VideoBro / Parties
Everybody filmed the party. Nobody has the night.
Everyone had their phone out. The next morning nobody has the night, just a few clips of the same minute.
Free on iPhone, with 2 GB to start. No trial, no card.
Everyone films from exactly where they were standing
A party is one continuous thing and nobody is present for all of it. You were in the kitchen for an hour. Then you were outside. Then you missed the toast because you were finding somebody a drink and holding two coats.
Your footage is an honest record of where you stood, and so is everyone else's. Scattered across everybody's phones, it never comes back together on its own: whichever clip somebody could be bothered to send is the only part that ever surfaces, and the order the night actually happened in, most of what made it a night, goes missing with it. If the party's already over, combining videos from multiple phones covers how to gather everyone's clips afterward.
A timestamp is not an evening.
It's a phone camera in a dark room, and it will look like one. Film anyway: the tape wants the room as it was, not a cleaned-up version.
Set it up before the first person arrives
Four things, in order, and the first one takes about a minute.
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Start the tape that afternoon
Tap New Tape before the first person arrives. Do it now and the first clip on the tape is the one from setting up, not the one from an hour in when somebody finally remembers.
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Invite the people who'll actually film
Tap Collab, then Invite, and send the link to the seven people you actually want holding a phone tonight, not the whole guest list. That's eight on the tape including you, the same on every plan. Starting a tape needs an account; joining one from your invite doesn't. More on how the crew works, and what to text them so they actually film.
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Spread REC around, not just to you
Tap REC yourself, then get a few of the people you invited doing the same, one in the kitchen, one out on the porch, wherever you're not standing. Shoot with the iPhone Camera app everyone already carries: every horizontal video shot while REC is on lands on the tape by itself. Clips save to the phone first and upload in the background whenever there's signal, so stepping outside for reception or closing the app doesn't lose anything. Vertical clips don't get added.
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Add Clips whenever someone catches up
Someone joins at midnight with the pre-drinks already on their phone. Tap + and pull it in: it doesn't land at the end, it slots into the tape at the moment it was actually recorded, ahead of everything filmed later. There's no manual reorder, on purpose: the tape tells the night the way the night went. If people already dropped clips into a Shared Album that night, Add Clips can pull them from there too, placed by the date saved with each one. More on how editing works.
8:10, then 9:45, then 11:30, no matter when it uploads
Clips are sorted by when they were actually recorded, not by whose upload finished first or who joined the tape first.
What's worth filming at a party
The cake is already covered: it's the one minute of the night that ends up on every phone. Spread the phones out instead, and ask for the parts nobody points a camera at.
- The setup. Chairs being moved, the argument about the playlist, somebody blowing up the last balloon. The room before it's a party.
- The door. People arriving, coats coming off, the first ten minutes when nobody's sure where to stand yet.
- The kitchen. Where half the party usually ends up, and where nobody thinks to film.
- The toast, from the side. One phone on whoever's talking, another on the faces listening to it.
- The candles, from behind. If two people film the cake, put one of them behind the birthday person, so the film has the room singing at them too.
- The late part. The last few on the couch, deep in a conversation that won't make sense tomorrow.
- The morning after. The wreckage, and whoever starts cleaning it up first.
If the night runs on into an after-party, give that its own tape: a tape holds two hours of footage, and two films of one long night beat one crowded one.
In the morning, one film
Whenever the night's actually over, anyone on the tape with an account taps Develop, and VideoBro puts the whole night together into one film in the cloud. What Develop does, exactly.
Every person on the tape at that moment gets the film in their own Tape Cabinet, including the ones who never filmed a thing. Send them the link and it opens in any browser, on any device, with no app and no account needed to watch it.
As the tape's owner, you carry its storage: every clip anyone adds counts on your 2 GB, and once it's developed only the finished film does, which is usually smaller. What counts against your 2 GB.
The surprise birthday tape
The same tool works before the party, too, and it's the one place this page is really a birthday tape rather than a party tape. Start it and don't invite the birthday person. Tapes are invite-only and nothing on them is public, so the only people who know it exists are the people invited to it.
Ask a few people to film a quick message ahead of time on their own camera roll, a toast, a happy birthday, whatever they'd actually say, then pull it in with Add Clips the same as any other footage. It lands on the tape at the moment it was recorded, not wherever you drop it in, so a message filmed the week before opens the tape and the party follows it. There's no way to shuffle the order after.
Develop it whenever suits, after the cake or after everyone's gone home, then hand over the finished film: send the link, or play it right there.
Things worth knowing before Saturday
How many phones can film into a party tape?
Eight, including you, on every plan, so seven people to actually invite. Want more filmers than that? Run a second tape for the after-party and you end up with two films instead of one.
Does everyone need the app?
To film into the tape, yes: that's the iPhone app, and joining someone else's tape from an invite doesn't need an account. To watch the finished film, no: it opens in any browser on any device, with no app and no account.
Can someone add clips the next day?
Yes. Anyone on the tape can tap + and pull in footage already on their phone, from earlier that night or the morning after. It lands on the tape at the moment it was actually recorded, not tacked onto the end.
How long can the tape be?
Two hours of footage, on every plan. That's longer than any single night anybody's going to sit and rewatch, and if you need more, a second tape for the after-party covers it.
Can I make a surprise tape without them finding out?
Yes. Just don't invite them. Tapes are invite-only and nothing on them is public, so the only people who know it exists are the people invited to it. Hand over the finished film after.
How can everyone at a birthday contribute their videos?
Send them the invite link before the party starts. From there they tap REC and shoot on their own phone, no account required, and every clip lands on the tape automatically as it's filmed.
How do I turn everyone's random party clips into one memory?
Get the clips onto one tape, live or with Add Clips afterward, then have anyone on the tape with an account tap Develop. It comes back as one widescreen film with everyone's footage in the order it actually happened, no editing required to get there.
More questions like these, for every kind of group, are answered on the questions page.