There was a brewery in a city that does not exist that paid for six edits when it needed two. Here is the short version: export one high quality master, then reframe it into a few platform-sized crops. The spec that matters is aspect ratio, resolution, codec, and frame rate, not a separate edit per channel.
Most of the cost in video comes from editing time, not exporting. Once a cut is locked, producing a vertical version or a square version is a reframe and a re-export, not a new project. Knowing which formats a platform actually wants is what lets you order the right number of deliverables instead of paying for guesses.
What is the difference between a master and a deliverable?
A master is the highest quality export of your finished edit, kept at full resolution with a high bitrate so it can be reused. A deliverable is a platform-specific version cut down from that master.
Think of the master as the negative and the deliverables as the prints. You edit once at 4K or 1080p in the aspect ratio your main story was shot in, usually 16:9 for landscape work or 9:16 if the whole thing was designed for phones. From that locked cut you produce the sizes each platform shows. The edit decisions, the pacing, the captions, the color, all of that lives in the master. The deliverables inherit it.
This is why ordering "a YouTube video, an Instagram video, a TikTok video, and a LinkedIn video" as four separate jobs is usually a mistake. It is one job with four outputs.
What video spec does each platform need?
Each platform wants a specific aspect ratio, resolution, codec, and maximum length. Here are the specs worth building to in 2026.
| Platform | Aspect ratio | Resolution | Codec / container | Frame rate | Max length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube (landscape) | 16:9 | 1920x1080 or 3840x2160 | H.264, MP4 | 24/25/30/60 fps | 12 hours / 256 GB |
| YouTube Shorts | 9:16 | 1080x1920 | H.264, MP4 | 30/60 fps | 3 minutes |
| Instagram Reels | 9:16 | 1080x1920 | H.264, MP4 | 30 fps | 3 minutes |
| Instagram feed | 4:5 or 1:1 | 1080x1350 or 1080x1080 | H.264, MP4 | 30 fps | 60 minutes |
| TikTok | 9:16 | 1080x1920 | H.264/H.265, MP4 | 30/60 fps | 10 minutes |
| 16:9, 1:1, or 9:16 | 1920x1080 or 1080x1080 | H.264, MP4 | 30 fps | 10 minutes | |
| Broadcast / TV | 16:9 | 1920x1080 or 3840x2160 | ProRes 422 HQ, MOV | 23.976/25/29.97 fps | varies by network |
A couple of notes that save headaches. H.264 in an MP4 container plays everywhere and every platform re-compresses your upload anyway, so there is no point uploading a 2 GB file to Instagram. Broadcast is the outlier. Networks want ProRes or a similarly high quality intermediate, the exact frame rate to spec, and they care about audio loudness standards like the -23 LUFS target in the EBU R 128 standard common in EU delivery and -24 LKFS in the US. For YouTube specifically, Google publishes its recommended upload encoding settings, which are worth matching for the landscape master.
Why does one master plus crops save money?
Because editing is the expensive part and reframing is cheap. A studio charges for the hours spent cutting, not for the seconds spent exporting a second aspect ratio.
Here is the math I see on real projects. A single 60 to 90 second branded edit might run 8 to 16 hours of work depending on footage and motion graphics. Once that cut is locked, producing a 9:16 vertical from a 16:9 master is typically 1 to 2 hours, mostly spent repositioning the subject so heads do not get cropped and moving captions that were sitting in the lower third. A square 1:1 is similar. So the difference between ordering one deliverable and three is not 3x the price. It is closer to 1.2x to 1.4x.
The brewery story above is the cautionary version. They paid four edit fees because each platform was scoped as its own line item. Scoped as one master with three reframes, the same output would have cost roughly half.
What to ask for instead:
- One master at the aspect ratio your primary channel uses, full resolution.
- Reframed exports only for the platforms you will actually post to this quarter.
- Caption-safe framing, meaning the editor keeps faces and key text away from where a vertical crop will cut.
- Source files retained so a new size later is a re-export, not a rebuild.
If you want a video produced this way from the start, that is most of what we do at Subsecond Studio: one strong edit, sized correctly for wherever it needs to run.
When do you actually need a separate edit?
You need a genuinely separate edit when the story changes, not just the shape. A reframe handles aspect ratio. It does not handle a different message, length, or hook.
Three cases justify a real second edit. First, length. A 30 second teaser and a 3 minute explainer are different cuts even if they share footage. Second, the hook. Vertical platforms reward a punchy first 2 seconds, so a TikTok or Reel sometimes wants its own opening even when the body is reused. Third, sound-off versus sound-on. Feed video is often watched muted, so it needs burned-in captions and visual storytelling, while a YouTube landscape piece can lean on narration. Outside those cases, you are reframing, not re-editing.
What aspect ratio should you shoot in?
Shoot in the widest, highest resolution format you can, because you can always crop in but you cannot crop out. The most flexible choice is 4K 16:9.
The reason is headroom. A 3840x2160 landscape frame contains a full 1080x1920 vertical crop inside it with pixels to spare, so you can pull a clean Reel out of a 4K interview without upscaling. If you shoot 1080p vertical only, you have boxed yourself into one shape. The exception is content designed for phones from the start, like a talking-head founder series. If it will only ever live vertical, shoot vertical and frame for it. When in doubt, 4K 16:9 gives the most exits.
FAQ
What resolution is best for social media video?
1080p is the practical standard for social. Reels, TikTok, and LinkedIn all display at 1080x1920 vertical or 1080x1080 square, and every platform re-compresses your file, so uploading 4K to a feed mostly wastes upload time. Keep 4K for YouTube landscape and for your archived master.
Can I post the same video file to every platform?
Not well. A 16:9 landscape file posted to TikTok or Reels shows as a small letterboxed strip with dead space above and below, which kills watch time. The codec is fine across platforms, but the aspect ratio is not, so you need at least a vertical reframe for the phone-first channels.
How long should a marketing video be?
It depends on the platform and goal. Social hooks and ads work best at 15 to 60 seconds, Reels and Shorts cap useful attention around 90 seconds, and explainer or brand films on YouTube can run 2 to 5 minutes if the content earns it. Match the length to the cut, then reframe each cut for its platforms.
Get your website designed before you pay. Subsecond Studio designs and builds websites, web apps, and AI tools, and you approve the design before any payment. Get an estimate
