Adaptation of Cinematographic Techniques for Mobile and Vertical Video Formats

Аннотация

The article describes how, in the context of SUBMITED 25 July 2025 ACCEPTED 07 August 2025 the rapid growth of video consumption on mobile PUBLISHED 21 August 2025 devices and the dominance of portrait screen VOLUME Vol.07 Issue 08 2025 orientation (9:16), classical cinematographic aspect ratios and techniques must be reconsidered and CITATION Herasymiuk Heorhii. (2025). Adaptation of Cinematographic Techniques for adapted. While traditional aspect ratios (4:3, 2.39:1) Mobile and Vertical Video Formats. The American Journal of Engineering and Technology, 7(8), 259–267. https://doi.org/10.37547/tajet/Volume07Issue08- reflected historical technological and aesthetic 21 constraints, the modern user experience dictates new COPYRIGHT rules of composition, blocking, editing, and technical © 2025 Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the creative commons attributes 4.0 License. implementation arising from the characteristics of touch controls and continuous scrolling. The study aims to identify and systematize the principles for applying classical cinematographic techniques in the mobile vertical format, to substantiate their effectiveness, and to develop a new grammar of visual storytelling for the narrow frame. The relevance of this work is driven by the unprecedented growth in mobile video traffic and changes in audience engagement models, which demand scholarly reflection on the aesthetic and technical transformations. Its novelty lies in the comprehensive integration of historical-technical analysis, ergonomic experiments, neurophysiological measurements, and content-analytic data to build a unified model of vertical video language. The methodological foundation combines comparative format analysis, ergonomic tests, a systematic review of recommendations on composition and camera movement, as well as empirical EEG-response studies and statistical analysis of audience behavior on TikTok and Reels. Results show that the central vertical axis of the frame serves as the path of least resistance for gaze and interaction; the rule of thirds transforms into vertical dynamics; and the Z-axis and dolly-in/out techniques become crucial for dramaturgy. Vertical split-screen significantly increases retention; The American Journal of Engineering and Technology 259 https://www.theamericanjournals.com/index.php/tajet The American Journal of Engineering and Technology gyrostabilized POV reduces fatigue; light gradients and established the 2.39:1 wide frame, which remains one of pinpoint color accents guide attention from top to the standard screen ratios in digital cinema distribution. bottom; and binaural and tactile sound expand However, the logic of the wider, the more cinematic no perception of the narrow frame. The study’s conclusions longer applies in an environment dominated by portrait establish the theoretical and practical basis of a new device orientation. Snapchat was the first to cinematographic grammar for mobile vertical video: demonstrate this: as early as the mid-2010s, the each modality—composition, camera movement, company reported that vertical advertisements were editing, lighting, color, sound, and interface effects— watched to completion more often than horizontal interacts to precisely direct attention within the 9:16 ones, provided users were not required to rotate their frame. This article will be particularly helpful to video screens [5]. production specialists, mobile app UX designers, and With the advent of TikTok and short Reels, the vertical media aesthetics researchers. frame ceased to be merely a cropped version of a film. Keywords: adaptation; cinematographic techniques; It became a new foundational 9:16 stock, dictating its vertical format; mobile video; composition; editing; own rules of composition, blocking, and pacing, and stabilization; lighting; color; sound demanding scholarly reflection on the aesthetic and Introduction technological changes at the intersection of mobile UX and classical cinematography. Over the past five years, the mobile screen has ceased to be secondary and has become the primary media Materials and Methodology carrier. According to Vidico, 75% of all video views now This study is based on the analysis of 17 key sources, occur on smartphones, which users hold vertically including academic articles, industry reports, empirical almost all the time, rather than rotating them for a experiments, and user cases. The theoretical foundation horizontal frame [1]. The shift is also visible in everyday comprises studies of consumer habits and media diets: the British TouchPoints-2025 survey infrastructural trends. The Vidico report [1] and the recorded that adults spend 3h 21min per day on their TouchPoints-2025 survey [2] revealed the dominance of phones—for the first time exceeding time spent vertical viewing and the even distribution of mobile watching linear television (3 h 16 min)—and do so consumption throughout the day. The DataReportal evenl