The Federal Aviation Administration has given San Diego-based Aerial Mob and five other companies license to use drones on movie and television shoots. The administration announced regulatory exemptions Thursday outlining a legal way for these companies to use drones in scripted film production.
Aerial Mob's Tony Carmean says his company has been lobbying the FAA for close to a year now with help from the Motion Picture Association of America.
"We set the rules for how to use unmanned aerial systems safely on movie sets," Carmean said. "That's the biggest piece of what we accomplished today."
Aerial Mob, a two-year-old company with four full-time staffers, has experience filming with drones outside the United States. Carmean said just last week they were in Mexico City for five days shooting a commercial for Mexican cell phone service provider Movistar.
"Now we don't have to go outside the United States' borders to do our work," said Carmean.
Carmean expects to begin taking on contracts for commercial and movie shoots in California soon.
But the six companies granted FAA exemptions still have to follow strict rules. They can't film over crowds, fly above 400 feet or work on reality television projects. And all filming must be confined within restricted, controlled areas.
Carmean says the FAA might have taken a long time to approve these exemption, but for good reason.
"The FAA has a terribly daunting task," he said. "They decided to take baby steps and choose the industries that have the least amount of privacy and safety issues."
The decision marks a major step for the FAA, which has so far banned nearly all commercial use of drones.
