by Bill B
Drone technology is relatively new. But lots of regular people have already embraced the technology and are attaching their iPhones or other types of cameras to drones to film anything from documentaries to comedies, all with a bird’s eye view.
But because it is so new the Drone Film Festival probably wasn’t going to be a work of genius. Out of the 40 films presented – ranging from 30 seconds to seven minutes – most felt like either an ad or a travel guide, and far too many were set to obnoxious Dubstep.
One of the things that drones do really well, is they take you to places you wouldn’t normally get to see. One film about Mont Saint-Michel island in France, took us to the very top of a cathedral where a statue stood, showing us the details of it’s face. There is no way you could even see the statue from the ground.
But in this festival, most of the films were just mimicking what a helicopter can already do, flying over landscapes.
Amongst the endless footage of mountains and water crashing against rocks, there were a few films that successfully combined storytelling and great drone footage, including Skywalkers – which talked about and provided impressive views of large scale graffiti art around the world – and Greystone Rising, the story of the demolition of the Greystone Park buildings in New Jersey, a former psychiatric centre.
An honorable mention should go to the “fun” films – such as Drone Star Wars, which was purely Star Wars-themed drones flying and shooting – and Superman with a Go-Pro, essentially a fan film that followed the flight of Superman as he returned a go-pro to a civilian.
Another film that managed to stand out despite being a nature film was Snow, which used a drone to get amazing close-up footage of wild animals such as polar bears, tigers and buffalo in snowy regions.
Hopefully the boring commercial/nature stuff will get filtered out over the next few years, and we might see a few proper stories instead.
Drone Film Festival Australian and New Zealand
3 – 24 Nov 2016
Is there any way that these drone films could be used in the community for good? I am wondering about their use to investigate earthquake damage where roads have been cut.