Pap in the skies

November 5, 2010 by pmelcher.

What is the relation between celebs and the war in Afghanistan ? No, it’s not yet another fundraiser. Actually, it has to do with advance technology.

Recently slammed with a new law ( in California only, for now) that will seek damages, even jail,  for any photographer caught endangering the lives of others while in the pursuit of a celeb, they are now looking to escape in the skies. Faced with growing anger from both regular citizens and celebrities alike,  who a fed up with their relentless pursuit of anything famous, some paps have decided to apply war technology to their trade.

The Wall Street Journal revealed today that SPLASH news is working on an airborne remote controlled drone that will hover above the celebs . Instead of shooting missiles, it will shoot stills and videos, beaming them back to the new age pap probably quietly sitting in his SUV not far, sipping a beer and talking to his girlfriend on the phone. No need to run with the pack, no need to use elbows and shoulders to secure a spot, no need to bump into ignorant passer buys : the sky is the limit.

Because FAA (the agency in charge of air regulation) regulations are extremely lax regarding leisure drones, it will now be possible for anyone with a remote control to spy from above. And not just in streets, but in gardens, pools, beaches, you name it, as long as it it outside, it is fair game. With licensing prices of Paparazzi images falling down, it is not surprising to see the pap industry  dropping ( figuratively) their helicopters and going for lesser expensive, more efficient solutions.

Soon, the skies over Los Angeles will be filled with the buzzing sounds of quadri-motored, remote-operated Canon 5D’s scouting for any signs of any celebrities. If it becomes anything like the sidewalks, it will be hundreds of these machines competing with each other for prime-position air space and maybe, eventually, shooting missiles at each other. Better take cover.

With just a tad more technology, they could even mount a face recognition software on an solar power unit, allowing for complete automation. They would throw it out the window in the morning and the machine would scout, identify, follow and shoot pictures remotely while the high tech pap could stay at home and just pick the best images to send out to magazine. The ultimate pap machine.

While we are on this subject, one could also build the automated red carpet machine . Installed on the red carpet of a movie premiere or award show and shape a bit like a body scanning gate you see at airport, it would function like this : The celebrity would walk in, the machine would take a full length and  head shot picture, as well as close ups of any accessories, use face recognition to identify the celeb, use object recognition for the dress and accessories, caption the image and send it real time to any interested magazine. No more need for endless lines of screaming photographers with blinding flashes. Boy those movie premieres would be quietly creepy. Besides maybe for the noise of those quadri motor drones above..

If you want to see some cool results of aerial photography/video done with a drone, head over to Perspective Arials.

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