- Hey guys, my name is Matt Johnson,
and today I wanted to share with you how to edit,
export, and upload high-quality vertical videos
for Instagram TV using Adobe Premiere Pro.
So let's jump right into Premiere.
Incidentally, before we get started here,
I have created a sequence preset
as well as an export settings preset,
which you can download for free if you sign up
for my email newsletter at the link down in the description.
That should save you a ton
of time if you don't wanna listen to me rant
and ramble through this entire tutorial about Instagram.
Back to Premiere, first we need to create a video sequence
that matches up with histogram's vertical video resolution,
and whenever Instagram TV was launched,
there was a ton of hype leading up to it.
People were like, Instagram's gonna be HD.
It might even be 4k, it was crazy.
Everybody was super hyped.
I'm sorry to say that all of those rumors were false,
because Instagram is actually not HD resolution.
Any video that you upload to Instagram,
regardless of the resolution,
if you download it after uploading to check the resolution
that Instagram is playing it back at,
it is currently 640 by 1136.
Not HD.
Not even 720p HD.
The good news is that with IGTV,
Instagram has made major changes to the compression quality
of their videos, meaning that you're gonna
see much less artifacts
and muddiness and weirdness
with IGTV videos versus traditional
Instagram profile videos.
So things are moving in the right direction,
but what does all this mean?
Should you be taking all of your 1080p
and 4k video clips and downscaling them
to 640 by 1136 before unloading them to Instagram?
No.
You shouldn't be.
What I've found is that
Instagram doesn't care very much about
what resolution a video that you are uploading.
It can handle a variety of resolutions pretty well.
What does matter is the bitrate of your video,
which we will talk about in just a little bit.
We also need to talk about video length.
The minimum video length for an IGTV video is 15 seconds,
and the maximum video length is one of two options.
If you have less than 10,000 Instagram followers,
your IGTV video lengths are gonna be limited
to what Instagram claims is 10 minutes,
but in my testing, it's
actually nine minutes and 59 seconds.
If you try to upload an exactly 10 minute video clip,
it's gonna say it's too long,
so make sure you are saving an extra second there.
Alternatively, if you
have more than 10,000 Instagram followers,
then you're gonna be able to upload video clips up
to what Instagram says is one hour in length,
which, as I said earlier,
is actually 59 minutes and 59 seconds,
because that extra second can really mess things up.
But if your hour-long video is coming down
to one extra second, then you might need
to reconsider how you're editing your videos, just saying.
So in summary, the resolution
that I recommend that you use in Premiere
for Instagram TV is 1080 by 1920,
and we're gonna set up a sequence for that right now.
First, here in Premiere,
I want you to press Ctrl + N
or Command + N if you're on a Mac,
and that's gonna open up the new sequence dialog box.
Then I want you to go up here to digital SLR,
1080p, DSLR 1080p24.
Next, we're gonna go up here to settings
and we're gonna make one change to this preset.
For a frame size, we're gonna change the frame size
from 1920 horizontal to 1080 horizontal,
and for vertical, we're gonna change it to 1920 vertical.
The rest of this can all stay the same.
Because my video footage is currently 23.976, you can see
that the clips I'm gonna using
are also 23.976, so this sequence matches up
with my video footage.
Lastly, I recommend that you save your presets,
so you can go back and use again in the future.
So select Save Preset,
and let's call this IGTV Vertical 1080 by 1920 23.976.
That way, I can remember all of the settings
that I need for this video.
Let's hit OK.
Here in the sequence presets under custom,
you can see the preset that we've created.
So let's now name this sequence IGTV Vertical Tutorial,
yeah, that's a good name.
Hit OK, and that's gonna create our new sequence.
Let's start here with this mavicpor video clip
that I've rendered here to be 1080 by 1920.
I'm gonna select it and drag it down here to the timeline,
and as you can see, because the clip already matches up
with the resolution and frame rate of my sequence,
it matches perfectly.
