Take turns behind the phone
Put everyone who'll be in the room on one tape: both parents, a grandparent, the teenager who'd rather be asleep. Each films a little from wherever they're sitting. Every clip lands at the moment it was recorded, so the morning comes back as one film with everyone in it, including whoever usually holds the phone.
Set it up on Christmas Eve
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Start the tape and invite everyone
Tap New Tape and name it. Then tap Collab and Invite whoever will be in the room with an iPhone: a tape holds eight people, including you.
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REC before the stairs
In the morning, each filmer taps REC and shoots with the iPhone Camera app, held sideways. Horizontal clips land on the tape by themselves and upload in the background. Vertical ones don't get added.
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Add Christmas Eve with +
The cookies left out, the last present wrapped at midnight: tap + to add clips already on your phone. They land before the morning, at the moment they were recorded.
What to film on Christmas morning
- Before the kids wake up. The tree lit, the stockings full, the house quiet. Thirty seconds, while it lasts.
- The stairs. One phone at the bottom, facing up, before the first footstep.
- First reactions, from two sides. One phone on the kid opening it, one on whoever chose it.
- The grandparents' view. Turn a phone toward the couch. Their faces, watching the kids, are the shot nobody gets.
- The mess after. Paper to the knees, someone asleep, the toy that already needs batteries.
Let the takes run. Ten seconds of unwrapping is a photo; two minutes is the morning. More on what to film.
Develop it after lunch
Whenever the morning's over, anyone on the tape with an account taps Develop. What Develop does.
Everyone on the tape gets it in their own Tape Cabinet, and you can send the link to family who spent the day somewhere else. Sharing family videos privately.
Everything on the tape counts toward its owner's 2 GB, about an hour of footage, until it's developed. What counts toward 2 GB.
Questions before Christmas Eve
Does everyone need the app?
Only the people filming: the VideoBro app on an iPhone, and joining from an invite doesn't need an account. Everyone else, kids included, watches the finished film from a link.
A grandparent is on Android. Can they still be in it?
They can't film into the tape, since that takes the iPhone app. Point a phone at them instead, and send them the link: the film plays in any browser.
Can family who weren't there watch it?
Yes. Share the link and it plays in any browser, on any device, with no app and no account.