I’m an old-school (Gen X) videographer who’s been shooting video professionally since the late 1980s. In those early days of chunky video tape and clunky camcorders, I shot footage to be enjoyed on a 4:3 TV screen. Fast forward to the early naughties and I was excited to be shooting in a 16:9 aspect ratio and watching footage on a widescreen TV. Back in those distant days, it was inconceivable to me that one day people would shoot video in any orientation other than horizontal/landscape.
I now find myself in a world occupied by Gen Z filmmakers, who increasingly prefer to create and view content on their smartphones. And because they tend to hold smartphones vertically they film in a vertical (portrait) orientation too. It would be OK if all screens were portrait/vertical (and you do see some dedicated vertical screens at concerts or displaying adverts in city streets). But when it comes to cinemas, TVs, laptops, and most viewing screens and displays, most are still in horizontal landscape orientation.
