'Impact' is the best vertical video we've seen this year
You'll want to watch this slow-motion cliff dive.
I normally hate vertical videos. Why shoot with an upright phone when so many people will watch the finished article on their laptop, TV or PC monitor? After pressing play on a YouTube or Facebook clip, I don't want to see a tiny slither with swathes of black on either side. Slowly, however, I'm starting to appreciate the portrait format. Periscope and Snapchat use vertical video to great effect, and now there's the short movie Impact by French director Jean-Charles Granjon. It's a beautiful snapshot which uses the inherent shape of a vertical video to better express its subject matter: Lionel Franc, a world champion cliff diver plunging into the ocean.
The video is only three minutes long, but each precious second is a feast for the eyes. The cinematography is top-notch, with some buttery-smooth slow-motion shots and a deliciously shallow depth of field. The delicate music in the background is also a treat, emphasising the feeling of quiet awe that washes over you during a truly exhilarating moment. The video's creator, Bluearth Production, says it was shot using two Phantom Flex 4K cameras -- one positioned at the top of the cliff, the other underwater, with both recording at a glorious 4K and 1,000 frames per second.
