Halloween Party and Office Video Ideas

The lineup that sings. Take a group photo early in the night while everyone still looks like their costume. Every visible face gets animated, so the whole lineup performs a track together. Make it during the evening and play it back later, or send it the next morning when everyone is fragile and sentimental.

The costume contest reveal. Instead of announcing a winner, play a short video of each nominee performing. It takes the awkwardness out of judging and gives everyone something to send to themselves.

The house band that does not exist. Pick four people, one photo, an original track about the party. It reads like a fake documentary and it is the sort of thing people still reference next year.

The office Halloween thing has a specific problem: half the team dresses up enthusiastically and half of them find the whole thing excruciating. Video makes that worse if you get it wrong and better if you get it right.

The team photo. Whoever is in costume, in one photo, performing something ridiculous. Optional participation, obviously.

The remote version. For distributed teams this is stronger than anything you can do on a call. One video of the whole team in costume does more than an hour of a video-call quiz, and it is the only shared artefact the day produces.

The department horror trailer. Gothic style, deadpan voiceover track, entirely about something mundane like the expenses system. This lands far harder than it should.

The rules that keep it fun are the same ones as the Christmas office version:

1. Ask first. Tell people what you are making before you make it.
2. Let anyone opt out. No explanation, no comment.
3. Punch up or at the group. Leadership can be teased. The newest person cannot. Never about appearance, which matters more at Halloween than any other event.
4. Keep it short. Thirty seconds.

The lowest effort and the highest hit rate. A costume photo from three years ago, performing something, dropped into the chat with no context on a Tuesday in October.

This is also the best use of old photos. A Halloween photo from 2016 performing a current song is funnier than anything you can make from this year.

A party video is played out loud to people who are not concentrating, so the song has to be recognisable within about three seconds. Something everyone knows, trimmed to the obvious bit, or an original about the specific group, which buys attention through curiosity instead.

You can upload a track, use the library, or have an original written about the party, the office or the house.

• Take the photo early. Costumes and faces degrade as the night goes on. So does the lighting.
• Get the face lit. Party lighting is atmospheric and useless for this. One properly lit shot is all you need.
• Make it before the day. Generation takes minutes, but the good version is usually the second attempt.
• Check what it is playing on. Portrait by default. Know whether it is a phone, a laptop or a television.
• Have it in two places. On your phone and sent to someone else.

Start from the Halloween page, and if you want the technical side first, how to make a Halloween music video covers it.