Are you always looking for a fun and creative new way to promote your youth ministry events? Do you find yourself wanting to reenact and repurpose scenes from your favorite movies to go along with a theme you might have for a youth night, event, or even retreat? If so, we’ve got a cool new product we want to introduce to you today: YooStar.
What Is It?
The Yoostar System is a collection of the following pieces:
- A High-Resolution Camera.
- A camera stand and multiple camera clips.
- Green Screen Stand.
- Green Screen
- Remote
Combining all of these great tools allows you to be green-screened into your choice of old movies, to deliver the greatest lines alongside some of the greatest actors. The Yoostar isn’t just a camera, it comes with the necessary editing software and a six by six foot green screen (in its own collapsible nylon bag) that you can put up behind you. Then, when you film yourself, you can be entered into the picture right alongside the greats.
How Good Is It?
While we weren’t able to get our hands on a test unit to try out ourselves, we’ve spent some time reading a variety of reviews around the Interwebs to get people’s opinions to see if this product is really worth the money. At $169.99, it’s not cheap. However, Amazon.com has a few of them available used from $125 to help save you some money.
The Yoostar video camera puts out crisp, high-resolution video. Although the video quality suffers when uploaded online, the original copies left for playback on your computer easily beat what most webcams produce. The camera also has no trouble picking up voices with a built-in microphones. In fact, you may find yourself turning down your mic volume when you speak louder than those who co-star with you. (I’m looking at you John Belushi).
Despite the high quality of the camera, it does have one major downside: The Yoostar camera can only be used with the Yoostar software. It has been tested with Skype on Windows-based machines and on Macs, but Skype apparently refuses to recognize the camera. It may only need additional drivers (which may come in the future), but at this point, I can see it being very frustrating to have a high-resolution webcam that’s not compatible with any other software.
Videos
The YooStar comes with 14 video clips preloaded on it.
- The Godfather
- Field of Dreams
- Some Like It Hot
- Forrest Gump
- Rocky
- Sabrina
- Blues Brothers
- Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
- Animal House
- Back to School
- Saw II
- Up in Smoke
- Coming to America
- Sesame Street
Thousands of scenes from new and old videos can be purcahsed additionally from the Yoostar website for roughly $1 per scene.
The Verdict
The price is the breaking point for many, especially for those of us in ministry with tiny budgets. At $169.99 the Yoostar system isn’t exactly cheap, but the hardware is definitely worth the price. The quality green screen, stand and camera alone are worth $169.99. Sadly, since the camera isn’t able to be used with other programs, there’s a lot of wasted potential. If you think you’ll get lots of mileage out of the Yoostar systems capabilities, don’t think twice about purchasing it. On the other hand, if you think your mileage may vary and aren’t sure about making the jump, just keep in mind that it does bring a great green screen set-up that can be used for your own home movies. At $169.99, the Yoostar system isn’t cheap, but it’s still making you an offer that’s tough to refuse. Ask a few parents to see if they’ll throw in $25 to help you purchase it. It sure would make a great piece to help promote your ministry events, or even to get kids to come.
