MOVIE DRONES ARE GROUNDED WHILE FAA CONSIDERS THEIR SAFETY

While U.S. regulators continue to study proposed new rules to govern the use of small drones in industry, thereby keeping the drones themselves effectively grounded for the time being, overseas companies are moving ahead with drone-assisted projects, the Wall Street Journal observed today (Tuesday). The newspaper noted that they have already been used by British filmmakers for chase scenes and aerial shots in James Bond and Harry Potter movies. Motion Picture Association of America spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield told the Journal the drones “are extremely common on sets overseas.” The MPAA, Bedingfield added, believes that they are safer and cheaper than manned helicopters and enable more innovative shots. While U.S. drone companies have been reluctant to test FAA rules barring commercial use of the devices, some may have been encouraged by the ruling by an administrative law judge overturning a $10,000 fine meted out to a man in 2012 for filming the University of Virginia campus with a drone. The judge ruled that the FAA’s rules on commercial use only is a policy not an enforceable law. In Los Angeles, Eric Maloney, head of production for Drone Dunes said he had been using drones for film work for two years without a problem. “It’s illegal to fly any [remote-control] vehicle in a dangerous manner; it’s illegal to fly near an airport,” he told the Journal “We don’t do that.”