MIKE FORTIN

LISA ELLMAN

Steven Flynn is an Emmy Award winning Filmmaker: Producer, Director, Director of Photography, Editor, and drone pilot. With a background in electronics and photography he honed his skill both as a photographer and editor, forming his own post-production company in 1996. Among his past clients are PBS, DISCOVERY, TRAVEL CHANNEL, HGTV, PAISLEY PARK. He moved to Ireland for a short period in 2002 and worked as a freelance editor for his first clients in Europe and returned to the US in 2003 only to relocate to Ireland again in 2012 and co-found Aerial Filming Ireland. He is currently the CEO of FlyRight Technologies Ltd., developing Skytango™, a marketplace for drone flyers and aerial content buyers.

Amy is the Creative Director for EHang, the maker of the consumer-friendly GhostDrone. She has 15 years of experience leading creative campaigns for top consumer brands. One of her many passions is photography. She has a strong interest in the arts in general, having studied art history and visited many of the world's best museums and galleries. She's enjoyed learning about aerial photography and is excited about further developing her skills at taking artistic photos using drones. Amy lives in the Bay Area.

Would you like to be a judge?

If you love the beautiful imagery that drones produce, and would like to serve on the judges panel of the Bay Area Drone Film Festival, we would love to hear from you.  Judging can be done virtually, and your presence at the festival is not required, but we'd love to see you there!

Contact Clay Coleman at [email protected]

Lisa co-leads the Hogan Lovells law firms' UAS group, a “one-stop shop” for UAS manufacturers, operators and users.  The UAS group provides nuts-to-bolts assistance for businesses entering the dynamic UAS marketplace and assist firms to succeed in the uncertain regulatory environment.  Lisa has counseled businesses and trade groups in industries ranging from news gathering and television production, to aerial photography and energy, to precision agriculture and insurance, to higher education, drones technology, and real estate–and everything in between.  Lisa is a highly sought-after expert and regularly appears at events and in the media to discuss the latest developments in drones law and policy.

Lisa has held a variety of positions at top levels of the Executive branch at the White House and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). In a series of presidential appointments, Lisa led work on high-priority policy initiatives for the Obama administration on issues spanning from open and transparent government to domestic use of UAS. Most recently, she led DOJ's effort to develop policy that would govern the use of UAS in the United States. 

STEVEN FLYNN

ABBY SPEICHER

AMY COVINGTON

COLIN GUINN

Mike Fortin is the fun and outspoken Founder and Owner of both CineDrones which offers Retail Sales, Service and Repairs (Orlando, FL) and CineDrones Productions which offers Aerial Cinematography services worldwide (Offices in Los Angeles & Orlando). 
With over 15 years of experience in remote flight operations, and over 4 years in the TV and Film industry Mike is one of the most sought-after aerial cinematographers in the country 
His retail store and warehouse is located in Orlando, FL although Mike has recently relocated to Los Angeles along with his Wife Karla and children Kianna, Brooklyn and Maddox to accommodate his busy production schedule.

Abby Speicher is a recent Babson MBA graduate and the Co-Founder and CEO of DARTdrones Flight Academy, a flight school for drone pilots. DARTdrones teaches the safe and legal use of drones and a comprehensive understanding of the equipment using military veterans as Flight Captains. Abby started her first company when she was seventeen and graduated from Babson with the Entrepreneurship Award, the Sorenson Scholarship, and the winner of Babson’s BETA Challenge Competition.

SCOTT KESSELMAN

DAVID MARKUN

A Mill Valley Native, David is an outdoor enthusiast with a lifelong passion in film. He graduated Chapman University in Orange County in the Spring of 2013 while studying Creative Film Producing and Sociology and co-founding his production company Rafiki Creative. A world traveler filming in Australia, Indonesia, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area David has an insatiable appetite for adventure and storytelling. He first got interested in Aerial Cinematography while producing for Reebok's Spartan Race in Alaska. Once he landed back in Los Angeles he immediately bought his first hexacopter. David has been an pilot and camera operator with Rafiki Creative for the past two years, doing work for VICE Media, BMW, Verizon, and many more. His company is focused on creating unique aerials with storytelling as the first prioirty, offering a niche Filmmakers perspective within the Aerial Industry.

Colin joined 3DR in 2014 after co-founding and serving as CEO of DJI North America. He is one of the most interviewed experts on UAV technology in the world, and has been featured at premiere industry conferences and in countless top-rated publications and newscasts, including 60 Minutes, Tech Crunch, and Fast Co. At 3DR he is responsible for sales and marketing, strategic product development and maintaining his role as a prominent advocate for the company and the industry at large.
Colin is one of the world’s top UAV flight and design experts. His uniqueness to the aerial cinematography world is that he understands the technology in two dialects: the granular argot necessary to communicate with an engineer, and the simple, digestible language that’s interesting to the average consumer. His excitement for this technology is contagious, and puts UAVs in the light they deserve: powerful tools that help humanity in myriad ways.  He lives with his family in Austin, Texas.

BayAreaDroneFF.com © 2015

meet the judges:

Scott Kesselman is a writer, director and producer of experimental theatre and a communications professional in the Washington D.C. area. He is also cofounder of North Jersey-based Blacknote Theatre. Scott currently works in Advocacy and Public Affairs for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and has worked on the Know Before You Fly drone safety campaign since its inception in late 2014. Scott has extensively used multimedia including video art projection mappings in his theatre work and especially appreciates film for its versatility and multi-layered artistry.

Entry Deadline: January 24