And this video clip is a good example if
you are say filming videos with your phone
in portrait mode for example.
They're already gonna be in this orientation,
so the only work that you're really gonna need
to do is potentially if you're filming
at a higher resolution,
you may need to scale up or scale down your video clip.
And you can do that by going up here
to effect controls with the clip selected,
and you can go here to scale
and adjust the scaling of your video clip.
Editing vertical video clips for IGTV is pretty easy,
but what if you had a horizontal video clip.
Let's go over here to this Phantom four clip
that I shot in isolated horizontal
and drag it down here to the timeline.
And what you're gonna notice
is that's got some crazy black bars on the top and bottom.
To remove these black bars,
we need to select the video clip
and go up to effect controls,
and you can see under scale,
it's currently auto set
to 28.1, so we're gonna start dragging this up,
and we're gonna bring it up to 89,
that fills up the entire screen properly,
but unfortunately, has majorly cut off
the sides of our video.
The good news is that if you need to adjust this framing
so that it fits better,
you can go up here to the position
and you can select this 540 here
and drag it left and right
and you can see you can adjust
the framing of your shot.
So I think about right here,
actually put in this couple on the right side a little bit,
looks a little better.
Now, you're telling me,
Matt, I know that I should unhorizontal,
but I want my whole video to be visible.
Is there any way that I can possibly do
that without having to shrink the video down
and have crazy black bars on the top and bottom?
Well, I do have one other option for you.
I'm gonna set this clip back to the way it was,
so 540 by 960, at 28.1 scale,
and then I'm gonna go down here to rotation,
and I'm gonna change the rotation to 90 degrees,
which, as you can see, hey, that flips the video.
Cool.
Now let's go over here to scale,
and let's start dragging up the scale,
and look at that, if you turn your head to the side,
it's filling everything up properly.
The pro of doing things this way is yes,
your video's gonna fill the entire screen.
The con is that if people
are watching your video vertically,
they're gonna have to turn their phone sideways,
and studies have shown that people are lazy
and don't enjoy doing that.
So there is a greater chance
that people are going to skip over your video.
Also, the video controls
are still gonna be on the right side,
it's not super intuitive,
because Instagram is really wanting you
to make things vertical.
The last thing that you need to know about the resolution
of IGTV video clips is
that it appears that Instagram TV can cut off 5 to 10%
of the edges of the video clip depending on what screen
you're watching it on.
My recommendation to you
is that if you have any text
or other important video information,
do not put it right up against the edge
of your video screen,
because there is a greater chance
that it could be cut off depending on
what screen it's being watched on.
It is now time to export this video,
and for it there for being 30 seconds
of darkness at the beginning of the video,
I'm gonna go here to the very beginning of the first clip
and I'm gonna press i to set my in-point.
And I'm gonna go here to the very ending of the last clip,
and I'm gonna press o to set my out-point.
Next, I'm gonna press Ctrl + M
or Command + M if you're on a Mac,
and that's gonna bring up the export settings dialog box.
Moving down to the settings here,
for format, you're gonna wanna select H.264, and for preset,
I'm gonna select Match Source - High Bitrate.
You can select that or really any other preset,
it does not matter, because
we are gonna be customizing
the preset completely down below.
So for now, I'm gonna select Match Source - High Bitrate.
For output name, this is very important
because this is where your video is going to be saved.
I've had a lot of people commenting saying,
Matt, where's my video saved?
I don't know where it went.
You need to select where you want it to be outputted.
So we're gonna click on this title here,
and this opens up the folder
where I have all of my project files.
I'm gonna select New folder,
and I'm gonna name it Renders, go into that folder.
And then, I'm going to name
this IGTV Vertical Tutorial, and hit Save.
Next, make sure export video and export audio is checked,
so you are actually exporting both of those.
And let's go down here to the video tab.
