Vertical Film Festival

Vertical Film Festival
The first edition of the Vertical Film Festival, projected in tall-screen 9:16 aspect ratio at St Hilda's Church, 17 October 2014.
LocationKatoomba, New South Wales, Australia
Founded2014
LanguageEnglish
Websitevertical.video

The Vertical Film Festival (VFF) is a film festival held in Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 2014, the Festival was conceived to encourage exploration of vertical film and video. This nascent format is variously referred to as tall-screen, portrait format, 9:16 aspect ratio or simply vertical video for short. The VFF was the first worldwide competition to be held for vertical videos and has since become a biennial event with public screenings in suitably vertical venues.[1][2]

The Festival has been widely cited for its early engagement with the vertical format by Harvard University's Nieman Journalism Lab,[3] in textbooks,[4] in patents for new technologies,[5] in academic papers,[6] by the ProVideo Coalition,[7] and in media sources ranging from Norway's public broadcaster NRK[8] to Wired Magazine,[9] ZDnet,[10] the Huffington Post,[11] Editions Financial,[12] the Chicago Tribune,[13] Guachazh[14] in Brazil to L'Obs[15][16] in France.

The Festival accepts submissions of moving image works created on film, video, computer or mobile devices providing that the frame is taller than it is wide, and the video is of at least high definition resolution.

Its stated aims[17] include giving amateur and professional filmmakers alike encouragement to explore the aesthetic possibilities[18][19] of the oft-maligned[20] vertical format in its formative years as commercialisation of the format proceeds apace.[21] As such it screens a broad mix of live action fiction, animation, video art and documentary works. The Festival's website also offers a 'tips & tricks' guide to would-be vertical filmmakers dealing with various practical problems posed by having to work against apparatus and editing software often only designed for shooting horizontally.[22][23]

  1. ^ "Vertical Film 2014". www.exit109.com. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  2. ^ "VFF". Vertical Film Festival.
  3. ^ "Vertical video is becoming more popular, but there's no consensus on the best way to make it". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  4. ^ Holfelder, Ute; Ritter, Christian (14 December 2017). Handyfilme als Jugendkultur (in German). BoD – Books on Demand. ISBN 9783744509428.
  5. ^ "Surround sound applications and devices for vertically-oriented content". Thomas Mitchell Dair, Thomas Mitchell Dair. 23 November 2016. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. ^ Napoli, Maria Donata (27 December 2016). "The 'Mobile Effect' on Screen Format: the Case of Vertical Videos". Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts. 8 (2): 45–49. doi:10.7559/citarj.v8i2.169. ProQuest 1857992997.
  7. ^ Antunes, Jose (7 March 2017). "Vertical Video: New Opportunities for Filmmakers". Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  8. ^ "How the Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) made its first vertical documentary film". NRKbeta. 27 December 2015. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  9. ^ "Phones Are Changing How People Shoot and Watch Video". WIRED. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  10. ^ "Visuelle, verticale et mobile : une nouvelle ère pour l'info et la communication ?". ZDNet France (in French). Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  11. ^ Week, Advertising (6 October 2016). "Yes, It's Really Time To Get Serious About Vertical Video". Huffington Post. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  12. ^ "Vertical video vision - Editions Financial". Editions Financial. 7 June 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  13. ^ Zorn, Eric. "Yes to viral shaming videos; no to the vertical format". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  14. ^ "GaúchaZH". gauchazh.clicrbs.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). 22 December 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  15. ^ "Comment Snapchat redéfinit les codes de la vidéo et de la photo". L'Obs (in French). Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  16. ^ "Bienvenue à l'ère de l'info visuelle verticale". L'Obs (in French). Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  17. ^ "About the VFF". Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  18. ^ Anne., Friedberg (2009). The virtual window : from Alberti to Microsoft. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. pp. 123–127, 129–130. ISBN 978-0262512503. OCLC 262881377.
  19. ^ "Phones Are Changing How People Shoot and Watch Video". WIRED. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  20. ^ Zorn, Eric. "Yes to viral shaming videos; no to the vertical format". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  21. ^ "Yes, It's Really Time To Get Serious About Vertical Video". Huffington Post. 6 October 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  22. ^ "Vertical video is becoming more popular, but there's no consensus on the best way to make it". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  23. ^ Holfelder & Ritter (2017). Handyfilme als Jugendkultur. Books on Demand. pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-3744509428.