This past weekend, the New York City Drone Film Festival (#NYCDFF) played to a full house at the Directors Guild of America Theater on West 57th Street. The festival was organized by Randy Scott Slavin, a New York-based director and producer. RotorDrone had the opportunity to sit down with him and ask about the event.
Randy Scott Slavin, founder of the New York City Film Festival
How did you first get started with rotor drones?
When I was a kid, I was into RC — I built RC cars and raced with them, so I had some background with the technology. But then, the first time I saw a video that was shot with a drone, I was mystified and stupefied and all of the other good ‘—ieds’ and I literally went out and bought a drone the next day.
Why did you decide to launch the New York City Drone Film Festival?
I made a film using drones called ‘Aerial NYC’ and it really went viral — it went all over the place! When I’ve had projects that catch on like that in the past, I always look around and find a festival to submit them to, but I couldn’t find one — so I decided to start one. I call it my ‘creative stupidity.’
Are you going to hold the festival again next year?
We’re absolutely going to be doing this again next year! We could have filled a 1,000-seat theater for this first one! Our sponsors have been amazing, and I think we’re going to see a tremendous surge in drone creativity moving forward. Now that we’ve got this showcase at a juried event, I think it’s only going to get better and better.
