Publishing: formats, subtitles and credits

The video is ready. What's left is the part people usually rush through, and yet it decides whether it gets watched, and whether it lands you in trouble.

Generate in the destination format

Cropping a horizontal shot to vertical cuts half the composition, and often the subject's head. Decide on the format before generating: vertical for phone feeds, square for standard posts, horizontal for a web page or a long video.

If the same video needs to exist in two formats, it's better to generate two sets of shots than to crop one. It may seem costly, but it's less so than a video that works in neither.

Subtitles are not optional

A large share of videos are watched without sound, especially on phones in public places. Without subtitles, your sequence loses its point for a good half of the people who start it. Automatic transcription does the heavy lifting in seconds; what's left is proofreading proper nouns, which it almost always gets wrong.

Two readability rules: a maximum of two lines on screen, and a dark background or outline behind the text, otherwise it disappears on bright shots.

Saying it's generated

Transparency about AI-generated or manipulated content is a legal requirement in Europe, particularly when content could be mistaken for real footage. Platforms also have their own checkboxes at upload time, and they add their own label.

Don't rely on a date read in a course, this one included. The implementation timeline is staggered and the texts are still coming out. What's stable is the principle: if a viewer could believe they're watching a genuinely filmed scene, you have to tell them. For precise deadlines, check an official source.

Real people: the line not to cross

Showing an existing person, or cloning their voice, without their written consent is prohibited. This isn't a grey area, and the person's fame changes nothing, quite the opposite. An obvious parody, clearly identifiable as such, benefits from narrow tolerance; anything that could pass as authentic does not.

The same reasoning applies to brands, logos and recognisable settings.

What's left to do before publishing

• Watch the video without sound, once, in full.
• Watch it on a phone, not on the screen where you edited it.
• Check that no generated text lingers in any shot.
• Tick the platform's "AI-generated content" box.

Do this right now: open the last video you published anywhere and watch it on your phone, sound off. You'll see what half your audience sees.