A Birthday Video

How about creating a birthday video for a family member in another town? Or a family member in the same town, but socially distanced? I've gotten some ideas from many of you, and the one I'm writing about today is from my granddaughter.

I've seen on Facebook and heard from friends about how they are coming up with new ideas for birthday greetings during this pandemic when most of us are practicing social distancing. I've loved the drive-by car lines with posters and streamers wishing the birthday boy/girl fun greetings for their day. Some of you have even done Zoom with family on a special day.

My granddaughter came up with a birthday video for the honoree. 

The procedure:

My granddaughter simply called or texted family members for her dad's birthday video. She asked us to do a short video greeting to him wishing him a happy birthday. Then she just took all the videos and edited them, putting them into a master video. She used the application InShot which is available from your app store. Previously for her videos, she used the application that is usually available on your iPhone called iMovie. 

Here's a screenshot of my iPhone showing some of my apps. The iMovie app is the first one on the second row with a star. If you have that on your iPhone, give it a try. You can make your own movie.

And there's more:

My granddaughter also did a video for her sister on her birthday. She could easily add existing pictures on her phone of her sister besides all the family's birthday greetings. She also did a video on her uncle (we have a lot of July birthdays :) and added some childhood pictures of her uncle that her mother had. She simply scanned them and added them to the video.

Post the completed video on YouTube for all to see--well, for all the family to see.

You can either send the link to your out-of-town birthday boy or show at the family birthday party. We actually went to my son's birthday party (wearing our masks of course), and watched the video in the comfort of their living room. It was fun and good for several laughs. 

Here are some links that might be of help. You can actually just google something like, "How to do a simple video for at-home viewing." What would we do without google? There's no need for me to explain the technical stuff of such an endeavor, when there is such wonderful online help.

Here's the one for InShot:

​filmora.wondershare.net/filmora-video-editor.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwydP5BRBREiwA-qrCGt2JTpE18JQHLNJWMb7dIgSo8fe3ZQsjaPpmSokfIqF3I0lroTed5BoCskoQAvD_BwE

I'm sure most of you use YouTube, so you're very familiar with it. It's on YouTube that you'll want to post your video to view it on the big screen and so you can send the link to other family members so they can see the birthday video. Once you get to YouTube, if you haven't already subscribed to it, you'll want to do that so you can post your video and get the link. Just like on all apps and websites, there is the trusty "Help" button that will tell you all you need to know to do this. And since this is a blog for grandparents, you could just ask your grandkids--they'll know what to do. LOL

​www.youtube.com

Happy creating! It's fun creating a family video. If you haven't ever done such in this age of wonderful technology, you'll want to start! And it further bonds your family. We all like to savor the great times of the past and celebrate each other on their birthday!