Cutting vertical, square or any size
Every sequence has its own frame — vertical for TikTok, Reels and Shorts, 4:5 or square for feed posts, landscape, or any size at all. A project of phone clips cuts vertical without being asked, and the platforms' safe zones draw over the record monitor.
Every sequence has its own frame — the width and height it is cut for. The record monitor shows that frame, and an export makes a file that size. The source monitor always shows each clip at its own shape.
Starting one
Sequence ▸ New Sequence… asks for a name and a frame, with the platforms written on each choice:
| Frame | Size | For |
|---|---|---|
| Landscape 16:9 | 1920×1080 | YouTube, TV and the web |
| Vertical 9:16 | 1080×1920 | TikTok, Instagram and Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts, Stories |
| Portrait 4:5 | 1080×1350 | Instagram and Facebook feed posts |
| Square 1:1 | 1080×1080 | Instagram and Facebook feed posts, LinkedIn |
Or type any size — 2048×858 for a scope, 3840×2160 for 4K. Width and height must be even, because every delivery format halves the colour resolution.
The shape most of your footage was shot in is chosen already, and marked Your footage's shape. Ingest clips from a phone held upright and the new sequence is vertical; press Enter and start cutting. A sequence made by pressing V with no sequence open does the same, without asking at all.
Changing it
Sequence ▸ Sequence Settings… changes the frame of the sequence you are in, at any time. Nothing in the cut moves — every shot is fitted to the new frame as it plays — and it is an edit like any other: Undo takes it back, and it is in the cut's history.
Shots that are not the frame's shape
A shot is fitted inside the frame whole, with black where it does not reach — a wide shot in a vertical sequence is a band across the middle. To fill the frame instead:
- for one clip, everywhere it is used: right-click it ▸ Colour, Crop & Rotate… ▸ Fit: Fill (Source Settings);
- for one shot: its Transform effect, or Reformat;
- for a whole cut that was framed wide: Picture ▸ Make a Vertical Version… frames every shot for you (A vertical version).
Safe zones
Picture ▸ Safe Zones shades, over the record monitor, the parts of the frame an app covers with its own caption, account name and buttons — so a face or a line of text does not end up under them:
- TikTok — the caption at the bottom and the buttons down the right.
- Instagram Reels and Facebook Reels — 14% at the top, 35% at the bottom, 6% at each side.
- YouTube Shorts — the title at the bottom and the buttons down the right.
- Instagram and Facebook Stories — 250 pixels at the top and the bottom.
- Title and action safe — for television: action safe shaded outside the middle 93%, title safe outlined at 90%.
The numbers are the ones each company publishes for advertisers, read on 12 October 2026. The apps move their buttons from time to time, so treat a safe zone as a guide to where not to put things rather than a promise. A zone for a vertical frame drawn on a sequence of another shape says so instead of shading the wrong places.
The safe zone is yours, not the cut's: somebody else on the same cut sees whichever one they chose, or none.
Exporting
An export comes out at the sequence's own frame unless you choose another size in the export window — a square cut exports square. Project Settings can make a different size the default for the project.