Shotcut tutorial · companion page
There is no crop filter in this tutorial. The square comes from a saved video mode — 1080 x 1080 at 1 : 1 — and the picture is made to cover it by one Rotate and Scale filter dialled up to 177.1 %. That number is the whole trick: it is 16 ÷ 9, the exact amount a 16:9 picture has to grow to fill a square frame.
Reading in another language? Use the translate picker in the header, or your browser’s own translate command — the Shotcut filter, control and value names are marked to stay in English so they still match what is on your screen.
Nothing is trimmed, masked or cut away. The frame itself is changed to a square and the picture is then grown until it covers that square, so the parts of the 16:9 shot that fall outside simply stop being rendered.
Settings → Video Mode → Custom → Add… builds a named mode — 1080 x 1080, 1 : 1 — and every clip added afterwards is composed against it. Because it is saved with a name it stays in the Custom menu for every future project, which is the whole reason to name it rather than leave the field blank.
Drop a 16:9 clip into a square project and it sizes itself to the width, leaving black bands top and bottom. That is the expected state at this point, not an error. One filter closes them.
Rotate and Scale is taken to 177.1 %. A 16:9 picture fitted to the width of a square is 9/16 of the frame tall, so covering it takes a scale of 16 ÷ 9 = 177.78 %. Ben reaches it by dragging; typing 177.8 gets you there exactly. A 4:3 source would need 133.3 %.
X offset and Y offset stay at 0 for the whole video, so the square is taken from the middle of the frame. If your subject sits left or right of centre, those two fields are where you would move it — but this tutorial never demonstrates that, and it ends before any export.
[ Change the SCALE to fit the screen ]
the only instruction in the video · burned into the picture at 1:07, never spoken
This video carries no chapter list. The ten sections below were derived here by reading the frames, and the titles are ours, not Ben’s. Each timestamp is a moment when the state in its screencap is on screen. Click any screencap or timestamp to play from there right in the card.
0:00 · the tutorial opens on the New Project screen with Video mode reading HD 1080p 23.98 fps — the mode that produces the rectangle the title is about to get rid of. The window title bar reads Untitled - Shotcut. This is Shotcut V20.02.17, stated in the video description; the build never opens Help → About Shotcut on camera.
0:10 · the square is a project property, so the first move is the Settings menu, not the Filters panel. The Video Mode submenu is the standard ladder — Automatic, the HD entries, SD NTSC and SD PAL, the UHD entries, then Non-Broadcast and Custom. The dot sits beside HD 1080p 23.98 fps. Nothing on that list is square.
0:17 · Custom opens onto Add… and Remove… above the custom modes already saved on this machine — 1080p 4, 1440, 1440 Lossless, 1440P, 18, 18 to 9 2K, 18-9 1080, 2560 x 1440, 640, 720 30, IGTV and Square. That last entry is the one the video is about to recreate, which makes the list worth a look: a custom mode is built once and then stays in this menu for every future project.
0:20 · Add Custom Video Mode arrives carrying the current mode’s numbers — Resolution 1920 x 1080, Aspect ratio 16 : 9 — so the job is to overwrite them, not to fill in a blank form. Name has been typed as SQUARE. The hint under it reads “Leave Name blank to skip saving a preset and use a temporary or project-specific Video Mode.” Giving it a name is what puts it in the Custom menu for good.
0:30 · Resolution becomes 1080 x 1080 and Aspect ratio becomes 1 : 1. The other three rows are left exactly as the dialog offered them — Frames/sec 23.976024, Scan mode Progressive, Colorspace ITU-R BT.709. Both of the edited rows matter: the resolution makes the canvas square, and the aspect ratio stops Shotcut treating those square pixels as a stretched rectangle.
0:40 · with the mode saved, the source arrives by drag and drop — the Windows drag ghost and its + Copy badge are visible over the Shotcut window. The file is 1920-1080.jpg, a flat green 1920 x 1080 test card with its own dimensions printed across it. That choice is deliberate: a plain rectangle of known size makes the letterbox bands unmistakable in a way real footage would not.
0:50 · the clip sits on V1 under the project-output head, and the player frame is now square. The 16:9 image fits itself to the width and leaves a black band above and below — Shotcut fits, it does not fill. Everything that follows exists to close those two bands.