Under basic video settings,
you're gonna wanna make sure that your width is set to 1080
and your height is set to 1920, just
like our sequence settings.
If these numbers are not correct,
you can go over here to select this checkbox,
and then change the numbers accordingly.
And if your numbers are changing strangely,
make sure there's a little slash
through this chain-link icon here.
All the rest of these settings are correct
and match up with my video clip settings.
If your video clip settings are different,
you need to change them,
you can always press the checkbox here to do that.
Also make sure that Render at Maximum Depth is checked,
that will increase your video quality.
Under encoding settings here,
I recommend unchecking this box
and changing the profile from main to high.
And then for the level, leaving it at 4.1.
Next, let's scroll down here some to Bitrate Settings,
arguably the most important part
of this entire tutorial is the bitrate,
because that is what is gonna affect the quality
of your video the most.
Setting a higher bitrate can mean
a higher quality video file,
but it can also result in a much larger video file size.
So let's go to Instagram's own help page
to determine the maximum file size
that we can use for a video.
Here on Instagram's own help page,
under what are the video upload requirements for IGTV,
you can see this section right here.
The maximum file size for videos
that are 10 minutes or less is 650 megabytes.
The maximum file size for videos up
to 60 minutes is 5.4 gigabytes.
That is a lie, because,
let's go over here to my Instagram profile page.
You can follow me if you want to.
And I'm gonna go here to the IGTV tab,
and I'm gonna click Upload,
and you can see here are the video upload instructions.
Your video must be vertical,
between 15 seconds and 60 minutes long,
an MP4 file and less than 3.6 gigabytes.
Instagram over here in the help page
was telling me less than 5.4 gigabytes.
Why is this telling me 3.6?
Well, if you try to upload a video clip
that is 5.4 gigabytes, it does not work.
Instagram will tell you that the video file is too big.
So you need to use a video file
that's less than 3.6 gigabytes if
you want it to upload properly.
And 3.6 gigabytes is kind of weird too,
because until I start uploading video clips,
there were about 3.4 gigabytes.
They did not want to upload properly to IGTV.
It was telling me they were too big.
So keep that in mind.
If you have a longer video clip,
make sure that it is less then 3.4 gigabytes if you
have the ability to upload up
to a 60 minute long video clip.
Incidentally, you're telling me,
okay, Matt, that doesn't matter.
I don't even have 10,000 followers,
but what about this here?
The maximum file size for videos
that are 10 minutes or less is 650 megabytes.
Next you're gonna be telling me that's a lie too.
Well, it is.
I am sorry.
Because, here is another Instagram account that I created
that has less than 10,000 followers
and here are the instructions.
Your video must be vertical,
between 15 seconds and 10 minutes long,
an MP4 file, and less than 3.6 gigabytes.
There is no 650 megabyte limit if you don't
have at least 10,000 followers.
Does not exist, do not trust help article.
As long as your video is approximately 3.4 gigabytes
or less, you'll be fine.
Back to Premiere and to your bitrate settings.
Under Bitrate Encoding,
you're gonna change it to CBR,
which stands for constant bitrate.
This means that Premiere will be applying less compression
to the video which means
that whenever it is unloaded to IGTV,
it should have less artifacts
and other weirdness whenever it is compressed.
For your Target Bitrate,
you're gonna set it to 7.5 megabits per second,
which, in all of my testing,
I've found that to be high enough to prevent artifacts
or other weirdness in my IGTV video clips,
but also low enough that even if
I'm uploading a 60 minute long video to IGTV,
it will be under the 3.4 gigabyte max file size.
Keep in mind this bitrate may need some tweaking.
If you're noticing that your video
isn't quite as sharp as you would
like it to be, or it has some artifacts,
feel free to increase it to 10 megabits per second,
even 20 if you need to
to see if your video quality improves.
Also, if your video is getting close
to the one hour long maximum length,
you may run into issues
where the file size is getting a little bit too large.
