A Movie By a Drone

Drones can carry bombs, perform surveillance and now, make movies.

The New York City Drone Film Festival is the world’s first event dedicated to the art of drone cinematography. On Saturday it will present 35 films that are 5 minutes or shorter.

One of them, "The Fallout," directed by Brian Streem and Jeff Brink, was filmed at the former nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, in February 2014.

In this interview, Streem said they decided to film in Chernobyl because of a fascination with abandoned places. The filmmakers hired a production company in Ukraine, and had to navigate several challenges, including the political turmoil in that country.

Streem and Brink are the co-founders of AeroCine, one of about 10 companies that have approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to film from a drone. Streem said since he watched a drone film video on YouTube about three years ago, he has been fascinated by the idea of placing a camera in a this unconventional, new place. “I am particularly interested in the convergence of art and technology,” he said. “I think technology is just as much an extension of the human imagination as a Picasso painting.”

Streem acknowledges drones have a bad reputation as tools for surveillance or war, but he doesn’t have issues with that. “Not only I do believe what we are doing is ethical, I think it’s noble. We are trying to commit ourselves to storytelling,” he said.

AeroCine is now working with several movie studios and TV networks, said Streem. Some of the areas they are exploring for drone filming include baseball, golf and hurricanes.