Start from the camera roll, not the calendar
Your phone holds the year you saw. The rest is on your partner's phone, your sister's, the friend from the trip, and a year in review needs all of it.
Starting in January instead? Film a year of your kid is the plan-ahead version.
How to make it
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Start one tape for the year
Tap New Tape and name it for the year.
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Add your own clips
Tap + to open Add Clips. It shows the videos on your camera roll, from any date, and you can pick several horizontal ones at once. Each clip lands at the moment it was recorded, so January plays first whatever order you pick in.
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Pull in a Shared Album
If part of the year lives in an iCloud Shared Album, tap Camera Roll, just under the title, and pick the album, then its horizontal videos. They join the tape, placed by the date saved with each one. It needs full access to Photos, and a good connection: clips still in iCloud download as they're added. Older albums are 720p, so those clips look softer. More on Shared Albums.
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Invite the people who were there
Tap Collab, then Invite. A tape holds eight people, including you, and each adds clips from their own phone with +. Invite links work for 7 days.
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Trim, then Develop
Press and hold a clip to trim it; swipe to delete one. When it's done, anyone on the tape with an account taps Develop, and the year comes back as one film in everyone's Tape Cabinet.
Keep it short enough to watch
A tape holds two hours of footage, and the owner's free plan is 2 GB, about an hour of footage. Every clip anyone adds counts toward the owner's 2 GB until the tape is developed; after that only the film does, which is usually smaller. What counts toward 2 GB.
Trim the first and last few seconds off each clip, and leave out anything nobody would miss.
- The first clip of the year and the last. Bookends do half the work.
- One ordinary day. A dinner, a drive, nothing happening. It ages best.
- The trip, short. A few clips, not the whole week. The trip can have its own tape.
- The same moment from two phones. A birthday from two sides beats it from one.
Want a soundtrack and titles? An editor is the right tool for that, and the no-editing guide compares the options honestly.
Questions people ask first
What about vertical videos?
A tape only takes horizontal video. Add Clips shows vertical clips marked, so you can see them but can't add them.
Can family add their clips without an account?
Yes. From your invite they need the VideoBro iPhone app but not an account, and they add clips from their own phone with +. Developing and sharing the film need an account.
Does it add music?
No. There's no music, titles or transitions, only trim and delete. The film is everyone's clips, in the order they were recorded.