A while back, I tested Amazon’s cheapest non-kiddie camera, a $20 dud that’s sold under a variety of deceptive names on the online retailer’s website. Setting the bar low in a way I thought was impossible, one filmmaker decided to challenge himself by using the cheapest camera on the site to make a short film, and this time, it was actually a kiddie camera.
Filmmaker Isaac Carlton is no stranger to high-end productions as he has been involved in a number of projects earlier in his career, but as he says in a behind-the-scenes video of his latest film, he has moved on to making films that he can make easier, cheaper, and more often.
Input Loyang Children’s Cameraa $9 kids’ video camera. Carlton bought the camera with the intention of shooting an entire movie on it, and with a little creativity, he did just that.
But as I watched this process, I couldn’t help but think, what the hell is going on at Amazon that cameras like the ones Carlton and I bought are allowed to be sold on this site? All the reviews on all of these cameras seemed completely fabricated. None of the ones I received matched the promised specs, and it seemed like Carlton’s didn’t either. The most important spec, the video resolution, wasn’t even close. The camera he bought was supposed to be 1080p HD, but it was actually 640×480.
Undeterred, Carlton used the camera’s “strangeness” as a storytelling device, weaving a story shot entirely from the perspective of a home security camera, lending a sense of credibility to otherwise extremely poor quality footage.
During the process, Carlton encountered additional issues related to data entry, random footage errors, and unresolvable date stamps.
Still, he managed to make an interesting movie out of it. You can watch it. Finished product here.
When you intentionally buy a lemon, I guess make lemonade right?
Perhaps people who bought old Powershot cameras from the mid-2000s for the aesthetics will find the Loyang Kids camera appealing. As for me? I’ll stick with it. R6 mark II.
