A lot of people thinks that drones are dangerous tool for monitoring people and that it disturbs their privacy. What do you think about that?
People are worried about “Big Brother” cameras but they are already everywhere in the city and shopping centers, supermarkets. People should probably be more concerned about their phone calls and internet use since you can be tracked every time you use a debit card or post on Facebook. That is real. Drones are just little flying machines. We control them. They are not by nature bad or good.
I know so many “educated” people that as a reflex think drones are bad. It’s true they make an annoying buzzing sound. But this is still very early in the development of consumer drones and people will look back at this time like when mobile phones had antennae.
What led you to organize Overhead festival?
We made a “pirate” short video of Prague last summer called “Magic Carpet Ride Over Prague”. There was a lot of interest but of course the laws are really strict so we decided to find the most professional people we could find and invite them together to discuss drones and find “strength in numbers” to help each other.
What made you to make an aero movie?
I wanted to make a tourist film that could be shown in the closed cinema behind the McDonalds in Mala Strana (U Hradeb). It’s a long story. Basically “Overhead” is not just limited to drones. It can be any way of seeing things from above.
Which target group this project aims?
Young people of course are the best since they can adapt to new technology the fastest. There are certainly more males than females interested in drones- like in the rest of the tech world.
What do you wanna achieve with this project? What are yours ambitions with this project?
It would be great to do the same project but customize it for different cities both in the Czech Republic or other countries. Some countries see the potential to grow the industry much faster. I am confident that as we see fewer jobs in some sectors you will see a boom in drone flying schools. There are so many uses for drones that can be done much better than are currently done by humans- like for example inspecting infrastructure, power plants, roads and bridges, farms. So many good possibilities.
What do you like about Prague?
People are very open. Nobody ever says “that’s a stupid idea, don’t do it”. Also I like architecture and history so I like historic Prague best.