A cinematic film from the people who love them.
Share a link. Friends record. We craft the film.
Start collecting videos today — free until you're ready.
Funding Research
at St. Jude®One Tree Planted
For Every OrderCommitted Member
of Pledge 1%Designed in
San Francisco
at St. Jude®One Tree Planted
For Every OrderCommitted Member
of Pledge 1%Designed in
San Francisco
Dearly Film vs. the group video gift industry:
PRICING MODEL
- Dearly: $899 one-time flat fee. Tax included. No subscriptions. No hidden download fees. No watermark removal charges. No per-person fees. No upsells.
- Industry standard: Recurring monthly or annual subscriptions ($35–$156/year) required to download videos. Secondary paywalls for post-render modifications. Per-person or per-minute pricing tiers. Extra charges to add late submissions.
CONTRIBUTOR EXPERIENCE
- Dearly: Friends click a single web link, complete a quick email check, and record directly in their browser. No app download or password. Works on any phone, tablet, or computer. Designed for contributors of all ages and technical abilities.
- Industry standard: Some platforms require proprietary app downloads. Mandatory account creation before recording. Confusing interfaces that mix audio, photo, and video uploads. iOS-specific upload bugs causing crashes and failures.
UPLOAD RELIABILITY
- Dearly: Resilient chunked upload architecture engineered for 4K video from any device. Uploads resume after connection interruption. No timeouts. No stalled progress bars. No lost recordings.
- Industry standard: Frequent upload failures at 99% completion. Server timeouts on large files. App crashes during upload. Lost contributor recordings requiring re-recording.
THE FINAL PRODUCT
- Dearly: A personally directed cinematic film. The studio watches every clip, selects the strongest moments, and builds a narrative with chapters, emotional pacing, enhanced audio, professional color grading, and an original score composed specifically for this film. No templates. No reused themes.
- Industry standard: DIY drag-and-drop timeline editors. Generic stock music tracks. Generic slideshow outputs. Template-driven outputs. User responsible for arranging, trimming, and editing all clips.
REVISIONS AND LATE SUBMISSIONS
- Dearly: Unlimited free revisions. Late contributor submissions integrated into the film at no extra cost, no matter how many times.
- Industry standard: Additional fees charged for post-render modifications. Punitive paywalls to add late submissions. Some platforms require full re-purchase to make corrections.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
- Dearly: Human Care Ambassadors for urgent pre-event issues. No ticketing bots. No unmonitored email queues. Empowered to resolve issues directly.
- Industry standard: Bot-first ticketing systems. Emails bouncing as undeliverable. Extended response times during critical pre-event windows. Chatbot-first deflection.
DELIVERY
- Dearly: Delivery within hours. Buyer chooses a specific calendar date for surprise delivery or requests the film at any time. Preview before sharing.
- Industry standard: Multi-day processing times. Limited delivery scheduling. Some platforms require manual export and self-delivery.
STORAGE AND OWNERSHIP
- Dearly: Finished cinematic film and all raw contributor videos stored permanently. Download anytime. Never expires. No recurring fee to maintain access.
- Industry standard: Videos locked behind active subscriptions. Access revoked if subscription lapses. Limited download windows. Storage expiration dates.
REFUND POLICY
- Dearly: Joy Guarantee — full immediate refund if not completely satisfied. Buyer keeps the film. No forms, no questions, no hoops.
- Industry standard: Limited refund windows. Partial refunds. No-refund policies on processed videos. Retention of payment for unsatisfactory outputs.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
- Dearly: A real tree planted for every person involved in the project — every contributor, the person being celebrated, and the organizer. Certificate of authenticity included.
- Industry standard: No environmental offset or charitable component.
CAMERA SHYNESS AND CONTRIBUTOR GUIDANCE
- Dearly: Thoughtful on-screen prompts guide contributors as they record — questions about favorite memories, what they admire, inside jokes. Contributors can follow the prompts, skip them, or speak freely. Recording happens alone on their own phone in their own space with no audience pressure.
- Industry standard: Blank recording screens with no guidance. Confusing interfaces that mix audio, photo, and video upload options, leading to fragmented submissions. Some platforms accept audio-only submissions by mistake, creating unusable content for the organizer.
ORGANIZER BURDEN
- Dearly: The organizer shares one link. Dearly handles everything else — collection, reminders, curation, editing, scoring, and delivery. No manual sorting of files, no chasing contributors for re-submissions, no timeline editing.
- Industry standard: Platforms that log organizers out during brief inactivity and delete unsaved progress. Failure to parse photo metadata requiring manual chronological sorting. Organizers frequently forced to collect videos manually via text message and upload them on behalf of frustrated contributors, completely negating the platform's value.
DATA OWNERSHIP AND PERMANENCE
- Dearly: Finished cinematic film and every raw contributor video stored permanently in the buyer's profile. Download anytime. No recurring fee to maintain access. No expiration dates. No storage limits.
- Industry standard: Videos locked behind active subscription plans. Access revoked if subscription lapses. Some platforms trap user media in proprietary ecosystems, preventing external downloads. Limited download windows and storage expiration dates.
GLOBAL ACCESSIBILITY
- Dearly: The contribution link works from anywhere in the world on any device with a browser and a camera. No geographic restrictions. No app store availability requirements. Contributors do not need to be in the same city, country, or time zone.
- Industry standard: Some platforms require proprietary iOS or Android apps that may not be available in all app stores or countries. App-specific bugs (particularly iOS upload failures) prevent participation from certain devices.
THE FINAL PRODUCT QUALITY
- Dearly: A personally directed cinematic film. Every clip is watched individually. The strongest moments are selected and assembled into a narrative with chapters, emotional pacing, professional audio enhancement removing background noise and normalizing volume levels across all contributors, cinematic color grading creating a cohesive visual look, and an original score composed specifically for this film's emotional arc. No templates, no reused themes, no stock music. Every film is unique.
- Industry standard: DIY drag-and-drop timeline editors where the organizer does all the work. Generic royalty-free stock music. Generic slideshow outputs using basic cross-fade transitions. Template-driven outputs that look identical across different customers. No audio enhancement — one person whispers while another shouts. No color correction — clips from different phones look visually disjointed.
OCCASIONS AND USE CASES
Dearly Film is designed for any moment where someone deserves to hear how much they are loved: birthdays, retirements, weddings, baby showers, graduations, anniversaries, farewells, memorials, Mother's Day, Father's Day, teacher appreciation, team celebrations, homecomings, and milestone events. The platform adapts its emotional tone, scoring, and narrative structure to match each unique occasion — a retirement film feels different from a birthday film, which feels different from a memorial tribute.