It’s been a mystery until now but I’m teaching you how to hack the system and create a square video in iMovie.

How to make a square video in iMovie

Fun fact: Square and vertical videos have a better viewing and retention rate on Facebook. Why? Because when someone is scrolling the ol’ ‘book on their phones, a square video takes up way more “real estate” on the screen than a horizontal video does (and the same with vertical, of course). Think about it, have you ever been scrolling and saw a video – which catches your eye more, the one that’s smaller and horizontal or a bigger, square video?

The problem is, so many of you are editing your movies in iMovie or another budget-friendly software and they just don’t have the capabilities to edit your movie into a square natively – BUT – y’all know I love a good hack. So, here goes.

If you’d rather watch this post than read it, here’s your chance.

1. 1. Edit your movie like normal in iMovie. Keep in mind that if you’re converting the entire video into a square (as in, there’ll be no blank space at the top or the bottom of the square, it’ll all be covered by your movie), you’ll need to make sure nothing will be cut off when we turn it into a square (refer to the video for more info on what I mean here).

• Export your movie from iMovie.

• Open KEYNOTE.

• Drag your movie file onto a blank page in a keynote presentation.

• Go to the top right-hand corner and click on the “document” section and adjust the size to the square dimensions you want.

• Now, adjust your video and get it like you want it to look.
• Export to a “quicktime” file.

If you need clarification on anything I mentioned, be sure to refer to the video.

Also, keep in mind that I’m talking about iMovie and Keynote which are Mac-specific but you CAN do this same process with PC-based software.

How easy is that?!? Now, you can share square videos on your Facebook page or Instagram or WHEREVER you want to share them!