A film for somebody leaving, or somebody who has been there for years

This is a small occasion and one of the strongest ideas for a film, because the occasion is universal and the material is arithmetic. If somebody started in 1998, the film can count the years since then and let the number arrive at the end.

Retirement

A colleague or a manager, often the day before, standing in front of a room on the last working day. The film counts the years in the job and puts the number at the end. The greeting from the team stands on its own, in the team's words. It is funnier than a speech and it takes less time to prepare, which matters because the person preparing it is also doing their own job.

A round number in the same workplace

Twenty five years or forty years, from the employer or from the team. Same counting, different tone. Keep the words as a script, and the next round number is the same film with one number changed.

The leaving gift that is not a gift

A colleague who leaves for another job does not get a retirement. That film needs less counting and more of what they will be missed for. The same template works; the words are what change.

What these ask of you

• A name. The person's name, spelled the way they spell it.
• The year they started. This is the number the whole film is built on.
• A greeting from the team. One message that everybody signs, rather than a card that circulates for two weeks.
• A photograph only if you want one. The one from the intranet will do.

Making it in Nine

A film of your own comes with a plan; the free part of Nine lets you look and try, and never makes a film. On a plan there are several ways in. Start from a template puts your own words into one of Nine's templates, a name and one line, a card that holds still, or three points, and adds nothing to them. A script takes the words you already have, in your order, and each paragraph becomes a scene. Just an idea needs only a sentence. A voice recording makes the film run as long as you talk, with your voice as its sound. On the Film plan a film is up to 30 seconds.

The film is drawn, so it needs no photograph. If it should show your own photographs, the plans with a library, Film + Transparent and above, make a film from your own pictures, placed as they are and never retouched. Music is added afterwards in the chamber, calm or with a beat, and goes into the video file when you save. Nine sends nothing to anybody: you get the video file, or a private review link, and you decide who sees it.