New York, NY (March 16, 2016) On Saturday, March 5, at the Directors Guild Theatre, founder/director Randy Scott Slavin presented the second annual New York City Drone Film Festival, a visually stunning celebration of the creative exuberance taking place in remote control aerial videography.
The day began with lectures and conferences on related subjects including legal issues (droning can encourage your inner voyeur!). A red carpet reception followed in the theatre’s lounge, where state-of-the art drones were displayed in front of iconic photos of legendary Hollywood directors on the set. Fashions included jeans and T-shirts, guests grabbed cans of beer out of an ice chest, and munched on cupcakes decorated like drones.
Past and future: the best-in-show prize drone in front of pictures of iconic directors including Howard Hawks (center, directing Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday).
There were 350 entries in this year’s festival (all clocking in with running times under five minutes and using 50% drone video). This was double the number of last year’s entries, attesting to the growing popularity—and the increasing accessibility—of drone technology. Cameras can be rented for as little as $100 a day and the latest Phantom 3 drone from DJI sells for under $1400.
Entries were divided into 11 categories, finalists screened for attendees, and the winners announced.
Some categories are a natural fit for droning, especially “Extreme Sports.” The 1966 surfer classic The Endless Summer seems quaint as Eric Sterman’s Teahupo’o: Du Ciel takes us inside the giant waves off the Hawaiian coast. Phillipe Woodtli described lugging heavy control equipment up the Italian Alps to film skydivers in his Acrophobia and added an emotional charge at the end when the narrator revealed his fear of heights. The winner in the category (and best in show for the festival) was Sweetgrass Productions’ Afterglow Light Suit Segment. Illuminated skiers literally lit up the night on the slopes of British Columbia and Alaska.
Another great fit was “Architecture.” Jeffrey Worthington’s Desert Fortress provided powerful overviews of Herod the Great’s fortress at Masada in the Israeli desert while a narrator recounted the last stand of the Jewish Zealots. The winner here was Judy Johnson’s brilliant Greystone Rising. Video of the destruction of the Greystone Park psychiatric hospital in New Jersey was shown in reverse so the building seemed to reassemble as the voice over made a case for architectural preservation.
“Landscape” is already a familiar drone subject and the winner, John Duncan’s Wild Scotland reminds us why the land of Walter Scott so inspired 19th century romantics.
Acrophobia director Phillippe Woodtli in front of a photo of a cigarette-smoking Boris Karloff (with whom he feels a kinship) on the set of Frankenstein.
Given the dearth of good stories even in mainstream filmmaking, it’s not surprising that narratives were weaker. An E.T. parody came up lame, but the winner, Corridor Digital’s The Smallest Empire was an effective top-down view of strategy games that came off as a Lilliputian Apocalypto. The “Featuring Drones” category was better, although the inevitable Zombie vs. Drone featured a zombie that would have embarrassed a high school film class.
Jordan Rubin’s The Drone, however, was a real crowd pleaser: a spot-on horror spoof with a drone as a latter day “Chuckie.” The winner was a real beauty: Cirque du Soleil’s Sparked: A Live Interaction Between Humans and Quadcopters. Set to a haunting score by Danny Elfman, the short was a Hoffmann-esque fantasy in which drones depicted dancing lampshades.
Another “it had to happen” was the category of “Dronies” i.e. selfies with drone. The winner provided genuine gasps. In Behind the Mask’s The Shark Dronie a man filmed himself lying on the ocean floor while sharks swam around him. This category also contained the “Audience Favorite.” It was nice to appreciate the sweetness of Tarsicio Sanudo Suarez’ Dronie Proposal before this becomes the next internet cliche. It was also nice to see the audience give a shout out to romance.
Two hours plus of drone video can induce dizziness and is not recommended if you suffer from epilepsy. But even beyond the pure visuals, the technology literally lifts up our gaze and gives us a cathartic respite from the world below.
For a complete list of events, nominees and winners: WWW.NYCDRONEFILMFESTIVAL.COM
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