Star Wars: The Drone Wars?

Fan films are great, aren’t they? Usually they consist of people dressing up as their favorite movie characters and shooting an alternative ending or a new scene. But what happens when a special effects company gets together with some expert drone pilots to work on a video?…

Well, Los Angeles-based media and special effects company Corridor Digital and FPV entertainmemt specialists Rotor Riot have done just that. The result? Drone Star Wars, of course. 4 minutes and 33 seconds of Star Wars bliss, featuring a series of stunts combining models of X-Wings and TIE fighters with exhilarating FPV drone footage.

The various scenes follow R2D2, piloting an X-Wing over desert terrain, lakes, dodging bridges, and speeding through a giant forest – No mean feat, but one that these talented FPV pilots make look pretty easy. As well as the short film, Rotor Riot has released a ‘Making of’, so you can see all the work that went into 4 minutes of Star Wars heaven. Here it is:

I spoke with Chad Kapper, founder of Rotor Riot, to find out some more about the community he’s building and the inspiration behind it.

“We focus primarily on our community through our Youtube show,” he said, which airs new episodes every week. “Between the 4 pilots that represent Rotor Riot, we’ve had involvement in many of the big drone events including World Drone Prix in Dubai, Drone Nationals and Drone worlds. Next month we will be heavily involved in the DR1 Race Event sponsored by Mt Dew. And recently we started selling high-performance drone parts in our store.

“I started a channel in 2010 called FliteTest. It now has close to 500,000 subscribers. Rotor Riot was started to represent the high-performance drone community specifically as the hobby and sport grow. I like think of it as the representation of the people most passionate about FPV quads.”

It’s pretty hard to define exactly what Rotor Riot is. Part entertainment, part informative, and part just a bunch of guys having a lot of fun with FPV technology. It helps that they happen to be some of the most renowned pilots in the industry. One thing’s for sure: If you’re a drone fan, you’re going to enjoy the Youtube channel. We’ll leave you with an intro to the Rotor Riot community:

Malek Murison

Malek Murison is a freelance writer and editor with a passion for tech trends and innovation. He handles product reviews, major releases and keeps an eye on the enthusiast market for DroneLife.
Email Malek
Twitter:@malekmurison

Subscribe to DroneLife here.