The Permanence of UGC

When viewers create content.

In December, it’ll be a decade since I first started ranting about my disdain for recording video vertically with mobile devices. What about everything that’s happening on either side, I complained. And I couldn’t believe people accepted what happened whenever they submitted their user-generated content to local broadcasters. Blown-up and blurred backgrounds of the same video or simply wasted spaces of giant blank borders. So, for a few months, I flooded (relatively) my social media with pithy posts (well, I thought they were pithy) with my series, When Viewers Create Content Vertically.

I ran out of steam in early 2016, around the time that final Republican primary debate was cancelled, when I guess I focused on other, more volatile peeves to post.

It’s true, I never stopped shouting at kids to turn their damn phones horizontally (and to get off my lawn), but once the adults in the workplace started doing it too, I learned to work with them. Agencies started sending me format requirements, which included 1080:1080 and 9:16, so here we are today, making our beautiful corporate leadership messages squeeze onto TikTok. Sometimes, it takes minor effort to move titles to the center and maybe track the subject. Not a big deal, just additional time after the 16:9 video has been approved and finalized, which really should be added to the budget. In Adobe Premiere, I usually create a new sequence in the required size and drop the 16:9 sequence in, then go about adjusting individual clips to fit. I imagine there are other ways, including AI taking over, but for now, I sort of enjoy keeping my hands in the project and doing it myself. It’s almost meditative.

Last year, I did some research to learn how to upload edited files from my desktop to TikTok. I’ll happily adopt and adjust to wherever the new ways of working take me. I even checked out CapCut to get the feel (the free version is annoyingly rudimentary but I’m sure the kids are fine with it). I know there’s a Pro version. Anyone here try it yet? I just re-up’d my Avid subscription (I almost didn’t), and still use Premiere every day. What else are you all using to edit video?

Some day soon, I’ll probably be able to open DaVinci and say, “Make a sequence with all the best audio takes and edit the corresponding PowerPoint slides on the video layer. Add the company logo at the end. Include an appropriate music track.” Or whatever. The whole process will take just a little less time than it does now. My project rate will be the same, though. The price of experience.