Is it cheaper to make Shorts from long videos or shoot them separately?

The biggest cost in video is rarely the edit. It is the time to plan, set up, record and redo, plus any travel, location or presenter fees. A long-form video already carries that cost, and a twenty-minute recording usually contains several moments that stand alone as Shorts: a strong opinion, a quick tip, a reveal. Cutting them out, reframing to vertical, rewriting the opening and adding captions is editing work only, which is why repurposing is the cheapest route to a steady supply of Shorts.

Repurposing has limits. Footage shot horizontally loses its edges when cropped to vertical, so anything important at the sides of the frame disappears, and screen recordings become unreadable. Some ideas only work as vertical-first content: a trend format, a quick reaction, a product shown close to the phone. If you film long-form with Shorts in mind, by keeping yourself centred in the frame and recording a few vertical clips at the end of each session, more of the footage becomes usable.

Separate Shorts shoots make sense when you have no long-form content, when the Shorts are the main product, or when you want a batch of trend-led content. Batching helps: one afternoon filming fifteen short ideas in one location costs far less per Short than fifteen separate setups. In our Starter package, Shorts are edited from footage you send; filming days, if you need us at a location, are quoted separately because the cost depends on travel and time.