Using iMovie to switch video from landscape to portrait

If you’re looking to share a video clip across different social media platforms then the same orientation won’t work everywhere. Even YouTube has standard videos in landscape and Shorts in portrait, Tiktok is in portrait, likewise Instagram.

Now you can just upload your video and it will automatically be reduced in height to fit the width of the platform, e.g. Tiktok, or clipped removing the edges of the clip, e.g. YouTube Shorts. However, it’s preferable to have control over your clip and the edits in place.

While it’s by no means the only way of switching a video from landscape to portrait or vice-versa, if your’e on a Mac you will get iMovie for free as part of the Operating System.

The video above shows you how to set the orientation and focus of your clip.

To set your landscape clip to portrait in iMovie use the following steps (also works the other way around):

1. Add your clip into iMovie
2. Click on your clip to select it
3. Click on the ‘Crop’ button above the video preview
4. Click on the ‘Rotate the clip clockwise/anti-clockwise’ to align it for portrait
5. Click on ‘Crop to fill’ and drag the white border to the edge of your video’s width
6. Play it back to check the subject is in the centre. If not, drag to adjust the height
7. Export your video
8. Open up ‘Finder’, click on the video to open it in QuickTime
9. Then click ‘Edit > Rotate right/left’ to get it into the orientation you need
10. Upload it to the social network of your choice and you’re done!