---
title: "How to add a square crop with Claude (tested prompt and ffmpeg command)"
description: "A wide 16:9 shot is trimmed to the square in its middle, cutting equal strips off the left and right so the bottle stays centered in a 1:1 frame with no bars. Install one skill and ask Claude Code, or run the ffmpeg command we tested yourself."
url: https://www.recharm.com/effects/square-crop
---

# How to add a square crop with Claude

A wide 16:9 shot is trimmed to the square in its middle, cutting equal strips off the left and right so the bottle stays centered in a 1:1 frame with no bars.

Made by the command on this page, from our own test clip.

## Get this effect

1. ### Switch to Code in your [Claude Desktop App](https://claude.com/download)

2. ### Install the skill (once)

   ```
   Install the Recharm video effects skill: download https://recharm-growth-staging.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/website/downloads/recharm-video-effects.zip and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills
   ```

3. ### Ask for the effect

   ```
   Add a square crop to input.mp4
   Output width and height in pixels: 1080
   Where the square sits along the long side: 0 is the left (or top) edge, 0.5 the middle, 1 the right (or bottom) edge: 0.5
   ```

## Several videos, several effects, one ask

Put your clips in the folder, mention them with @, and ask for everything at once. Claude runs one tested script after another on each clip, then joins them.

Add a square crop to **@clip1.mp4**, put a sale badge on **@clip2.mp4**, give **@clip3.mp4** a VHS look, then join all three with crossfades.

## Settings you can change

Ask Claude to change any of these, or edit them at the top of the command.

| Setting  | Default | What it does                                                                                                          |
| -------- | ------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `SIZE`   | `1080`  | Output width and height in pixels.                                                                                    |
| `CENTER` | `0.5`   | Where the square sits along the long side: 0 is the left (or top) edge, 0.5 the middle, 1 the right (or bottom) edge. |

## Without the skill

Don’t want to install the skill? Paste this prompt into Claude Code and Claude writes the command itself.

```
Turn the 16:9 clip input.mp4 into a 1080x1080 square video by cropping, not padding: take a full-height square from the middle of the frame (540x540 for a 960x540 clip, so 210 pixels come off the left and 210 off the right), and scale it up to 1080x1080. No black bars and no blurred background. Keep the 6-second length, 30fps and the audio. Use ffmpeg and save it as output.mp4.
```

## Run it without Claude

This is the exact command we tested. Save it as `square-crop.sh` and run:

```
sh square-crop.sh input.mp4 output.mp4
```

```
#!/bin/sh
# Square crop: cut a 1:1 square out of a wide or tall clip around its center and scale it to 1080x1080.
# Usage: sh square-crop.sh input.mp4 output.mp4
set -e
IN="$1"; OUT="$2"
SIZE=1080     # output width and height in pixels
CENTER=0.5    # where the square sits along the long side (0 = left/top edge, 1 = right/bottom edge)

ffmpeg -y -i "$IN" -vf "\
crop=trunc(min(iw\,ih)/2)*2:trunc(min(iw\,ih)/2)*2:(iw-trunc(min(iw\,ih)/2)*2)*$CENTER:(ih-trunc(min(iw\,ih)/2)*2)*$CENTER,\
scale=$SIZE:$SIZE:flags=lanczos,setsar=1,fps=30,format=yuv420p" \
  -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -c:a copy "$OUT"
```

## More layouts and reframing

- [Background replacement **Background replacement**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/background-replacement)
- [Binocular view **Binocular view**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/binocular-view)
- [Blur region **Blur region**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/blur-region)
- [Cinematic bars **Cinematic bars**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/cinematic-bars)
- [Comic panel layout **Comic panel layout**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/comic-panel-layout)

## Find 3x _winning ads_

Recharm cuts your ad footage into tagged, searchable clips: hooks, testimonials, product shots. Find the shots that win, add the effect with Claude, and ship 3x more ad edits.

[Start 14-day free trial](https://www.recharm.com/get-started)