One tape for the trip, not just the dinner
A drive or a flight, two dinners in two houses, a long weekend of leftovers. Start one tape before anyone leaves home. Every clip lands at the moment it was recorded, so Wednesday's airport gate plays before Thursday's turkey, whichever phone uploads first.
No signal at Grandma's? Clips save to the phone and upload in the background once there's a connection.
Set it up the week before
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Start the tape
Tap New Tape and call it Thanksgiving. Starting a tape needs an account; joining one doesn't.
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One or two filmers per house
Tap Collab, then Invite. A tape holds eight people, including you, so give the places to one or two people in each house rather than to everyone. They need the VideoBro iPhone app, not an account. Invite links work for 7 days, so send them the Monday of Thanksgiving week.
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REC, then film like normal
Each filmer taps REC and shoots with the iPhone Camera app, held sideways. Horizontal clips land on the tape by themselves; vertical ones don't get added. Anything already on a phone goes in with +.
What to film at Thanksgiving
- The travel. The gate, the back seat, the car pulling into the driveway.
- The kitchen before noon. Whoever's been cooking since six, and what they're arguing about.
- The grandparents. Ask one question, like what Thanksgiving was when they were kids, and let them answer for as long as they want. Getting grandparents on tape.
- The kids' table, at kid height. Sit down with them for one clip. Nobody films it from down there.
- Grace, or whatever your table does instead. One phone on whoever's talking, another on the people listening.
- Friday. Leftovers, the walk, the game nobody's watching.
More ideas: what to film on an ordinary day.
Develop when everyone's home
On Sunday, anyone on the tape with an account taps Develop, and the whole weekend comes back as one film, in the order it happened. Everyone on the tape gets it in their own Tape Cabinet.
For the relatives who couldn't make it, share the link. It plays in any browser, with no app and no account, and it isn't posted anywhere. 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 families ask
What if the tape's owner runs out of room?
Nothing is deleted, but new clips stop until there's room. A long weekend can fill a free 2 GB, so give a later day its own tape, started by someone in another house: it counts on their 2 GB, not the first owner's.
Grandma doesn't have an iPhone. Can she still be in it?
She can't film into the tape, since that takes the iPhone app. Someone at her house can film her, and she can watch the finished film from the link in any browser.
Is there a deadline to develop?
No. A tape stays Active until someone develops it, however long the weekend runs.