The Solution to Making Your Videos Vertical in Final Cut Pro

Short-form platforms are everywhere (Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts), and they all want vertical video. The problem is that Final Cut Pro doesn't make this obvious, and most tutorials on it get something wrong. Here's the correct way to do it, from project setup to export.

The wrong approach (and why it fails)

Most people try to make their video vertical by cropping a 16:9 clip, either using the Transform tool to zoom and reposition, or by applying a mask. The result is always a headache. If you're working with multiple clips, you have to reframe each one individually. And if you decide to change anything later, you're doing it all again.

The right approach starts at the project level, not the clip level.

Step 1: Create a vertical project

When you create a new project, FCP defaults to 1920×1080. You need to change this. In the project settings, set the resolution to 1080 × 1920. That's 9:16, the native aspect ratio of every major short-form platform.

The viewer in FCP will now show a tall frame instead of a wide one. This is correct. Everything you do from here is inside a vertical canvas.

Step 2: Understand Spatial Conform

When you drop a 16:9 clip into a 9:16 project, FCP automatically applies a Spatial Conform setting to handle the mismatch. By default it's set to "Fit", which means the full width of your horizontal clip is shrunk to fit inside the vertical frame. You'll get a tiny letterboxed image surrounded by black bars.

You almost never want that. What you want is Fill. Right-click the clip on your timeline, go to Spatial Conform → Fill. Now the clip zooms in to fill the entire vertical frame. The top and bottom of your 16:9 shot are cropped, but the frame is full.

Step 3: Reframe each clip

Fill crops the top and bottom of your shot, which means the default framing might cut off your subject's head, or show nothing but someone's chest. You need to reframe each clip to put the important stuff in the center of the vertical frame.

Select a clip, open the Inspector (press I), and go to Transform. Use the Position Y slider to move the clip up or down. If your subject is centered in the original wide shot, you usually only need a small nudge. If they're off to one side, you might also need to adjust Position X.

You can also do this directly in the Viewer by clicking the Transform button (the resize icon at the bottom left of the viewer). This lets you grab and drag the clip into position visually.

Step 4: Think about safe zones

Vertical platforms often have UI elements (profile icons, like buttons, captions) that cover the bottom portion of the frame. On TikTok it's a significant chunk. On Shorts it's more subtle. If you have important text or graphics, keep them in the middle third of the frame to stay safe.

FCP has built-in title safe and action safe overlays. Turn them on from the View menu in the viewer to see exactly where the danger zones are.

Step 5: Export correctly

Export the same way you would any project: File → Share → Master File, or direct to YouTube if you're uploading from there. FCP exports at 1080×1920, which is exactly what every platform expects. No post-processing needed.

For Instagram and TikTok, H.264 is fine for direct upload. For YouTube Shorts, the same 4K export trick applies if you want the higher-quality codec, but for short-form, most people won't notice the difference.

What about editing a horizontal version at the same time?

This comes up a lot. The cleanest approach is to edit your 16:9 primary cut first, then duplicate the project and convert the duplicate to vertical. In FCP, right-click the project in the browser and choose Duplicate Project. Change the settings on the copy to 1080×1920, then go through and reframe. You're not re-editing, just reframing the same cut.