Why Video Content Should Be Level and How to Fix It

When you create video content, it is important that the footage is level. That means that it should appear to be flat and aligned against a horizontal plane – the most common of which is the horizon.

What Must Videos Be Level?

Technically speaking your video content doesn’t ‘have’ to be level – but unless you have a specific reason why you want to tilt the video it is better if you keep it level.

The fact of the matter is that people generally prefer straight and level lines. It is more balanced, and looks more stable, relaxed, and natural.

On the other hand tilted lines tend to add dynamic tension and convey a sense of drama. That can be useful in some cases, but as a general rule it is not what you will want for every video.

In some cases you may not even notice that a video isn’t level, and it may just feel a little bit off when you watch it. That is the strength of the impact it can have, and is why you should make the effort to keep your own video content level.

How to Fix Tilted Videos

If your video is tilted there are ways that you can fix it, and there are two tools in particular that you’ll require: Rotate, and crop.

Before you start to use either tool however, the first thing that you need to do is find a visual guide that you can use to level the video. If the horizon is present in the video then it is a good place to start, but if not you will need to look for another strong line.

If there is some other line that extends horizontally across the video, then you could use that as a visual guide. However in some videos there may not be a clear horizontal line, in which case you draw an imaginary line between other elements and align the video off it.

Once you’ve decided on a line to use as a visual guide, you can use the rotate tool to straighten the video. All you need to do is make sure the line that you chose is straight, and the rest of the video should look level as well.

If you’re satisfied you can then crop the video so that is frame is right.

Conclusion

All in all it really isn’t that difficult to straighten a video in this fashion. If you want to get started you can look into ways to rotate your video. For example you may want to try the rotate video web app.

Arguably the most difficult part may be trying to figure out which line to use as a visual guide when you align your video. In some cases you may even want to try several different lines and see how each one influences the overall composition.

With time and experience that part will become easier however – which is why the best thing for you to do is get started.