The disposable camera app for New Year’s Eve, pointed at midnight.
Everybody photographs midnight. Nobody gets a good one. It is dark, everyone is moving, and every single phone in the room is pointed at the same ten seconds. One of those photographs is bad. Thirty of them are a record.
Midnight from thirty phones at the same second.
The one moment of the year everybody photographs simultaneously, and the one that comes out worst on any single phone. Thirty bad photos of the same countdown turn out to be one very good record of it.
- Shoot blind
- No retakes
- Opens New Year’s Day
- Free up to five guests
12 shots each · develops on New Year’s Day
How it works
Send the code before anyone goes out
Fifteen to forty people, one code, circulated while everybody is still getting ready. New Year’s Eve is not an evening for setting things up.
Twelve shots, and no checking them
A small roll and no way to look at it. Nobody spends midnight reviewing the photograph of midnight they took four seconds ago.
It opens on New Year’s Day
The first thing that happens in the new year is everyone finding out what the last night of the old one actually looked like.
Twelve shots, and no way to check them
A smaller count suits a night with one obvious peak in it. Twelve shots each means people hold some back for midnight instead of spending everything by ten, and since there are no previews and no retakes, nobody stands in the corner reviewing a blurry countdown while the countdown is still happening. You shoot and you look up.
It opens on New Year’s Day
Set it to develop on the first, and the roll arrives into exactly the right sort of morning: everybody slow, everybody at home, nobody with anywhere to be. It is the one day of the year when a few hundred photographs landing at once is a gift rather than an interruption.
What it costs
Usually fifteen to forty people for one night. Crowdroll is free for events of up to five guests, and you are not counted as one of them. Above that you pay once for the event rather than by subscription — every size, add-on and pack is set out on the pricing page, with a builder that adds your own night up. There is nothing to cancel afterwards.
If you want more than the roll
The party pack
€44.99
Midnight is the most photographed minute of the year and the one everybody gets wrong, because everybody is watching it through their own screen. Unlimited shots covers the hour either side without anybody deciding what is worth it, and the film the next morning is the only New Year’s recap nobody had to stay up making.
- Slideshow of the night
- Unlimited shots
- 6 video messages each
€14.98 less than buying those parts separately
Added when you create the event, and it applies to that event only.
Questions about New Year’s Eve
- Does it work in the dark?
- It uses the phone’s own camera, so it is as good in low light as the phone is. There are six looks to choose from and the honest one is the default, with no baked-in grain and nothing pretending a dark room was well lit.
- Is it free for a house party?
- Free up to five people. Beyond that the host pays once for that event, never a subscription, and guests never pay at any size.
- Can people join after midnight?
- Yes. Anyone can scan the code and start shooting while the roll is open, with whatever shots are left in their allowance.
Also worth a roll
Start a roll
Midnight happens once and everybody in the room photographs it badly. Thirty bad photographs of the same second is the good one.
12 shots each · develops on New Year’s Day
Free for events of up to five guests, and you are not counted as one of them.