Guide · with a free thank-you video maker
Ask everyone for a short clip, gather them in one place, then join them into a single film. Here is the message to send and the tips that make the clips usable.
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To make a group thank you video, send everyone the same short request (what to say, how long, which way to hold the phone and the deadline), collect the clips through a chat, email or a shared folder, then join them in one editor with a title, a closing message and a song. One organiser gathering ten- to twenty-second clips from each person is the whole method.
The maker on this site handles the last part: it works with the clips once they are on your device and saves the finished video there, without uploading anything. It does not collect messages from other people for you, so the collecting is done with whatever your group already uses. For a whole class thanking a teacher, see organising a class video, which adds consent and fairness for children.
Decide where the video will be watched and set Format to match: Landscape 16:9 for a screen at a leaving do, Vertical 9:16 for a phone. Then ask everyone to film the same way round.
Copy the message below into the group chat or an email, with a deadline about a week before you need the video.
Save each one with the sender’s name in the file name as it arrives, so you can see who is still missing and send a friendly nudge.
Pick a design in Templates, press Add photos or clips and pick the clips in the order they should play; drag a scene along the strip of scenes to move it later. Write a title and a closing line in Text and add a quiet song under Music.
(enlarge image) The template picker: choose an occasion, then a shape, then a design.
Watch it through with Play, press Export video, then Download video. Play it at the event or send the file to the person you are thanking.
Open one to start; every word, photo and the shape can be changed. All colleagues and teams templates
A polished navy widescreen film with a split-screen photo spotlight for employee appreciation
Charcoal and champagne with an italic serif, for a measured, sincere thank-you to a manager
A sunny, silly leaving video with a paper plane, postage-stamp photos and a big “good luck”
A slow sunset gradient, a rising sun and flowing script for a warm happy-retirement film
Gold foil on cream with an award rosette and glitter for a work anniversary or long-service thank-you
Black, lime and hot pink with huge kinetic type for Employee Appreciation Day on social
Midnight indigo, fireworks and a confetti cannon to thank a team after a launch or a big win
Kraft card, parcel twine and a handwritten luggage tag to wish someone well on their next adventure
Paste this into your group chat or email and change the parts in brackets:
“Hi everyone, we’re making a surprise thank-you video for [name] for [reason]. Could you film a short message, 10 to 20 seconds, saying thank you and one thing you’ll remember? Please hold your phone [sideways / upright], stand somewhere bright and quiet, and send it to [me / the shared folder] by [day and date]. Please keep it a secret!”
Keeping it to one paragraph matters: people skim group messages, and a long brief gets ignored.
Easiest for small groups. Messaging apps often compress video, which is fine for a phone-sized film but can look soft on a big screen. Ask people to send it as a file or document if the app offers that.
Works for colleagues, but large clips can exceed attachment limits. A short clip of 10 to 20 seconds usually fits.
Best for twenty or more people and keeps the original quality. Make a folder in the cloud storage your group already uses and share an upload link. Download everything to your device before you start editing.
Open with a title card and the warmest or funniest clip, put the longest-serving people or closest friends near the end, and close on a group photo with a line such as those in the thank you message ideas. Twenty clips at fifteen seconds each runs to five minutes, so ask people to cut slow starts before they send, or shorten long clips in your phone’s Photos app before adding them. Gathering everything on one iPhone? The iPhone guide shows where the files end up.
For a colleague who is moving on, the leaving video page has ideas for the running order and the tone, and the thank you video ideas suggest formats beyond a straight run of messages.
Send one short request with a clear deadline to a group chat, email list or shared folder, and collect everything in one place yourself. A reminder two or three days before the deadline brings in most of the stragglers.
No. The maker never receives anyone’s files; it only works with clips already on your device. Collect them first with a chat, email or a shared folder, then add them.
Whichever matches the video you are making. Landscape suits a screen at an event; portrait suits a video watched on phones. What matters most is that everyone films the same way.
Ten to twenty seconds each. With more than fifteen people, aim for the lower end so the whole video stays under about four minutes.
Ask for a photo and a written line instead, and show the line on screen over the photo. It keeps them in the video without putting them on camera.
Use a separate group chat or email thread that leaves out the person being thanked, and put “please keep it a secret” in the request. Name files by contributor rather than by the recipient.
