How to Make a Birthday Video
These days, you don’t have to be in the military to live far from friends and family, which can make it tricky to celebrate big milestones like birthdays.
Video can be such a powerful tool for connection, and it’s a great way to celebrate someone on their birthday, especially if their friends and family might not be present.
This year, our little guy turned 8 a few weeks after we moved across the country. He didn’t have friends to invite to a party (yet), and we don’t live close to anyone in our family, so we celebrated just the four of us.
I knew he missed his buddies, cousins, and grandparents. So I reached out and asked if they’d send me a video of them wishing him a happy birthday and I put together a video for him with all of the clips.
He loved watching it!
If you want to do something similar, here are a few tips and ideas to make a birthday video of your own.
Types of Birthday Videos
First things first: what kind of video do you want to make?
There’s definitely more than one type of birthday video you can create.
A slideshow with voiceover
Clips of friends’ well-wishes
A combination of photos and video
For my friend’s 40th birthday, I asked people to send an audio clip of them describing him in a few words and I set those audio clips to a slideshow of fun pictures with music in the background.
My grandmother’s 90th birthday video also contains a slideshow with family members describing her in one word in the voiceover, also with music in the background.
For Owen’s 8th birthday, I wanted him to see the faces of people he missed! So the video contains clips people sent me with them talking to the camera and wishing him a happy birthday.
My sister did the same for my 40th birthday, which we celebrated during the pandemic. My husband was deployed on an aircraft carrier at the time and I couldn’t believe it when his face popped up on the screen talking directly to me from the middle of the ocean!
There’s definitely more than one type of birthday video!
Before you ask for contributions from friends and family, consider what type of video you want to create.
Ready to tackle the sentimental clutter and thousands of digital photos?
Request Submissions
When you’re ready, make a list of the people you want to include in your birthday video and send them a very specific request.
What do you need from them?
How should they record it? (audio, video, horizontal, vertical, etc)
How should they send it to you? (text, upload, email)
How long should it be? (“Keep it short and sweet!”)
What’s the deadline?
I find that the more specific the request, the more participation I get.
For example, if the timing is open-ended and people think they have to talk a bunch on camera, they won’t participate.
If they know it’s just a quick “Happy birthday! We wish we could be there to celebrate with you!” then they’re likely to send you something.
If tech might be an issue, tell them exactly what to do - what app to use, whether to text or email, etc.
If you’re planning to use this video on mobile only, then vertical video works fine. But if you want to stream the video to a TV, then be sure to ask for landscape or horizontal video.
People don’t need a ton of time to get something like this done, but it’ll end up on their back-burner if they have too much time. So set your deadline accordingly!
People will appreciate more information rather than less. Let them know what you’re creating and how you’re using their submissions.
It gives them reassurance that they’re being helpful and it’ll limit the number of questions you have to field from them.
Create your Video
You don’t have to get fancy with these videos! Stringing together photos or videos using the native movie-creation software on your computer works just fine.
Find your music
I usually try to find a song or background music that works for the occasion, download it, then add it to the video program.
You can turn the volume down on your music to about 10% so it’s playing in the background but doesn’t drown out your family and friends’ voices.
Create a title
Add a title slide to the video - something simple like “Happy 8th Birthday, Owen!”
I stick to a black background with white text so there’s a quick intro to what we’re watching.
Add and edit your photos or clips
Import any photos or video clips you’re using in the video and drag them into the video timeline.
I go through and clip the videos so they aren’t too long. Sometimes people send in 30 second videos. In total, I like to keep the entire video short - 3 minutes or so!
People’s attention spans are short these days, and they’re more likely to re-watch a video that has quicker cuts and doesn’t go on too long (especially if they’re a kiddo!).
If someone has lots to say, I usually break up those clips and scatter them throughout the video. That helps keep the cuts quick and keeps things moving along.
Upload your video
I use a service like Vimeo to upload videos to the internet while maintaining privacy. On Vimeo, you can even add a password to the video so it isn’t publicly available.
Many people value their privacy online, so be sure to be respectful of that while also sharing the video with loved ones, if they want to see the finished project.
Video is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to how I document our memories.
If you’re curious about other ways to manage your sentimental clutter and digital photos, download my free guide to memory keeping.
