Drones show off artistic side
Festival celebrates filmmakers’ low-cost source of aerial footage
While critics see drones as threats to public safety, a San Francisco film festival Thursday night celebrates the artistic merits of these high-tech flying video cameras.
The Flying Robot International Film Festival will screen 20 videos shot using drones, with $10,000 in prizes at stake in six categories that including “drones for good,” “aerial sports” and “LOL.”
And these aren’t just YouTube aerial views of someone’s backyard. In one short video titled “Running Into the Air,” filmmaker Sebastian Woeber takes viewers on an inspirational journey, imagining what he would see if he could fly over the ancient castles, pristine lakes and evergreen forests of Switzerland.
Drones give filmmakers “the ability to be your own Superman, to get up in the sky and be a bird at low cost,” said festival director Eddie Codel.
Before drones, obtaining the kind of aerial footage seen in
Woeber’s three-minute film would have required hiring an expensive helicopter, Codel said. And some of the low-flying shots couldn’t be done even with a helicopter, he said.
Drones are in the news for other than cinematic reasons. Last week, for example, a wayward drone crashed into the Seattle Great Wheel. No one was hurt, but the incident forced workers to stop the giant Ferris wheel to check for damage and look for the culprit.
And there have been enough close calls between drones and commercial aircraft to prompt the Federal Aviation Administration, which forecasts 1 million drones will be purchased this holiday season, to require all drone owners to register their craft.
Meanwhile, retailers like Amazon and Walmart propose using drones as delivery aircraft.
But drone owners have also posted thousands of drone videos online, showing everything from weddings to the Apple headquarters under contruction to drone races. So drone makers are recognizing aerial photography is a big selling point.
In a news conference Tuesday at the Metreon, French consumer drone pioneer Parrot showed off its latest model, which is basically a video camcorder with four propellers.
Parrot CEO Henri Seydoux said the “most important feature” of the $550 Bebop 2 is the 14-megapixel, 1080p HD camera with a 180degree fish-eye lens.
“Drones are for taking pictures,” Seydoux said. “The drone is a flying image processing device.”
Parrot made the Bebop 2, due on the market Dec. 14, easier to fly using a mobile app or an optional remote control that includes a tablet-sized video screen to display the drone’s view of the world.
While cameras on drones were once more of an afterthought, with attachments that allow cameras like a GoPro to hang beneath, the Bebop 2 illustrates how drone makers are making aiming the devices for more than just hobbyists seeking a hightech kite.
“You’ve gone from the very techie customers to the more mainstream consumer,” said Mike Perez, vice president of sales and marketing for Parrot’s North American headquarters, which moved from Detroit to San Francisco earlier this year.
“It opens up that whole genre to someone who says I want to be able to record my kids outside playing, I want to see my house from a different perspective,” Perez said. “It’s amazing to see this new content being created.”
Codel’s drone’s eye video of Burning Man in 2013 has received more than 2 million views. So the video production consultant and filmmaker believed the time was right for a drone film festival.
“There’s so much stuff out there it made so much sense,” he said. “I wanted to provide a forum for anyone who has a creative itch.”
Codel received 153 festival entries from 35 countries. The 20 finalists will be screened twice at the fest, held at the Roxie Theater in the Mission District. (A 7 p.m. show sold out quickly, but Codel said Wednesday that tickets remained for a 9:30 p.m. screening.)
To promote the festival, Codel highlighted “Running Into the Air,” which Woeber shot using a DJI Inspire 1 drone. The Austrian filmmaker has also posted a video giving cinematic tips for shooting drone footage.
The festival also highlighted “Ma forêt,” from French film maker Sébastien Pins, about a child’s travels through “the forest to discover its magic, its mysteries and its meetings.” The film’s teaser, posted on YouTube, includes drone shots above and through a forest.
And another video came from Prenav, a San Carlos company developing a drone-based automated system to capture data about the world’s infrastructure.
In “Hello World,” Prenav demonstrated its drone precision navigation technology. The video shows dazzling light displays created by drones programmed to fly in precise patterns.