Much of the public view of the film and television industry is centered around entertainment value and often doesn’t grasp the background work that goes into making the shows and movies that we as consumers enjoy. The film set, for example, must be extremely well thought out as it sets the stage for the scenery of a film, and perhaps just as important as the set itself is the way in which it is captured. While traditional means are still being used, as technology continues to improve, new methods of capturing footage are continuously being added, drones being just one example of this.

While the idea of aerial imagery isn’t necessarily new in itself, traditional means were much more costly and time-consuming, meaning that these shots were not necessarily always achievable. Through the use of drones, however, rather than helicopters, production companies are able to drastically reduce costs while still capturing the desired shots in a fraction of the time. One popular film that featured and popularized the use of drone shots was the James Bond film Skyfall.

The New York City Drone Film Festival (#NYCDFF) is the world's first event exclusively dedicated to celebrating the art of drone cinematography. The festival offers an international platform for filmmakers from every corner of the globe to exhibit their work in front of industry professionals and the drone community. Now in its fourth year, #NYCDFF will happen on March 3rd and 4th 2018.

The NYCDFF has a sister, LADFF (Los Angeles Drone Film Festival).

It started with an ambitious idea: Could a platform normally used by amateurs to put EDM songs over shaky footage of the beach be used by filmmakers to create something people actually want to watch?

"Our first year, most films were almost like music videos—no voiceover or sound effects or narrative. Just landscape videos with music," said Randy Scott Slavin, the festival's director. "No videos are like that this year. All have some element of voiceover, storyline, sound effects."

This is all a long way of saying drone-shot movies are good now, and it's largely because Slavin gave filmmakers a place to challenge and one-up each other. Motherboard, a multi-platform multimedia publication, will be partnering with Slavin to bring us the inaugural Los Angeles Drone Film Festival. The handful of the entrants, aside from being genuinely entertaining, are pushing the boundaries of how we make movies, tv shows, and commercials today. Drones have an Oscar, so it's time to accept them as a core component of Hollywood.

"LA is the capital of the film industry, and aside from the fact so many productions are based there, some of the most excellent drone cinematography is out there," Slavin said. "The submissions for LA have been the best I've seen thus far."

As the technology continues to improve, and gains more widespread acceptance in the industry, many filmmakers are straying away entirely from traditional methods such as helicopters and starting to rely solely on drones for any aerial views. While there is still some reluctance to fully jump into this new tech, it will be interesting to see the impacts it has in the future of the industry.