virtual birthday wishes ideas 2021

virtual birthday wishes ideas

virtual birthday wishes ideas  Are you looking to put together a birthday message 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 post, 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 record a birthday messages video and even some tips for editing and gifting your happy birthday message video. So let's get started.

virtual birthday wishes ideas 2021

virtual birthday wishes ideas Step one  

what to say in your video. Now, some people are really great at speaking off the cuff into the camera, but other people struggle a little bit more with that and need some help. So don't be afraid to jot some notes down on an index card or a piece of paper. If you think you're gonna need some reminders while you're filming. Obviously, start with wishing them a happy birthday, but then consider following that 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's 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 really loved rock climbing, but also find it really funny and special to watch. Okay,

 

virtual birthday wishes ideas 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 something 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 the 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 to be watching on their computer or maybe even their TV at virtual birthday party 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 on 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 to make 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

 

virtual birthday wishes ideas Step three

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 hunt down emails and text messages and social media messages to try to find the videos or the messages or the photos 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 file request 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 kind of comfortable with it. And each video file stays posted in each person's account. So even if you don't have a ton of space in your account, you can still collect everybody's videos there.

 

I like to give people who are submitting a little bit of guidance when it comes to length. A lot of times we feel overwhelmed when we're recording a virtual birthday message because we feel like it has to be this long drawn out thing. But in reality, I find that the best length is one to two minutes, especially if you're going to be stringing together a bunch of people's messages.

 

Cause remember we're trying to create like a virtual greeting card, not a major motion, picture length film here. Also, this is a good time to remind people again, to shoot horizontally and not vertically, okay.

 

virtual birthday wishes ideas Step four

putting it all together. So once you have all these submissions from your friends and family, what next? The easiest way to edit them together is to just trim off the beginning and the end of each video where there's like the dead space from somebody turning 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 string the videos together. And you can do this fairly easily in an app like InShotor Splice or Adobe Rush, even on your phone. What I like to do is to divide each person's birthday message into little chunks.

 

And I try to look for an overarching storytelling arc. So how that would work maybe I would start with everybody's happy birthdays, right in the beginning, then maybe we could move into some of the favorite memories that people have shared. And then some of the favorite things about that person.

 

A lot of times, when you get all of these submissions from people, you'll start to see common threads. So maybe several people will mention how great of a listener your loved one is and how they feel so supported by their friendship. You could put all those messages together, kind of amplify that feeling, knowing that lots of people feel this way about the recipient, the birthday person.

 

For example, when I was editing an 80thbirthday video for a client, I noticed that a lot of her grandkids all had memories of cooking with her and spending time with her in that way. And so I put all the grandkid's messages together in one part of the video.

 

My favorite memory about Amma is all the cousins waking up after sleeping over at her house, the next morning to her making us pancakes, freshly cut strawberries with syrup, and powdered sugar.

 

When we go to her house, she teaches us how to make Indian food that's like her. - Her teaching us how to make food like cutlets and cheetah. - She loves family as a whole bunch and she gets us there with her amazing food. - And all of those messages together, it kind of makes it feels cohesive.

 

It makes it feel more amplified and really drives the point home that, this is something the people really 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 to make their socially distant or virtual celebrations. Just that much more special. All right.

 

virtual birthday wishes ideas Step five

how to gift your video. Now you've recorded, gotten submissions, put them all together. What's the best way to present this video to your loved one. There are a few different ways you could do this. You could upload the video to YouTube or Vimeo as a private video, private link. You could password protected.

 

if you wanted on Vimeo and then you could send them the link to that video. You could also send the file via Dropbox or Google drive, and then they would have to download the video to watch it, or something really special that I sometimes like to do with my clients is to create a video album.

 

Now, this looks basically like a photo album. You know, something that you would have on your coffee table or on your bookshelf, but it has a screen inside that plays back your video automatically when you open it. And I think this can be really fun because it means that you have something physical that you can wrap and they can open at their virtual birthday party.

 

This does have a little bit of a longer timeline since there's shipping involved, but it can be really special, especially if the person that you're gifting to likes something tangible to hold and to open. And like I mentioned earlier, I a whole video that's covering how to get the best audio from your smartphone or iPhone.