0:59 · the Filters panel is opened and + brings up the chooser. The tabs are Favorite, Video and Audio and nothing else, and the button row under the filter list has four buttons rather than the later seven. The favourites here include both Rotate and Scale and a separate Size and Position — on this 2020 build those are two different filters. Rotate and Scale is the one chosen.
1:07 · the on-screen caption reads “Change the SCALE to fit the screen”, and that is literally the whole remaining operation. Rotate and Scale offers Preset, Rotation, Scale, X offset, Y offset and Background color. Rotation stays at 0.0 deg, both offsets stay at 0, Preset is never opened and the colour swatch is never clicked. The Scale reading climbs through 105.2 %, 126.3 % and 161.3 % as the value is dragged. The screencap above is from 1:10, three seconds into the caption, with Scale already nudged to 105.2 %.
1:50 · Scale settles at 177.1 % and the green fills the square edge to edge. That number is not a taste call: a 16:9 picture fitted to the width of a square frame is 9/16 of the frame tall, so covering it needs 16 ÷ 9 = 177.78 %. Ben lands one part in six hundred under that by eye. The tutorial ends on this frame — no Export panel is opened and no file is written; everything from about 2:00 onward is the subscribe end card.
Every value below was read off the video’s own pixels. Where the video does not answer a question — export settings, off-centre crops — that is said plainly rather than filled in.
Open Settings → Video Mode → Custom → Add… on an empty project. The Add Custom Video Mode dialog opens holding whatever mode you are currently in, so you are editing numbers rather than typing a form from scratch.
Type a Name — Ben uses SQUARE. The dialog’s own hint says a blank name gives you a throwaway mode that is not saved; a name puts it in the Custom menu permanently, which is what you want if you post to Instagram more than once.
Do this first. Shotcut composes every clip against the project’s video mode, so changing the mode after you have built a timeline re-frames work you have already done.
Overwrite Resolution with 1080 and 1080, then Aspect ratio with 1 and 1. The two are not the same setting: the resolution decides how many pixels the frame is, the aspect ratio decides what shape Shotcut believes those pixels make. Square pixels in a square frame need both.
Frames/sec, Scan mode and Colorspace are left exactly as the dialog offered them. Press OK.
0:30 — the dialog after both edits. Only the two top rows have been touched.
Drag the file onto Shotcut — the video uses drag and drop from the desktop rather than Open File. The clip lands on V1.
The player frame is square now, and the 16:9 picture sits inside it fitted to the width with black above and below. That is Shotcut fitting rather than filling, and it is the normal, expected state at this point — not a mistake.
0:50 — the square canvas with the 16:9 source letterboxed inside it. The clip is 1920-1080.jpg on V1.
With the clip selected open Filters, press +, and pick Rotate and Scale — on this build it is already on the Favorite tab, so no search is needed.
Take care which one you pick. This 2020 build carries a separate Size and Position filter in the same list. Ben takes Rotate and Scale. On a current Shotcut neither name exists — see the note under the settings table.
1:00 — Rotate and Scale freshly applied. Scale is still at 100.0 % and the bands are still there.
Only the Scale field moves. Rotation stays at 0.0 deg and both X offset and Y offset stay at 0 for the entire video.
The value climbs by dragging rather than by typing, so the readings run through untidy numbers — 105.2 % at 1:10, 126.3 % at 1:20, 161.3 % at 1:40 — before settling.
1:40 — Scale 161.3 %. The bands are thinner but still visible; the drag is not finished.
The final reading is 177.1 %. There is nothing arbitrary about roughly that figure: a 16:9 picture fitted to the width of a square frame is 9/16 as tall as the frame, so covering the height needs a scale of 16 ÷ 9, which is 177.78 %.
Dragging to 177.1 % leaves about one pixel of the square uncovered top and bottom on a 1080-pixel frame — invisible against a flat green card, potentially a hairline on real footage. Typing 177.8 straight into the field removes the doubt. The same arithmetic covers any other source: a 4:3 clip into a square needs 133.3 %.
1:50 — Scale 177.1 %. The green reaches every edge of the square frame.
