VideoBro / Sports seasons
One tape for the whole season, everyone's clips in order.
Whichever parent's at Saturday's game films it. Add the one you missed. One film when the season's done.
Free on iPhone, with 2 GB to start. No trial, no card.
A season isn't one afternoon
Games run from March to June, and whoever actually made it to Saturday's game is the one with footage of it. Everybody else hears about it later, or watches a shaky ten-second clip somebody sent to the group chat and forgets by Tuesday.
A trip or a party is one day to collect. A season is a dozen of them, spread across months, with a different parent behind the phone every time. That's what one Tape is for: start it before the first game and it stays open for the whole season, whoever's there films into it with REC, everyone else adds the games they caught with +, and there's no editing timeline to build along the way. When the season's done, anyone on the tape with an account taps Develop and gets back one film with every game in the order it happened. If what you want at the end is a two-minute reel with music over the goals, that's an editor's job, iMovie or CapCut, and a tape won't do it: a tape gives you the whole season in order, trims aside.
Set the tape up before the first game
Four things, in order, and the first one takes about a minute.
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Start the tape before opening day
Tap New Tape and name it "Spring season" or whatever the team goes by. An Active Tape has no deadline: it stays Active through March, April, May, however long the season runs. It only leaves Active once you Develop it.
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Invite the crew
Tap Collab, then Invite, and send the link to the people who'll be at most of the games: the other parent, a grandparent who makes some of them, whoever else shows up. A tape holds 8 people, including you, and joining doesn't need an account. Invite links last 7 days, so send a fresh one to anyone who joins mid-season. More on how the crew works, and what to send the team chat so other parents actually film.
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Whoever's there taps REC
There's no filming rotation to manage. Whichever parent made it to Saturday's game taps REC and shoots with the iPhone Camera app, horizontal. Every horizontal clip shot while REC is on lands on the tape by itself. Vertical video isn't added to a tape at all, so the phone has to be sideways. If a clip never turns up, that's almost always why.
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Add Clips for the game you missed
Somebody else caught the one you couldn't make. They tap + and pull it in themselves, or send it your way and you add it from your phone. Either way it lands at the moment it was recorded, not tacked onto the end. If the team already keeps an iCloud Shared Album, you can pick it in Add Clips and pull those videos onto the season tape too, placed by the date saved with each one.
Three Saturdays, three phones
Clips are sorted by when they were actually recorded, not by whose upload finished first. A parent whose phone had no signal at the field doesn't jump the queue once she catches up: her clip still lands exactly where it happened, between the games on either side of it.
Your family's tape, or the team's?
A team usually has more families than a tape has places: eight people, including you. So decide early which kind of tape this is going to be.
A family tape follows your kid: you, the other parent, a grandparent who makes some of the games. A team tape is one parent running it with up to seven others filming, and the finished film goes to the whole team chat as one link that plays in any browser, with no app and no account. Either way the clips count on the 2 GB of whoever started the tape, and short game clips add up slowly. What counts against your 2 GB.
- A family tape. Your people, your kid, your season. Everyone on it gets the film in their own Tape Cabinet.
- A team tape. Eight filmers at most, so pick the parents who are at most of the games. The rest of the team watches from the link.
- A tournament tape. A tournament weekend can run on its own tape, right alongside the season one. You can keep several going at once.
- Part 2, if it fills. On the free plan the owner's 2 GB, about an hour of footage, fills before the two hours a tape holds. Develop the first half at midseason, since a developed tape counts only its film, or have another parent start "Spring, part 2."
It's not a highlight reel, on purpose
VideoBro doesn't pick the goals out for you. Clips play in the order they were shot, every one of them, and trim and delete are the only edit there is. What editing looks like.
Which makes what you point the camera at worth thinking about. Worth grabbing, beyond the actual plays:
- The bench between plays, not just the plays.
- The car ride home, still in uniform.
- The warm-up, five minutes before anyone's paying attention.
- The walk from the car to the field, cleats already on.
- The snack table, mostly gone before anyone's cleaned up.
- The handshake line at the end, win or lose.
Not just the goals. More on what to film. If the season is really just one chapter in a longer story, the same idea works across a whole year.
Filming from the sideline
Youth sport is hard to film on a phone: the action is far away, fast, and often in bad light. A few habits get you footage worth watching.
- Stand toward the end, not the middle. From halfway every play is side-on and far off. From near the end of the field, wherever your league lets spectators stand, the players come toward you and you see faces. Many leagues keep everyone off the goal lines, so check first.
- Use the lens, not the pinch. If your phone has a zoom lens, use it, and walk closer rather than pinching past it: a far-off kid zoomed digitally comes out as a smear.
- Start before the whistle. The huddle, the kickoff and the first seconds of a play are exactly what a ten-second clip misses.
- Indoors, get closer. A gym is darker than it looks, and the phone shows it. The front row of the bleachers beats the top.
If it's the team's tape
A team tape has other families' children on it, so it comes with a little more care than a family one.
- Check the club's rules first. Some clubs, schools and leagues have a policy on filming players, or on sharing it. Follow it.
- Tell the parents what it's for. A film for the team, shared by one link rather than posted publicly, and a link can be forwarded. A parent who'd rather their child wasn't in it should say so before the film is made: until Develop, anyone on the tape can delete a clip.
- Show it at the end-of-season party. Open the link on a laptop or the TV at the party. A season of Saturdays is worth one sitting, together. How to hold a screening.
Develop after the last game
After the last game, anyone on the tape with an account taps Develop, and everyone on the tape gets the season in their own Tape Cabinet, not just whoever hit Develop. Make a shelf called "2026 seasons," and every season lands there together, spring next to fall.
Anyone on the tape with an account can share the film with one link, so a grandparent who missed every game can still watch it in a browser: no app, no account.
Questions parents ask
Can a tape stay open for months?
Yes, as long as it's Active. A season tape can run from the first game in March to the last one in June without anything happening to it. Only after you Develop does a clock start: once the tape has sat quiet for 30 days, the raw clips behind the film are cleared to save space. The finished film is never touched.
What if a parent joins partway through the season?
They join the tape from that point and can film and add clips right away. Only everyone who's on the tape when someone taps Develop gets the finished film in their own Cabinet, so joining right at the end still counts, joining after Develop doesn't.
Is it okay to film other kids on the team?
Filming the game your child is playing in means filming their teammates, and that's ordinary. For a team tape, check the club's policy on filming first, tell the parents the film is for the team and shared by link, and take a child's clips out before you Develop if their parents ask. After Develop, removing one means Continue Editing, which takes the film out of everyone's Cabinet until it's developed again.
Where should I stand to film a game?
Toward the end rather than the middle, wherever your league lets spectators stand; many keep everyone off the goal lines. From near the end the players come toward you, so you get faces instead of a side view of the far half. Use your phone's zoom lens if it has one, and walk closer rather than pinching the picture.