Built for YouTube uploads
One take. The video and the Short.
The main channel wants 16:9 and length. Shorts wants 9:16 and sixty seconds. Because the aspect is a render setting rather than a recording setting, you get both from one session — and the Short is a real vertical layout, not a crop of the widescreen edit.
Every account starts with a 7-day full-Pro trial. No card required. Two-hour sessions, guests and the project files are included for the whole trial.
- Main channel1920 × 1080
- Shorts1080 × 1920
- FromOne take
- Source uploadUp to 4K on Pro
One take, many cutsFour YouTube-shaped chores
The parts of a reaction upload that have nothing to do with reacting
- 01
Crop the finished widescreen edit into a vertical Short.
Render a real 9:16 layout from the same session, with its own geometry.
How the layouts re-flow → - 02
Record the long version and the Short separately.
One take, two aspects, no second performance.
See the workflow → - 03
Upload, then find out from the copyright tab what happened.
Know what Content ID does before you publish, and edit accordingly.
The Content ID briefing → - 04
One flattened file, so a re-cut means a re-record.
Keep the clean tracks and an aligned timeline for the editor you use.
What you can export →
Two surfaces, one performance
What the main channel needs, and what Shorts needs
These are genuinely different videos with different pacing rules. What they should not be is two different recordings of the same reaction.
The main-channel upload
- Runtime usually lands at 1.5–2× the source once your commentary is in.
- Green Room if you are the draw; Corner Pocket if the clip is.
- Your pause points are, almost always, your chapter marks.
- Take the ISO tracks if there is any chance of a re-cut later.
The long version is where the commentary earns the watch time.
The Short
- Under sixty seconds, and the first three decide whether anyone sees the fourth.
- Rendered as a vertical layout, not cropped out of the widescreen edit.
- Burned-in captions, because Shorts autoplays muted.
- Keep your face clear of the title strip at the top of the frame.
A Short cut from a long reaction works best when it stands alone.
Both, from the same session
- Aspect is a render setting, so nothing about the take changes between them.
- The layout can differ per aspect — vertical and widescreen have separate geometry.
- Re-render either one later without touching the recording.
- Sessions run to two hours on Pro, which covers a full watch-along.
The reason to record once: the second video costs a render, not an evening.
The part most tools skip
What Content ID actually does to a reaction upload
This is the question every reaction creator has and almost no software company answers, usually because the honest answer is inconvenient. So here it is, plainly.
It is a matching system, not a judgement
Content ID fingerprints your upload against a reference database and applies whatever the rights holder configured — a monetisation claim, a territorial block, or nothing at all. It runs before a human considers your commentary, and it can act regardless of how transformative that commentary is.
Fair use is a real defence, and a separate question
Commentary and criticism are genuine defences, and courts have found transformative reaction content protected. But that is decided case by case, after the fact, and a private matching system never reaches the question. Reaction content is not automatically fair use.
What actually reduces the risk
Commentary that is the point of the video rather than a garnish. Short unbroken stretches of the source instead of long ones. Pausing to talk, which is both better content and less continuous source. And checking the copyright tab in Studio before you publish rather than after.
Where OverReact stops
It never downloads a video from YouTube on your behalf. You bring a file you have, or you start a capture yourself through the browser's own permission prompt. Rights clearance is not something a recorder can do for you, and any tool implying otherwise is selling you a problem.
None of this is legal advice, and none of it is a guarantee. It is the working understanding most upload-every-week creators arrive at, written down instead of implied.
Before you hit publish
Six things worth checking on a reaction upload
Most of these take under a minute and every one of them is annoying to fix once the video is live and the first hour of impressions is gone.
- Final Cut Pro
- DaVinci Resolve
- Premiere Pro
- 16:9
- 9:16
- FCPXML
- EDL
- OTIO
- SRT
Those are the formats we generate and test — there is no CapCut project file, because CapCut imports none of them. If CapCut is where you finish, the two-clean-tracks route is the honest way to do it.
- Resolution1080p on every paid plan; on Pro it is composited from your original 4K upload rather than a proxy
- Captionsburned in for Shorts, SRT sidecar for the long upload
- Chaptersyour pause points, added in the description
- Copyright tabcheck it in Studio before you publish, not after
- ISO trackskeep them if a re-cut is even slightly possible
- Project fileFCPXML, EDL or OTIO for Final Cut, Resolve or Premiere
Editor handoffFor the long upload, the edit starts where the sync would normally begin.
YouTube questions
The ones that decide whether you publish
For the vertical side of this in more detail, see the 9:16 layout guide.
Will my reaction video get claimed on YouTube?
Possibly, and no recording tool can prevent it. Content ID matches audio and video by fingerprint before a human ever considers your commentary. Substantial commentary, short unbroken stretches of the source and checking the copyright tab before you publish all help. Music is the most likely thing to be claimed.
Does reaction content count as fair use?
Sometimes, not automatically. Commentary and criticism are real defences and courts have found transformative reaction content protected, but that is a case-by-case judgement. A Content ID claim never reaches that question at all — it is a private matching system operating on its own terms, and it can act regardless.
Can I make a Short from the same recording?
Yes. Render 16:9 for the main upload and 9:16 for the Short from the same session. The vertical version uses its own layout geometry rather than being a crop of the widescreen edit, so your face and the source land where you put them.
What resolution should I upload?
1080p, and that is what every paid plan renders: 1920 × 1080 for the main channel and 1080 × 1920 for the Short. Recording a 4K source still earns its file size on Pro, because the composite is built from that original upload rather than from a downscaled proxy — a 4K camera and a clean source give you a better 1080p file. You are told what a take will render at before you record, not after.
Can I get chapters out of my pauses?
Not automatically, but the pause points in a take usually are the chapters, because they are the moments you stopped to say something. The project file carries the timeline into your editor, where marking them takes a minute.
Does the app download the YouTube video I am reacting to?
No. A session starts from a file you already have, or from a browser tab capture you begin and approve yourself in your browser's own permission prompt. Note that tab capture cannot carry source audio in Safari or most mobile browsers — upload the file when the sound matters.
Record this week's upload
Record it once. Publish the video and the Short.
Start a session, react to something you were going to watch anyway, and render both aspects before you decide which one goes up first. On Free, recordings and exports are permanently deleted 24 hours after they are created. Download them before then, or upgrade to keep them.
Every account starts with a 7-day full-Pro trial. No card required. 14-day refund on your first charge. Cancel any time.
Not recording today?
Leave an address and we will tell you when a layout, an export format or a browser gets added. No drip sequence, no “our journey” newsletter.