How long can a Group Hug be?

Short Answer:

A Group Hug montage can be up to 50 minutes in duration.

Detailed Answer:

There are two aspects to why the limit is 50 minutes: 

  1. The limits of the VidHug system and
  2. Making a great group video.

What are the limits of VidHug?

While we offer guidance and suggestions (see below), we've never wanted to impose rules on our users when we don't have to. Your Group Hug is your creation. So since the beginning of VidHug, we have not imposed strict limits on individual video length (they can be several minutes), the number of videos that can appear in a Group Hug, or the total length of a Group Hug. Our users have created Group Hugs featuring up to 100 videos (wow!). Whether that's a video anyone will have the stamina or attention span to watch is another question, but our system has been able to handle it. Bottom line: If you're creating something shorter than 50 minutes, you should be fine.

If you're creating something longer than 50 minutes, we cannot guarantee that our rendering process will handle it. For content just a little bit longer, it may work and has done so in the past, but it may not; it depends on the individual videos themselves. You can give it a try but proceed at your own risk. For content much longer than this, it will more than likely not work (rendering will fail). We cannot offer custom support in these situations. If you have a Group Hug with too much content in it, you will have to create another Group Hug and move some of the content over to it

What makes a great Group Hug?

VidHug is all about making an incredible group gift. Most people are more deeply touched when 25 of their family and friends send them their love, instead of just one person. While there is certainly strength in numbers, having a lower number of people (e.g. less than 10) in a Group Hug doesn't necessarily make the end-result any less powerful. Who the individuals are and the message they are conveying can have just as significant an impact. 

The other factor we often refer to is pacing. If a Group Hug is too long, the person receiving it may not have the stamina or attention span to watch it all, and it may lose some impact. It's like receiving a birthday card where someone has written a 2000-word essay on the inside. 

The same goes for the individual videos within the Group Hug. While we certainly think that a spouse, parent, child, or sibling might have more to say than a not-so-close friend, everyone should avoid recording a video that is several minutes long; it negatively affects the montage flow. Individual videos can also be too short, especially when you account for the half-second cross-fade transition. This is why we suggest an ideal time of between 10 and 60 seconds for each individual submission.

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