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If you've ever commissioned a video and then been told it can't be repurposed for Instagram Reels, or that cropping it for TikTok will ruin the composition — open gate shooting is the solution you didn't know to ask for.

It's a technical decision made before a single frame is shot. And increasingly, it's one of the most commercially important choices a production company can make on your behalf.

So What Actually Is Open Gate?

Every camera has a sensor — the digital equivalent of film. Most cameras don't use the entire sensor when recording. They crop into a portion of it to achieve a specific aspect ratio, typically 16:9 (the standard widescreen format you see on YouTube and TV).

Open gate shooting uses the full sensor area, capturing everything the camera sees with no crop. Depending on the camera, this produces an image that's closer to square — roughly 4:3 or 3:2 — with significantly more visual information above and below the traditional widescreen frame.

That extra information is what makes it so valuable.

Why Does It Exist?

Open gate modes were originally developed for high-end cinema cameras to give directors of photography maximum creative control in post-production. If you shoot open gate, an editor can reframe the shot, adjust the composition, or extract a completely different crop — all without any loss of quality.

It became a standard tool in film production because it gives filmmakers flexibility to fix problems and make creative adjustments after the shoot, when it's too late to go back and reshoot.

The same logic now applies directly to brand video content.

Why Is It Becoming More Popular for Brand Video?

The answer is simple: the platforms your audience uses all want different formats.

If your video is shot in standard 16:9, cropping it to 9:16 for TikTok or Instagram Reels almost always cuts off heads, loses important visual elements, or simply looks wrong. You end up with content that doesn't perform because it wasn't designed for the platform.

Open gate footage solves this entirely. Because the full sensor has been used, there's enough visual information to export the same piece of content in every format — without compromising composition or quality.

One shoot. One set of interviews. One day of filming. Delivered as a 3-minute brand film for your website, a 30-second cut for YouTube pre-roll, a vertical 15-second story for Instagram, and a square edit for LinkedIn. All from the same footage.

What Does This Mean for Your Business?

If you're investing in video production, open gate shooting directly affects the return on that investment.

Traditional production thinking was: shoot for one primary output, then adapt everything else around it. The problem is that adaptation always involves compromise — cropping that cuts content, aspect ratios that don't fit, or platform edits that feel like afterthoughts.

Open gate thinking flips this. You plan for all outputs from the start, shoot with the full sensor, and deliver content that was genuinely designed for each platform — not retrofitted to it.

For businesses producing regular video content — whether that's quarterly brand films, product launches, event coverage or social campaigns — this approach means your content works harder across every channel without requiring additional shoot days.

What to Ask Your Production Company

Not every camera supports open gate modes, and not every production company shoots this way by default. Before your next video project, it's worth asking:

A good production company will already be thinking about this. If they're not, it's worth finding one that is.

At London Creative, open gate and multi-format delivery is a standard part of how we approach every project. Because content that only works on one platform isn't working hard enough for your business.

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