The crop this produces is dead centre. X offset and Y offset are the controls that would slide the visible window left, right, up or down if your subject sat off-centre, and this video never moves either of them — so an off-centre crop is you extending the method, not following it.
The video also stops at the filled frame. No Export panel is opened, no preset is chosen and no file is written, so nothing here tells you what to encode for Instagram. The project is square; the export settings are your own call.
Dialog fields, filter controls and the values they hold. Anything the video never shows is marked as such rather than guessed.
| Setting | Value | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Shotcut version | V20.02.17 | Stated in the video description; the About dialog is never opened on camera |
| Source file | 1920-1080.jpg | A flat green 1920 x 1080 test card with its size printed across it |
| Track layout | V1 only | Timeline; the project-output head above it reads Output |
| Menu path | Settings → Video Mode → Custom → Add… | Main menu bar |
| Custom mode name | SQUARE | Add Custom Video Mode → Name |
| Resolution | 1080 x 1080 | Add Custom Video Mode |
| Aspect ratio | 1 : 1 | Add Custom Video Mode |
| Frames/sec | 23.976024 | Add Custom Video Mode — left at the value the dialog offered |
| Scan mode | Progressive | Add Custom Video Mode — left as offered |
| Colorspace | ITU-R BT.709 | Add Custom Video Mode — left as offered |
| Filter | Rotate and Scale | Filters → + → Favorite tab |
| Preset | never opened | Rotate and Scale |
| Rotation | 0.0 deg | Rotate and Scale — unchanged for the whole video |
| X offset | 0 | Rotate and Scale — unchanged for the whole video |
| Y offset | 0 | Rotate and Scale — unchanged for the whole video |
| Background color | never opened | Rotate and Scale |
| Scale — final | 177.1 % | Rotate and Scale — the only value that is dialled |
The video description states V20.02.17. The About dialog is never opened on camera, so the version is description-sourced rather than read off the pixels — everything else in this table is from the frames.
| Time | Scale | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1:00 | 100.0 % | as applied — bands at full height |
| 1:10 | 105.2 % | first nudge |
| 1:20 | 126.3 % | |
| 1:30 | not legible | the text cursor sits on the middle digit; this frame cannot be read, so no value is claimed for it |
| 1:40 | 161.3 % | bands thinner but still present |
| 1:50 | 177.1 % | final — the green reaches every edge |
Readings taken from frames at ten-second intervals. The value moves continuously between them, so these are samples of a drag, not keyframes — no stopwatch is ever pressed in this video and the filter carries no keyframes at all.
Rotate and Scale was retired. Its replacement is Size, Position & Rotate, whose controls are Size mode, Zoom, Position and Size rather than a single Scale with X offset and Y offset. Those names were read off the pixels on a later tutorial in this series — the whip-pan build, Shotcut 20.09.13 — not guessed here.
The practical difference is that the modern filter has a Size mode setting with a Fill option, which covers the frame without you working out a percentage at all. This 2020 build has no such option, which is why the method here comes down to arithmetic on a Scale field. The arithmetic is still the thing worth keeping: 16 ÷ 9 = 177.78 %.
Two more things that are simply not on this build: the filter chooser has Favorite, Video and Audio tabs and no Sets tab, and the button row under the filter list has four buttons rather than the later seven. Saved filter sets arrive after this video, so nothing here can be stored as one.
There is nothing to transcribe. The tutorial is silent — no voice-over, and no caption track was uploaded with it either. Everything the video says, it says in text burned into the picture, and there are four such moments across the whole two minutes. They are listed below verbatim. Every number on this page therefore comes from reading the frames, which is where it should come from anyway.
“How to Convert a Rectangle Video to a Square”
opening title card, held from 0:00 to 0:05
“Change the SCALE to fit the screen”
burned in over the Filters panel from 1:07 to 1:26 — the only instructional caption in the video
“SUBSCRIBE”
end card — the same word animated in Filipino, Mandarin, Japanese, Indonesian and Hindi alongside the English button
“If this video has inspired you in any way, I’d LOVE for you to SUBSCRIBE NOW. It goes a long way to help my channel!”
end card, beside an Instagram panel reading bentacular and a note that the gear links are in the description
