How late can I leave it?

A full year takes most people five to ten minutes of choosing plus render time. Starting on the 31st is tight but perfectly possible.

What if I barely filmed in some months?

Those months pass quickly rather than leaving a hole. The film reflects the year you actually recorded, which is its own kind of honest.

Can I make one for a year that has already passed?

Yes. Any year still in your photo library can be built today. Several people build three or four back years in one sitting.

New Year Recap Video

The New Year recap is the one video a year that people genuinely sit and watch together. It is also the one most often abandoned around 29 December, when the scale of a year of footage becomes obvious.

An evening, not a project

The reason these get abandoned is that people open a timeline editor and begin trimming. A year at that pace is a week of work. Dayjavu inverts the job: it scans January to December, tells you how many days actually contain video, and gives you one decision per day.

At that pace a year is genuinely an evening. Most of the time goes on the handful of days where you filmed something good and have to choose between takes.

Length is the whole game

A New Year recap is watched in a room with other people, often after dinner, sometimes by people who were present for only part of it. That argues hard for brevity: one second per day gives roughly six minutes for a well-documented year, which holds a room.

Three seconds a day pushes the same year past a quarter of an hour, and you will watch attention drift. Turn the date overlay on so the people who missed a stretch can follow where they are.

Do not wait for 31 December

Build a version in the second week of December while there is time, then rebuild it on the 30th with the last few weeks added. The source clips are untouched by exporting, so a second pass costs nothing but the render.

If you are reading this in January, nothing is lost: last year is still sitting in your photo library in full, and a recap built in February is exactly as good.

A working plan

Import 1 January to 31 December in one date range.
One second per day. About six minutes for the year.
Turn on dates so guests can follow the timeline.
Export at 4K if it is going on a television.

Download on the App Store

FAQ

How late can I leave it?: A full year takes most people five to ten minutes of choosing plus render time. Starting on the 31st is tight but perfectly possible.
What if I barely filmed in some months?: Those months pass quickly rather than leaving a hole. The film reflects the year you actually recorded, which is its own kind of honest.
Can I make one for a year that has already passed?: Yes. Any year still in your photo library can be built today. Several people build three or four back years in one sitting.