Two people, one vertical clip: how to frame interviews
A conversation filmed for a wide screen does not fit a phone. Here is how to choose the framing that keeps both people in the story.
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The problem with wide conversations
Podcasts, interviews and panels are filmed for a 16:9 screen: one person on the left, the other on the right, a table in between. A vertical 9:16 clip keeps about a third of that width, so a plain centre crop usually shows the table and half of each face.
There is no single right framing. It depends on who carries the moment you are clipping.
When one person speaks: frame them
If the clip is one answer, one story or one strong opinion, frame the person saying it. In ClipSprint you drag the frame onto them at the start of the clip, and that is what the export keeps.
If the other person reacts or replies inside the same clip, move the frame at that moment: on paid plans a drag later in the clip adds a crop change, and the frame glides to the new position as the clip plays.
When the room matters: keep the whole picture
Sometimes the setting is part of the moment: a guest walks in, both laugh, someone points at the screen. Keep the whole frame and fill the rest of the vertical clip with a blurred copy of the picture, or with plain bars of one colour. Nobody is cut out, at the cost of a smaller picture.
When both people matter: split screen
Back-and-forth exchanges, a question and its answer, a reaction that is the whole point: these work best with both faces large on the screen at once. Split screen puts one area of the video on the top half of the clip and another on the bottom half.
Each half of a 9:16 clip has a 9:8 shape, so each area has that shape too and nothing is ever stretched. Drag each area onto a person and resize it from its corner; the preview next to the framing options shows the stacked clip as it will be exported.
Tips for a clean split
Size both areas so the faces look about the same size, with their eyes at a similar height in each half. Leave a little room above the heads. Areas keep their place for the whole clip, so pick a moment where both people stay in their seats.
Subtitles sit well on the line between the two halves, where they do not cover either face. Make them in the Clip Editor after exporting.
Which plans have it
Framing one person and the whole-frame layouts are on every plan. Moving the frame during a clip and split screen are on paid plans. On Pro and Max, best moments found by AI propose one area per person when two faces are found.
Step-by-step guideSplit screen
Turn a wide two-person video into a vertical clip with one person above the other. Place two areas, see the preview live and export in 9:16.