“I made a horror movie. I recorded my dad’s snore for a scary sound effect!”
The Virtual Movie Studio
A movie-making system by Curious Toys for ages 8 and up.
This toy featured the industry’s smallest video camera about the size of a marshmallow. I developed the CMOS camera with a video camera supplier in Tiawan. To save time and expense in development, I reverse engineered larger video cameras the supplier provided. Working back-and-forth with a video engineer, we externalized the power supply and sound components. Parts were simplified like the plastic adjustable lens that could focus up to 1-inch. The housing was patterned to look like a Panavision movie camera. The die-cast metal camera dolly with an adjustable boom and pivoting wheels, could “crab” along along the floor like a Fisher dolly used on film sets. Budding sound engineers could record audio with a condenser microphone encased in a miniature sound mixing board.
A portable three-set stage movie studio provided backgrounds for a science fiction epic complete with four action hero figures. A realistic clapboard doubled as a carrying case for the entire movie-making system.
The Virtual Movie Studio was well-received at the American International Toy Fair in 2000 garnering media attention and awards by trade journals. Special promotional tie-ins were created with the Store of Knowledge, Imaginarium, and Noodle Kidoodle stores. Sony invited us to present the product during an inventor showcase and ordered 100 units for the Sony Metreon Center in San Francisco.
At the time of its introduction, The Virtual Movie Studio had one of the smallest consumer video cameras available anywhere. College students made unique videos with the camera taped onto all kids of objects. We ran competitions for the best videos and unique stories of how they used the camera.
SERVICES
- Concept creation
- Develop camera with an engineer in Taiwan
- Work with designers and engineers on development
- Art direct backdrop artists and package designer
- Production follow through in China
- Demonstration video production
- Retail display design and installation
