Enough to tell the story; not so many that the room checks its phones. For most milestone birthdays that is somewhere between sixty and a hundred and fifty photographs, a few short clips and a handful of messages. Here is the arithmetic, so you can plan the collection rather than guess.
The numbers Videmory works to
- A photograph is on screen for about three seconds — a little longer for old prints and childhood pictures, a little shorter in the brighter style.
- A video clip plays for the part you chose.
- A message plays as recorded. Ask for short and sweet — forty-five seconds at the most — and the messages together share about a third of the film, so it stays a life story rather than a row of faces.
- The full film can run to an hour. The highlight version keeps to six minutes and tells you which memories did not fit.
A 60th birthday, worked through
Sixty years at two photographs a year would be a hundred and twenty pictures — about six minutes of photographs. In reality the years are uneven: a dozen from the wedding year, none from 1987. A hundred photographs weighted towards the good years, six clips of ten seconds, and ten messages of up to forty-five seconds comes to roughly five minutes of pictures, a minute of video and seven or eight minutes of voices, some of it playing over the pictures. That is a full film of about twelve minutes, which is a comfortable length to show at a party and a generous one to keep.
A rough guide by birthday
60 to 100 photos
The recent years are heavily photographed, so the work is in choosing. Ask each contributor for five, not fifty. Five to eight messages.
80 to 150 photos
A mix of scanned prints and phone pictures. One or two per year, weighted towards the years with the best photographs. Eight to twelve messages.
80 to 150, and a highlight
A long life and a big audience. Make the full film to keep, and show the six-minute highlight at the party. Short messages from every generation.
As many as you have
A first birthday, a 21st or a just-because film with thirty photographs and three messages is a complete film. There is no minimum.
How to keep the count useful
Ask for favourites, not folders. Ask for the pictures the birthday person is actually in. Ask for one clip of the good ten seconds rather than the whole speech. Ask everyone for one message, not three. Then look at the collection by life stage: a decade with forty photographs and a decade with two is a sign to go and ask somebody from the thin decade, not to cut the thick one.
Bring the collection into Videmory
Invite friends and family to add photos, real video and messages from one link. Add the years or ages you know, review the collection — from your phone or, for the tidying, a computer, since the same birthday opens on either — and let Videmory build the film in the order it happened. Making the film and watching the complete watermarked preview are free; you pay only if you want to download the finished film without the mark. Introductory launch offer: AU$49 for your first finished film, AU$15 for each additional version. Introductory pricing is available for a limited time and may increase in the future.
See a life fall into order · Collecting and dating photos · How many photos you need
Your questions, answered
Is there a minimum number of photos?
No. A birthday film with twenty photographs and three messages is a short, complete film. The film grows with the collection; there is no template with slots to fill.
Is there a maximum?
The full film runs to an hour, which is far more than any party wants. In practice the limit is your audience’s patience: aim for a film people will watch to the end, and remember the full film is theirs to keep and rewatch.
Do video clips count the same as photos?
A clip plays for as long as the part you chose, so a ten-second clip is worth about three photographs of screen time. Choose the good ten seconds rather than adding the whole recording.
What if we end up with far too many?
Make the full film for them to keep, and a highlight of up to six minutes for the party. Both come from the same collection, so nothing has to be gathered twice.