So, you want to make a birthday video montage with lots of people to surprise a lucky friend?
Youāre in the right placeā¦
Let me be your guide today! I'll show you how easy it is to make a group āhappy birthdayā video collage with lots of photos and video messages. Having personally made thousands of video montages in my lifetime, Iāve been able to perfect every step of the process. I know firsthand what it takes to gather tons of video clips and photos from many people and compile them into one epic birthday video slideshow with music.
But first, let me tell you about my first attempt at making a video montage from scratch.
Manually creating a birthday video slideshow was not an easy endeavor. Collecting and compiling many video messages and photos into a video montage was incredibly difficult and time-consuming. It actually took me a few days to do. But, I persevered. After a sharp learning curve, I had finally completed the birthday video gift for my friend.
Once my first collaborative video montage was done, I quickly understood why people rarely made these as an amazing birthday gift. It took an awful lot of patience to learn how to use a complicated video editing program to edit and manage all my unorganized video files and photos.
All the hard work was well worth it because the "happy birthday" video I made was such a powerful gift to receive that it surprisingly made my friend cry tears of joy by the end... and he never cries.
This was an amazing gift, but I thought that there had to be a better way.
It was such a memorable keepsake that I wanted everyone to experience the surprise of receiving a sincere video montage as a gift from all their friends and family. I knew there had to be a more efficient way to make a personalized group video as a gift. I needed to make this process so easy that even my grandma could make a video for her friends.
Fast forward a couple of years laterā¦
We're proud to have developed the web app, VidDay, The Birthday Video Maker. Weāve successfully streamlined the process of making a collaborative group video. We worked very hard to make each step of the process easy. You can now start a video, invite people to collaborate, collect videos/photos, and compile submissions into one beautiful birthday video montage without any technical experience.
Our concept is simple: You invite people to participate and we make the video montage.
We're excited that everyone and anyone from around the world can now create a beautiful, dynamic-themed bday video montage.
Watch this video full of reaction clip of people receiving their surprise birthday video:
How to create a birthday video slideshow in 6 easy steps.
Create an event page
Invite friends by sharing the link to the event page
Upload photos
Drag and drop the video clips and photos in your order of preference
Select video theme & music
Publish the final video
Below, I explain each step of making a video with the help of our easy-to-use collaborative video app, VidDay.
No app download or editing skills required!
Step 1: Create an event page
To get started, you need to answer three simple questions. The first question asks what the occasion is for making this video montage. It can be a birthday, wedding, retirement, farewell, anniversary, congrats, get well, or anything else you're celebrating.
The second questions ask you who this video montage is for. Simply enter the name(s) of the lucky recipient(s).
Finally, the third question asks you when the submission deadline is. This way, people will know by when you'll need all the videos and photos submitted.
With this information, we generate a unique event page. This event page is where people go to and submit their videos and photos.
As the creator of the event page, your view of this page is different than what collaborators see. You can edit the event details, and you can preview entries. Collaborators, on the other hand, can only submit media and will have to wait until the video montage is done to see all entries.
The first thing we recommend that you do is uploading a flattering photo of the recipient so that collaborators are greeted with a familiar face when visiting the event page.
TIP: Donāt have a profile picture of the recipient handy? Grab a picture of the recipient from their Facebook or Instagram account.
Step 2: Invite friends by sharing the link to the event page
Itās time to invite friends and family to participate so that they can submit their video messages. You can easily invite people by sharing the event page URL, which also has a brief message to explain what they're being invited to do. You can also choose to share the link through the event page by clicking one of the sharing options we have available (text message, email, Facebook Messenger, or WhatsApp). These options come with an invitation message template to help give context to friends and family. You can always edit this message if you want to add your own twist to it. There are also other ways to share the link with friends, such as Line, Google Hangout, or WeChat. Use whatever works best for you.
For just seconds of their time, friends and family can now be part of an amazing video montage by clicking on the link you shared.
TIP: People will be happy to be part of the collaborative video surprise. But the truth is, as humans, we tend to forget and usually wait until the last minute to take action. So don't get discouraged if there are no submissions right away. We usually see most submissions a day or two before the deadline. To help people remember, we suggest following up with a few friendly reminders. Our web app also has features to assist you with the reminding process.
Step 3: Upload photos
Time to scroll through your photo library on your phone, tablet, or computer and choose a collection of the best photos of the recipient to include in the video montage. You can also grab more photos of the recipients from their social media such as Facebook or Instagram.
TIP: You don't need to only use digital photos. Dig up those old photo albums to find some old memories. Using your phone, simply snap a steady picture of the old recovered photo to easily upload to the event page.
Step 4: Drag and drop the video clips and photos in your order of preference
Are all the videos and photos uploaded to the event page? Great! As the creator, arrange the media in your order of preference from top to bottom.
VidDay works without the need to have video editing skills. But you can go the extra mile and edit photos to make your video gift look extra good.
TIP: Select one or two of the best photos of the recipients to place at the beginning of the video. Spread out the other photos between the video clips, which act as nice transitions.
Step 5: Select video theme and music
Have fun going through the music and video theme library to select the one that captures the right mood for your birthday video. Collage Normal theme is our most popular, which is also available as Collage Light or Collage Dark if you find that the background scenes are too distracting, but you still want a subtle collage effect.
You can also decide to choose one of our other beautiful themes, such as Gift Wrap, Watercolor, Simple, or one of our many new 2022 Holiday themes.
Step 6: Publish the final video
Once your video clips and photos are in order, simply click the āPublish & Payā button. The VidDay team gets alerted that your birthday video montage is ready to be created, and we get work. All you have to do now is sit back and relax while we compile your media content into a beautifully themed video along with music, photos, and text.
We can add the human touch by personally reviewing the videos and photos to make sure they're all good. Once the final video has gone through our quality control team (we like to call them ninjas), you will receive an email that your birthday video gift is ready to view, share, and download.
There you have it, folks, by following the steps above, you can make a memorable surprise video montage for birthdays or any other special occasion.
A collaborative video collage made with VidDay is the perfect surprise for all special occasions: birthdays, weddings, baby showers, anniversaries, get well soon, and retirements, to name a few. A VidDay video is a gift thatās easy to do and hard to top. Have fun!
Click here to get started on a surprise video in less than a minute.
Want to learn a little more? Check out our super handy Ultimate Birthday Video Guide!
