The person asked to make the retirement or farewell video is rarely a video professional. It's whoever knows the retiree best, or whoever is youngest. There are usually two or three weeks, and it has to stay secret. Where these videos get stuck is material that never arrives, followed closely by a video that runs too long. This checklist saves a lot of back and forth.
What goes in
- The career: a photo from their first years, roles over time, the projects that mattered. An old staff ID photo or a press clipping is gold.
- Photos with colleagues: year-end parties, company trips, birthdays, late-night meals at the office.
- Messages from colleagues and family: about ten seconds each. Former colleagues or family members, placed last, are usually the most moving part.
- One line for them, signed by everyone, at the end.
Collecting the material
- One contact per team who gathers that team's photos and clips, so you are not asking fifty people yourself.
- Ask HR, communications or long-serving staff for old photos. Event albums and newsletters often show them years younger.
- Give recording instructions: sideways, ten seconds, name and team, one sentence. In the office, use a quiet meeting room.
- One cloud folder, with a subfolder per team. See how to provide footage.
- Set a deadline three weeks before the farewell. Chasing files is the most tiring part.
Farewells for colleagues who are leaving or transferring
Not every farewell is a retirement. When a colleague moves to another company, or transfers to another office or department, the video is usually lighter and shorter: two to three minutes is plenty. Focus on the time you spent together rather than a whole career:
- Projects you worked on together: the launch, the tight deadline, the business trip, the client everyone remembers.
- Everyday moments in the office: their desk, lunch runs, team photos, birthday cakes.
- Short messages from the team: a few seconds each is enough.
- A closing line from everyone, such as "You're always welcome back."
If time is short, a handful of messages and a few group photos are enough for a farewell video.
Length
For playing at the farewell, four to six minutes is the ceiling. With many colleagues, trim each message to five or six seconds, or have each team record one together. When it runs long, people reach for their phones, which is unkind to the person being honoured.
Check these first
- Anything in the photos that shouldn't be shown: unreleased products, internal documents, client data in the background. Mark anything that needs blurring. See blurring faces and details in video.
- Photos of former staff or outside people: it's courteous to ask them.
- Whether the video will go on company social channels or the website. If so, use licensed music.
- Names and titles. Check them; a senior person's name misspelled on a title card is the last thing anyone wants.
Before you hand it over
Along with the material, send a short note: the retiree's name and title, years of service, the date and the equipment at the venue, and the mood you want (warm, light-hearted, or both). If anything is confidential, see is footage kept confidential. We reply within 48 hours to tell you whether we can take it on; if we can, we write up a quote so you can decide whether to go ahead. For other videos for company events, such as year-end parties, award ceremonies and trade shows, see event video production.
FAQ
There's only a week left. Is that enough?
It depends on whether the material is already collected. Tell us the date and what you have; see rush video editing for how this is judged.
Can it be funny instead of sentimental?
Yes: catchphrases, colleagues' impressions, amusing old photos. You set the limits, because only colleagues know which jokes land.
Can the retiree keep a copy?
Yes. We deliver a video file, which you can pass on by USB drive or cloud link.