So you may have to drop your bitrate down
to seven megabits per second,
maybe 6.5 even, to make sure
that it fits into that 3.4 gigabyte max file size.
Lastly, go down here and make sure
that Use Maximum Render Quality is checked because
that can improve the quality of your video.
Next, let's go up here to audio,
and if your video has audio,
you're gonna want to use these settings.
I use AAC, with a sample rate of 48,000 hertz,
my channel set to stereo,
audio quality set to high, of course.
And a bitrate of 320 kilobits per second
with the precedence for bitrate.
Last thing you need to do
is save these export settings as a preset,
so you do not need to go through
and type them in every single time
that you are exporting a video.
So under preset here,
we're gonna go here and select this little down arrow
that says Save Preset,
and let's name this IGTV Vertical 1080x1920
23.976 7.5mbps CBR.
And let's hit OK.
Now, if you need to export this video in the future,
you can select H.264,
and then select your present from the drop-down,
and save yourself from having to go through
and type all this in.
It is now time finally to export this video,
and you can either export it by clicking Export here,
which will export it directly in Adobe Premiere,
or I prefer to do it,
I prefer to select Queue,
which is going to open up Adobe Media Encoder.
Then, I can go up here and press this green play
button to begin rendering my video,
and I can even minimize Media Encoder,
and continue editing videos
in Premiere while my video renders in the background.
Now that my video's done rendering,
it is time to upload it to IGTV.
So I'm gonna select this output file right here,
and that is gonna open up the folder
that has my video clip in it.
Next, you're gonna open up your web browser,
now to get to your Instagram profile page and log in.
Then here under the IGTV tab, you're going to click Upload.
Next, you're gonna go down here to your folder
that has your video file that you opened,
and you're gonna drag it
to the drag-and-drop video file section
where it'll begin to upload to IGTV.
Lastly, you need to upload a cover photo
for your IGTV video,
and this is very important,
because once you set this cover photo,
you cannot go and change it afterwards,
so make sure that you do it right.
Strange enough, whenever I try to uploading a cover photo
that was 1080 by 1920, I found
that IGTV was cropping off the edges of it,
so what I recommend doing is opening up Photoshop,
and making a new project with the width of 640
and a height of 1136.
Title that, and hit Create.
This resolution should result in a cover photo
that is cropped off on the edges.
And here is one that I whipped up.
We're gonna export this photo,
and I'm gonna navigate back over here
to my IGTV cover page and click Edit.
Here's my exported cover photo,
I'm gonna select it and click Open, and there it is.
Not cropped, looking good,
and this post is now ready to be published.
I don't want to actually post this to my IGTV page though,
I feel like, my followers would be like, what is this video?
He's doing pretty drunk shots?
What's going on?
So I'm just gonna click Save here,
and there's my video in Drafts.
I can click it, click Edit,
and whenever I'm ready, I can click Post.
Congratulations.
Your video is now live on IGTV,
and available in the highest quality possible.
Thank you so much for watching.
I hope this video has been helpful to you
and given you some great insight into
how to work through the whole IGTV process.
As always, if you have any questions or comments,
please feel free to leave one below
or get in touch with me through my website, whoismatt.com.
I also have a ton of other videos all about export settings,
so if you want to know
how to export to regular Instagram video profile pages,
which is different than this,
or if you wanna know how to upload to YouTube or Facebook,
or Vimeo, I will link to
that video player step in the corner,
and down in the description for you to check out.
It is also a massive, whoo,
probably 3.4 roughly gigabyte file sized helped me
if you would consider liking this video
and subscribing if you want to see more videos
like this in the future.
I also have a ton of links down in the description
of this video, to my Instagram page,
which has videos like this,
to my Facebook page, where I post news and updates,
to one-on-one consulting with me, and a lot of other stuff,
so if you wanna check that out,
that's down in the description,
thank you so much for watching, and have a great day.