Are you looking to put together a birthday messages video for a friend, but you're not exactly sure the best way to do that. This is something that I help clients with a lot. So in this blog, I'm gonna be sharing my best tips for how to put together a birthday messages video, from what to say in your virtual birthday, greetings to how to recorda birthday messages video and even some tips for editing and gifting your happy birthday message video. So let's get started. My name is Annabel Needles, and I'm a habitual wonder seeker, as well as the video editor behind evergreen lane productions. I help fellow memory makers get off their phones and into their lives. I'm also in Aries, which means that I know I'm not alone in having to delay my celebrations or totally make things virtual. So if you're looking for some ideas for how to make that virtual birthday really special for your loved one, let's get into the tips. Step one is what to say in your video. Now, some people are reallygreat at speaking off the cuff into the camera,but other people struggle a little bit more withthat and need some help. So don't be afraid to jot somenotes down on an index card or a piece of paper. If you think you'regonna need some reminders while you're filming. Obviously start with wishingthem a happy birthday, but then consider followingthat up with what do you love most about them or how they inspire and support you in your life. You could also consider sharing one of your favorite memories or a funny story that y'all share. Most importantly, speak from the heart, you know, your loved one best and what is gonna make them smile. Try to look directly into the camera so that when the recipient is watching this video, it's like you're looking them directly in the eyes. Also, it definitely doesn't have to be a hundred percent serious. I had a client hire me for her husband's 40th birthday video, and one of their friends recreated this entire rock climbing scenario scene in their backyard. And it was so funny. I knew that this person who really loved rock climbing, but also find it really funny and special to watch. Okay, step two. How to record. I sent a PDF guide to all of my clients, outlining the steps for filming a great birthday messages video so that they have some thing that they can send to all their friends and family who might be submitting messages as well. Here's a rundown of everything that's on that PDF. If possible, use a tripod to support your camera or your phone. And if you don't have a tripod, you can definitely use a pile of books or a table, make sure that you lean your recording device against something steady. So the camera's not moving around a lot. Also remember to shoot horizontally and not vertically, or sometimes used to recording like Instagram stories vertically. But when you're putting together a whole bunch of birthday messages, likely this person is going tobe watching on their computer or maybe even their TV ata virtual birthday parties situation, think of the orientation of those screens. And then it makes sense why you'd wanna shoot horizontally and not vertically. Try to center yourself in the shot. Kind of like how I am now. You can definitely use selfie mode on your phone to do this. If you're by yourself and you have a way of telling if you're onscreen. Try not to cut off too much of the top of your head or zooming too close to that. It's just your face in the screen. You wanna have a little breathing room around your head. I also like to suggest choosing a simple background in a well lit place. So even if you don't have great lighting, you can stand close to and facing a window. And that will really help give some natural light and some really nice lighting on your face when you're recording your birthday message. Also do a quick check tomake sure that your phone or your camera is recording and at least HD, which is 10 ADP. That's just to make sure that when your loved one is watching the video on their phone or their computer or their TV, that it's not too small or too grainy. If you're worried about capturing good enough audio with your phone, I have a whole video on tips for getting better audio with your smartphone. And I will link that up here. So you can head over there and watch that after this video. Step number three is collecting submissions. If you wanna collect other video messages from friends and family, I really suggest creating a folder on either Dropbox or Google drive that you can share the link with friends and family so that all of the video submissions end up in one place. And you're not trying to huntdown emails and text messages and social media messagesto try to find the videos or the messages or thephotos that people sent. The upside to Dropbox is that no one has to have an account to be able to do this. You can create a filerequest and the files will come directly to you. And only you're responsible for having enough space in your account. The upside with Google drive is a lot of people already have Gmails. They're already kindof comfortable with it. And each video file stay sposted in each person's account. So even if you don't have aton of space in your account, you can still collecteverybody's videos there. I like to give people whoare submitting a little bit of guidance when it comes to length. A lot of times we feeloverwhelmed when we're recording a virtual birthday message, because we feel like it has tobe this long drawn out thing. But in reality, I find that the best lengthis one to two minutes, especially if you're goingto be stringing together a bunch of people's messages. Cause remember we're tryingto create like a virtual greeting card, not a majormotion, picture length film here. Also, this is a good timeto remind people again, to shoot horizontallyand not vertically, okay. Step four, putting it all together. So once you have all thesesubmissions from your friends and family, what next? The easiest way to edit themtogether is to just trim off the beginning and the end ofeach video where there's like the dead space from somebodyturning on their camera or turning off their camera. There's usually like,you know, a little bit of handle there on either end. So it's a good idea to just turn those off and then you can stringthe videos together. And you can do this fairly easy in an app like InShotor Splice or Adobe Rush, even on your phone. What I like to do is todivide each person's birthday message into little chunks. And I try to look for overarching storytelling arc. So how that would work ismaybe I would start with everybody's happy birthdays,right at the beginning, then maybe we could move intosome of the favorite memories that people have shared. And then some of the favoritethings about that person. A lot of times, when you get all of thesesubmissions from people, you'll start to see common threads. So maybe several people willmention how great of a listener your loved one is and howthey feel so supported by their friendship. You could put all those messages together, kind of amplify that feeling, knowing that lots of peoplefeel this way about the recipient, the birthday person. For example, when I was editing a 80thbirthday video for a client, I noticed that a lot of hergrandkids all had memories around cooking with herand spending time with her in that way. And so I put all thegrandkids messages together in one part of the video. - My favorite memory about Amma is all the cousins waking up aftersleeping over at her house, the next morning toher making us pancakes, freshly cut strawberries withsyrup and powdered sugar. - When we go to herhouse, she teaches us how to make Indian food who's like her. - Her teaching us how to makefood like cutlets and cheetah. - She loves family a wholebunch and she gets us there with her amazing food. - And all of those messages together, it kind of makes it feel cohesive. It makes it feel more amplifiedand really like drives the point home that like, this is something the peoplereally love about you. Personally, I feel like that kind of video can have a bigger emotional impact. I'll put the link below. If you'd like to work with me on creating a birthday message video or another kind of celebration film for someone in your family and are looking for a way tomake their socially distant or virtual celebrations. Just that much more special. All right. Step five is how to gift your video. Now you've recorded, gotten submissions, put them all together. What's the best way to presentthis video to your loved one. There's a few differentways you could do this. You could upload the video to YouTube or Vimeo as a private video, private link. You could password protectedif you wanted on Vimeo and then you could sendthem the link to that video. You could also send the filevia Dropbox or Google drive, and then they would have todownload the video to watch it or something really specialthat I sometimes like to do with my clients is tocreate a video album. Now this looks basicallylike a photo album. You know, something that youwould have on your coffee table or on your bookshelf, but it has a screen insidethat plays back your video automatically when you open it. And I think this can be reallyfun because it means that you have something physical that you can wrap and they can open at theirvirtual birthday party. This does have a little bitof a longer timeline since there's shipping involved,but it can be really special, especially if the personthat you're gifting to likes something tangibleto hold and to open. And like I mentioned earlier, I a whole video that's coveringhow to get the best audio from your smartphone or iPhone. So you can click the linkon your screen right there, and it will take you overto that video to watch. If you enjoyed this content, please hit subscribe and thenotification bell so that you'll get a heads up everytime I post any video. All right, I'll seeyou in that next Article.
