Portrait video import to AE

[Con-ex]

Hi. I am trying to import a portrait video 1920 x 1080. When I import it, it is loaded into the Project panel which is landscape which I can't change. This process cuts off the top of my video. Even if I resize the composition to 1920 x 1080, when I drag the video from the Project panel, my video remain in landscape format with the top of the video cut. Resizing the video here just distorts. Any ideas?

[Mylenium]

Sounds more like the footage has a wrong orientation metadata tag which the programs are misinterpreting, meaning the vertical orientation is not genuinely baked into the video, but rather just applied on playback. Does it open correctly in other programs like VLC? Have you considered converting it e.g. in Handbrake? Even a quick transcode there would fix the issue most likely.

Mylenium

[Con-ex]

This was the problem, handbrake is a really useful open source tool! Thanks 

[Rick Gerard]

Is the footage thumbnail cropped in the preview in the Project panel? What are the properties that are showing to the right of the thumbnail?

Double click the footage in the Project Panel and see if it is cropped when you view it in the Footage panel. If it is, then there is something fouled up in the metadata. If you see the entire frame, scaling the footage in the Timeline should fix the cropping problem in the Comp Panel. 

Let us know. Embedding a screenshot that shows the entire UI with the problem footage selected in the Project panel and the properties of the problem layer showing in the Timeline would help us help you.

* The "Drag & Drop here..." area is buggy and should not be used to share images. Please use the toolbar or drag your images to the reply field.

[Con-ex]

Thanks Rick. It was the meta data. I'm pretty sure the root cause was the footage bring captured on the iphone 13 cinematic mode. It's not compatable with much and needs convertion before use in other software. This conversion process must have been flawed. Handbrake sorted it.