone has a camera so why can't people learn to use landscape mode? It looks idiotic when videoing something to use portrayed mode. Portrayed mode is for that still portraits.
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Old 21-12-2016, 13:30
mfr
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Most apps - including news and social media, are best viewed in portrait mode and generally consumed in portrait mode. When was the last time you saw someone looking at social media on their phone in landscape mode?

It makes sense if a video is specifically intended for consumption on a mobile device, to take that into account and avoid users having to flip their phone around every time they want to watch a video.
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Old 21-12-2016, 13:57
spiney2
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Why not just say ''portrait mode'', as everyone already has for the past 40 years ?
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Old 21-12-2016, 14:25
Mark C
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It makes sense if a video is specifically intended for consumption on a mobile device, to take that into account and avoid users having to flip their phone around every time they want to watch a video.
I spend hours on a plane watching downloaded BBC iplayer programmes with my phone in landscape.

Just saying
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Old 21-12-2016, 15:11
d'@ve
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Why not just say ''portrait mode'', as everyone already has for the past 40 years ?
Because it's a new concept since video became instantly available to the masses and the masses started using it, er, en masse. And it's meaningful - it comes from holding a smart phone vertically when filming. It's also less of a mouthful than portrait mode video, which anyway contains two words that many of 'the masses' won't clearly understand the meaning of. Google it, it's in widespread use now.

My original point is that two completely different aspect ratios are now in use, wasting over half of the screen space and resolution if the video is viewed the wrong way round. So it makes most sense for broadcasters and other professional producers of content for everyone to use an aspect ratio that best matches screens that cannot easily be turned to accommodate it. Smart phones and tablets can, almost everything else cannot, so BBC etc., please make it for the "everything else".

I don't deny that filming in portrait mode on a mobile phone can be useful when a wider vertical angle is required but what the BBC did in the link I gave isn't such a case and I hope they don't do it again.
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Old 21-12-2016, 15:23
rmc57
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Most apps - including news and social media, are best viewed in portrait mode and generally consumed in portrait mode. When was the last time you saw someone looking at social media on their phone in landscape mode?

It makes sense if a video is specifically intended for consumption on a mobile device, to take that into account and avoid users having to flip their phone around every time they want to watch a video.
It's just a matter of turning the phone slightly - and usually getting a far better view in the process.

If portrait mode for video is so good, how come film and TV almost universally used landscape, apart from the 30 line mechanical system? Landscape is by far the more natural view. Portrait is for some photos and paintings

Once more the thick and lazy drag things down to their level and we're supposed to just let them.
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Old 21-12-2016, 15:35
Zeropoint1
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It's just a matter of turning the phone slightly - and usually getting a far better view in the process.

If portrait mode for video is so good, how come film and TV almost universally used landscape, apart from the 30 line mechanical system? Landscape is by far the more natural view. Portrait is for some photos and paintings

Once more the thick and lazy drag things down to their level and we're supposed to just let them.
Yep, once again we have to cater for the "it's good enough for me" brigade.

Low bitrate mono radio, TV channels that don't even use SD resolution, poor quality HD just to match Freeview and films cropped and butchered just so they can be screened early in the evening.

Everything is lowest common denominator now and the BBC are happy to join the race.
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Old 21-12-2016, 16:02
Ginger Daddy
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A vertical video eh? Whatever next? A spherical song?
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Old 21-12-2016, 16:31
DarthFader
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A vertical video eh? Whatever next? A spherical song?
Haha sounds like a Bjork type of thing
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Old 21-12-2016, 16:42
mfr
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It's just a matter of turning the phone slightly - and usually getting a far better view in the process.

If portrait mode for video is so good, how come film and TV almost universally used landscape, apart from the 30 line mechanical system? Landscape is by far the more natural view. Portrait is for some photos and paintings

Once more the thick and lazy drag things down to their level and we're supposed to just let them.
Another good quality Digital Spy discussion when the insults start being hurled.

Film and TV programmes aren't *designed* to be watched on a mobile phone. This is a news item, intended primarily for mobile consumption, not a feature film. It's also quite clearly not how the BBC intend to produce all video.
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Old 21-12-2016, 20:07
DVDfever
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I thought they were cash-strapped and didn't have money to waste catering to a minority?

Or they thought they were Xavier Dolan, whose 2014 movie, Mommy, was shot almost entirely in a mobile phone portrait mode.
http://dvd-fever.co.uk/mommy-on-dvd-...dfever-review/


Haha sounds like a Bjork type of thing
Possibly maybe
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Old 21-12-2016, 20:16
Zeropoint1
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I thought they were cash-strapped and didn't have money to waste catering to a minority?

Or they thought they were Xavier Dolan, whose 2014 movie, Mommy, was shot almost entirely in a mobile phone portrait mode.
http://dvd-fever.co.uk/mommy-on-dvd-...dfever-review/




Possibly maybe
Wasn't that Oasis?
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Old 21-12-2016, 21:59
DVDfever
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Wasn't that Oasis?
Definitely not
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