Efficiently Conform Video for Social Media in Adobe Premiere Pro

Every week, Frame.io Insider asks one of our expert contributors to share a tip, tool, or technique that they use all the time and couldn’t live without This week, Chris Salters shows you two ways to conform video for social media in Premiere Pro.

Social media may be king, but most of my edits still start out in 16:9.  Then, after picture lock, they have to be conformed to various social media ratios, typically 1×1 and 9×16.  Premiere Pro has a wonderful automatic feature for conforming sequences to social specs, but sometimes it’s necessary to take a manual approach.  Here’s a look at both.

Auto Reframe sequence

Premiere’s automated method for creating social media versions of an edit is as easy as right-clicking a sequence in the Project panel > Auto Reframe Sequence.  The box that opens provides options for aspect ratio and motion tracking.

Motion tracking in this case is the added motion that keeps the action of a clip center-frame.  After making your selections and clicking “Create”, Premiere will make a duplicate sequence with your chosen settings.  Make sure to review the edits as the results can sometimes vary depending on the sequence content.

Manual reframing

My preferred method for manually reframing a sequence first involves duplicating the source sequence and then changing its resolution to the desired social media spec.  After that, I add the Transform effect to each clip and move or animate it as needed to keep the action within frame.

To me, the Transform effect is easier to copy and paste to clips with similar framing than copying clip attributes.

Written by

Chris Salters

Chris Salters is a freelance video editor who cuts commercials and brand films. Based in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, he spends his free time cycling, woodworking, and being a Dad. Chris is fueled by coffee and rewarded by beer.